After much delay and procrastination, I have finally compiled the trip of a lifetime into a blog. I will warn that I do not believe that there are nearly enough words to fully describe how AMAZING this trip was, but here is my meager attempt. Enjoy.
Finally, after SO much planning, I finally made it to the infamous Red Centre. We flew into Alice Springs on the 24th of September. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but still I was in the middle of the desert! Later on in the day, we met our group. We had 3 leaders and 17 students--and equal boys and girls. I must say that the group was AWESOME! We all got along sooo well and I am so glad that I got to share this trip with them.
We started our trip on Friday. We went out to the Alice Springs desert park to learn about the flora and fauna of central Australia. Here are some picks of my favorite animals:
a death addler--VERY poisonous
a charismatic lizard =)
thorny devil--it can suck water up through its feet!
After the desert park we went to Simpson's Gap--just for a beautiful view:
That night, we slept at Wallace Rockhole, an aboriginal community surrounded by--NOTHING! For dinner, we had traditional bush tucker:
kangaroo and rabbit
the kangaroo meat was pretty good, maybe a little chewy. The rabbit tasted like chicken! It was really good and tender.
That night, we unrolled our swags for the first time and slept under the stars. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and telling myself to look up. I looked up and saw pure BEAUTY in the sky! There was absolutely no light pollution and I believe that I saw the most stars that I have ever seen! The milky way came out so brilliantly and there were so many shooting stars! Too bad it cannot be photographed. If you have never been in a non-light polluted area, you have NO idea what you are missing!
The next day we got to take an aboriginal bush tour around Wallace Rockhole. Our tour guides name was Nigel and he was very nice. He showed us how the Aboriginal people would have survived in the environment so long ago. We also got to see cave paintings dating back 8000 years!
aboriginal face painting
women's digging stick
Nigel with tapping sticks
a spear holder
cave paintings
After the tour, we got to do our own dot painting. Mine didnt turn out so well. But this is it:
and what they are supposed to look like
We also got to try damper (bush bread) which was REALLY good and Australian tea. Afterwards, we packed up and headed to Ellery Creek Big Hole. It was a beautiful swimming hole, but the water was SOOOO cold! A lot of people decided to swim, but it was a bit too cold for me, so I went climbing around instead.
Ellery Creek Big Hole!!
The Mountain I decided to climb!
The view from half way up!
That night we slept close by the water hole. For dinner we had typical food =(. But it was tasty! We built a campfire (the first one) and sat around and told jokes and played music. It was a really great time. We also learned boom, snap, clap thanks to some of the other participants.
On the next day, we went on a walk close to Ellery Creek Big Hole. If I had to pick one pic from the walk it would be:
After the Ellery Creek walk, we did the Serpentine Gorge trail. The walk was just up a mountain basically, but once we were up there, there was a huge cliff that we walked right up to. The view down was AMAZING!
Next stop Ochre Pit. These pits show the age of Australia. The vertical lines are historical lines that show different time periods. When the earth shifted, it turned the age lines vertical.
That night we camped at the Finke River--the oldest river in the world. There is no longer any water in it, but the water runs underground. It was another fun camp night. We even got to throw boomerangs! Here is a video of one of our leaders, Cameron, throwing a boomerang. It hit the tree unfortunately, but it is still a great throw!
One day 4, we woke up bright and early and completed a 3hour walk through Ormiston Gorge. The walk ended at a gorgeous waterhole a the end. This was probably the hardest, because we were directly under the sun the entire time, and the longest walk that we had during the trip.
Later that afternoon we went to Red Bank Gorge. There was another waterhole there as well, except this water was even colder than Ellery Creek--I got in and right back out. But it was beautiful!!
Later that night we camped at a Red Bank Gorge campsite. I liked the Finke River campsite a little bit better (mostly because of the sand). Again we sat around the camp fire and laughed and talked, but this night was our first discussion. The topic: What has amazed us the most. The discussion really helped to put things back into perspective and it made the dynamics of the group that much better.
