Catch up with Cathy and the girls...: Alice Springs, Australia

Hi All!

My next little getaway from Melbourne was to the middle of nowhere, to Alice Springs. The girls had just been to Vanuatu a few weeks before, so they said they'd do this trip at a later stage. Emma and Marie will do it the first weekend of May, and Gillian will do it while we're doing Fraser Island and the WhitSundays. My next blog update will explain it all! :)

So anyway, it was off to Alice Springs for a few days, this time with the other crowd - Kelly, Dee, Declan and Finbarr. As soon as we arrived we checked into our hostel we went to check out Alice Springs. We heard there was absolutely nothing there, and well we were right! We went to the one tourist spot here, to Anzac Hill. Incidently it was actually Anzac Day too!! (April 25th) From here you get a great view of Alice Springs itself, as well as the West MacDonnell Ranges.

That night we headed to a resort on the edge of the town to watch an Aboriginal Show. It was done by 4 guys (which we're pretty sure at least one of them wasn't an aboriginal) but they did some aboriginal dances etc. The best part of it was when they told the story of the Digereedoo, and showed us how to play it, and the different sounds you can get out of it. But the funniest part of the night was when myself and Kelly were forced to go on stage to dance the Emu Dance with them!!!!

We were up for 6am the next day (Sunday) to be collected for our trip to the Uluru. We drove for over 3 hours while passing just one petrol station, obviously situated there for a reason, and then stopped to take some photos of Mount Conner. The tour guide said it was the Uluru at first and sure we believed him! Anyway it's just a big rock in the distance, which does kind of resemble Uluru. Then our next stop was The Olgas (aka Kata Tjuta) These are 36 dome shaped rocks. Pretty cool. They were cool because they were so like redish with a pure blue sky then in the background. It really is the Red Centre. Then our next stop was the Uluru. You have the option to climb it. While the Aboriginals don't like that, it is allowed. Anyway it was weird, the whole bus journey the driver was really dis-couraging us, so then by the time we got there I was the only one who said I wanted to climb it!! Turned out it was closed anyway, due to high winds at the top of it. There was no wind at all, crazy! So must be that the slightest breeze and they'll close it. Ah sure I was sceptical about being the only one to climb, though Declan said he'd have climbed it after seeing it, so it made up my mind for me then when it was closed. The rock was spectacular to see anyway. We only walked a small bit of it. The base of it is actually 9.4km long! We drove around it a few times, and then headed for our sunset champagne bbq, where we'd have a great view of the rock in the distance at sunset. Only thing was that the sun set behind us, not behind the rock, from this viewing point which was pretty dumb, but you could see this is where all the tours come to view it. Anyway, the sky changed colour slightly, we took a few photos, and then it was back onto the bus for our 4+ hours drive back to Alice Springs. Ah it sounds like a lot, but it really wasn't as we all slept loads.

The morning (Monday) was yet another 6am start. I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but the reason we chose to do 2 * 1-day tours was because we were restricted with time, so we couldn't do the 3-day tour which most backpackers do. In the 3-day tour, you camp out under the start fater seeing the Uluru. But my god the night time up here is FREEZING! So anyway, Monday morning, we were again collected at 6am. This time after the 2 and a half hour drive, we were to get off the main bus, and onto the Kings Canyon bus. It was a smaller bus, but there were only 10 of us doing the tour so we got 2 seats each - happy days :) Kings Canyon was class then. Completely different to the Uluru. We had to do a 3.5hr walk, for over 6km, but you didn't feel it at all. There were a few kinda hill parts which were tiring, but that was it. Then the views were spectacular!! We got some amazing photos. I've attached photos below, but I don't think they do the place any justice. It's one of those things you have to see to believe. On this tour you only do Kings Canyon, since you spend a few hours there. So we were back in Alice Springs early enough anyway, back in time for a few drinks.

It was a full on few days, but definitely worth it. It's just a completely different kind of holiday, but you definitely don't want to spend too much time in Alice Springs itself, since there's nothing to do or see there!

Well only a week left now in Melbourne, so I'll write a final Melbourne blog entry in a few days.

Enjoy the photos,

Cathy x x