On the 5th day we were mostly on the road. I rode in the Troopie and had a BLAST!! We just listened to music and talked and had a GREAT time. Most of the road was unpaved, which made the ride bumpy.. and interesting...
Finally, we made it to King's Canyon Campsite. There we had showers, bathrooms, and electricity! Although we all really missed the camp fires, we watched an interesting documentary about the Anangu people in central Australia. It was very touching and made us all think about a lot of things.
The next morning, we woke up early (as usual) and went for a rim walk around King's Canyon. That night, however, it started raining and when we were beginning our walk we saw a beautiful rainbow:
The walk was really beautiful. While it was a long walk, we took it slow and really tried to take everything in. This was REALLY one of those times where words and pictures don't suffice.
After the rim walk we drove to our next campsite, a desert camp. We literally pulled off of the road and found some random place to sleep. The peace and tranquility in the desert camp is like no other. By far, my favorite type of campsite!
That night it rained again, but harder this time, or at least enough to get my a good portion of the contents of my bag damp. (It is the desert!) But the rain felt wonderful on as it hit my face that night.
We continued to drive to Uluru, the largest monolith in the world! We got to take some distance shots, but because it was so cloudy, it was hard to see it in all of the pics.
The ROCK
Spin it!
Eat it!
Captain Morgan it ;)
It was all good fun!
We went to the cultural centre at Uluru and had a presentation by one of the park members. It was very informative and he mostly talked about the joint management of the park, and also the climbing controversy. The Anangu people ask for people not to climb the rock because it is spiritual to them, however, people climb it anyway. While the percentage of people climbing Uluru has decreased, it is still very disrespectful for people to climb on it. Plus the climb is RIDICULOUS!!
Then we did the base walk around Uluru. The walk in total was about 9.4km or about 5-6 miles. there were some beautiful sights as well. I took SOOO many pictures that it is hard to choose between them. My favorite spot around Uluru, however, was the waterhole!
We also got to watch the sunset over Uluru. A BEAUTIFUL sight!
Our campsite that night was at the 'Ayer's Rock" Resort. The area was very commercialized, but we did get a barbecue dinner that was DELICIOUS!!
We woke up really early the next morning to watch the sunrise over Kata Tjuta and Uluru. Once again... mind-blowing:
As we were driving closer to Kata Tjuta I saw the most beautiful sight, it looked so divine.
We did the Valley of the Winds walk through the Kata Tjuta domes. The walk was about 7.4km, but this time there was a portion of it that the leaders asked us to go through alone. I really enjoyed the solo walk, it just gave me time to think. We all need that sometimes =). Kata Tjuta was once again, gorgeous!
After the walk, we had our favorite--BUCKET LUNCH!! But for the last time unfortunately. We had to get back on the road again, but we made it to our last campsite--a random place in the desert!!
The last night out in the desert was wonderful! We had a good discussion that served as a mental scrapbook of our time spent in the Outback. Once again, I do believe that the discussion brought everything back into perspective.
The next day we drove back to Alice Springs, but on the way we stopped to see Dinky the singing Dingo. He was quite the entertainer!
Once we got back to Alice Springs,
we had to help clean out all of the cars and then we showered and relaxed for a bit. That night, we went out to dinner at a place called Bojangles. For dinner, I had the kangaroo fillet topped with shrimp in a garlic sauce with gravy on the side, chips (french fries) and salad.
The night was SOOOOO much fun! We got to dance and let loose after dinner... not a bad night!
The last day was bittersweet. People started leaving and I almost cried. After a lot of people left, we had enough time to go to the market and get Aboriginal artwork! I got a piece that I fell in love with and so did a lot of other people.
Now that I have been back to 'civilization' for over a week, I feel that a lot of things are superficial. Nothing seems the same and I am glad that this trip opened my eyes to and connected me with nature!
Until next time,
Kiara
PS: Skydiving on Friday!! =)
