We'd done quite a bit of research into the best ways to experience The Red Centre of Australia, many stay in resort and day trip out, but we wanted a real outback tour so booked with Mulgas Adventures and we weren't disappointed!
We enjoyed one last dip in the pool, and whilst splashing about, we were approached by an aboriginal family who asked if it was OK to swim with "us white folk'. After being shocked and saddened by this backwards feeling of society making them ask, rather than just letting the kids jump straight in, we then learnt that until 1960s aborigines were actually considered as part of the land, like a plant or animal rather than a human being.
We ended our evening round the campfire with various drinking games from around the world, Zimmy Zimmy, Vikings and Ye Ha!
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| Mulgas wheels (named after the Mulga Tree) |
We flew into Ayres Rock and joined their Rock to Rock tour over four days and 3 nights. Picked up from the airport we joined the Mulgas bus and our driver/cook/guide/joker extraordinaire, Lincoln, and discovered we had quite a mix of nations including, Swedish, German, French, Dutch, Swiss, Egyptian, American, Australian and of course the Brits!
Those who had come from Alice Springs were already on the bus so we hopped on and found seats down the back welcomed by the extremely catchy song "Come to Australia, you might accidentally get killed" pumping out through the stereo! Sitting back we wondered what we'd let ourselves in for! (scroll to the bottom and you'll see what I mean!)
Day 1
Day 1
Having arrived at our campsite for that evening; a communal corrugated iron shed with picnic benches and kitchen and hot shower block and clean toilets nearby, we had a quick sandwich lunch and headed on to the Uluru Cultural Centre. Here we learnt more about the 1,326 square km of National Park, and the Anangu (the traditional owners of the area). Until 1976 the aboriginals weren't recognised in Australian Law or as Citizens, and treated as part of the land. It wasn't until 1985 that Australia recognised them as the original owners of this spectacular landscape and gave them the freehold title deeds to the area. In return they leased it back to the National Park authority for 99 years.
Seeing Uluru (Ayres Rock) come into view was one of those 'wow' moments in travelling. A single monolith, the rock is 348m above ground and even more of its bulk is underground hidden from view. Its sheer scale is enough to make you stop in your tracks, and this is even more apparent when you get up close.
Our guide Lincoln took us on the Mala walk at the base of the rock, telling us the stories of the Anangu people and how they believed the landscape had been formed. Many of these tales involved moments in time where conflict resulted animal people becoming frozen in time and turned into rock, forming the shapes and features of the stone today.
It was these spiritual locations and sacred waterholes where were were told to respect the significance of these sites for the Anangu people by refraining from taking photos or swimming.
A few of us decided to take on the base walk of Uluru. With a circumference of 10km, the base walk in the heat of the day is not to be taken lightly, so we started our walk half way and headed back towards the cultural centre. A quarter of the way round we discovered that the remainder of the path had been closed due to the temperatures being higher than their walking limit of 36°C, and for the time of year we had a relatively cool day of only 37°C, but with the strong sun and lack of ozone layer we welcomed the AC bus even after only walking 2.5km!
We then headed on to Sunset Point for a glass of bubbly and a chance to really take in the whole of the rock and its dominance in the arid, flat landscape surrounding it as it changed colour under the light of the sunset - it was breathtakingly stunning!
With the darkness approaching quickly we drove back to camp for a dinner of Burritos, which sparked off a hot debate about how to make the best guacamole, and very soon there was a challenge set for the next night, between Sophie and Alfred who both swore their Guac recipes were the best, and we would be the judges!
We rolled out our swags - large heavy fabric bags with a soft mattress in the bottom, that we put our own sleeping bags/sheets inside, shaking them well to free them of any creepy crawlies before slipping inside and bedding down for the night. Though in the heat of the night (20 degrees) we battled with keeping inside our swags away from the bugs and keeping cool enough to get some shut eye!
Seeing Uluru (Ayres Rock) come into view was one of those 'wow' moments in travelling. A single monolith, the rock is 348m above ground and even more of its bulk is underground hidden from view. Its sheer scale is enough to make you stop in your tracks, and this is even more apparent when you get up close.
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| One hell of a rock |
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| Interesting shapes in the rock |
A few of us decided to take on the base walk of Uluru. With a circumference of 10km, the base walk in the heat of the day is not to be taken lightly, so we started our walk half way and headed back towards the cultural centre. A quarter of the way round we discovered that the remainder of the path had been closed due to the temperatures being higher than their walking limit of 36°C, and for the time of year we had a relatively cool day of only 37°C, but with the strong sun and lack of ozone layer we welcomed the AC bus even after only walking 2.5km!
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| Up close and feeling very small |
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| Bubbly time |
We rolled out our swags - large heavy fabric bags with a soft mattress in the bottom, that we put our own sleeping bags/sheets inside, shaking them well to free them of any creepy crawlies before slipping inside and bedding down for the night. Though in the heat of the night (20 degrees) we battled with keeping inside our swags away from the bugs and keeping cool enough to get some shut eye!
Day 2
We woke at 3.50am to make it back to sunset point to watch the sunrise (yes the sunrise). Lincoln had recommended this view so we could see the silhouette of Uluru, and it was a spectacular sight. As the sun rose up slowly the colours of the sky showed off the magnificent monolith in all its glory.
Our next stop whilst the sun was at its lowest, was to walk Kata Tijuta through the Valley of the Winds. This structure however was made up of a conglomerate of rocks rather than one single stone, making for some great views as we walked down and back up through its valleys.
With "at least 1.5 litres of water" (Lincoln's quote of the trip!) we walked the 7.4km route knowing there was a lunch of camel burgers to follow when we reached back to camp!
We woke at 3.50am to make it back to sunset point to watch the sunrise (yes the sunrise). Lincoln had recommended this view so we could see the silhouette of Uluru, and it was a spectacular sight. As the sun rose up slowly the colours of the sky showed off the magnificent monolith in all its glory.
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| One stunning sunrise |
With "at least 1.5 litres of water" (Lincoln's quote of the trip!) we walked the 7.4km route knowing there was a lunch of camel burgers to follow when we reached back to camp!
After lunch we were driving through the heat of the afternoon, to reach our next camp. The drive was down one very long straight road, and we made some rest stops along the way at Mount Connor, a salt lake and a cattle ranch selling its own imaginatively named "F***ing Good Port".
The highlight of Lincoln's day however was the one left hand turn during the journey, which received a lot of cheers and whoops from the bus as we reached this milestone and turned towards our next camp!
After a quick stop on route to gather up some firewood (and a few splinters later) we soon arrived at our second camp which was the height of luxury in comparison...it had a pool! A welcome refreshment after the long walk, and a great game of volleyball piggy in the middle for which we pretty much took over the pool!
That evening was the long awaited Guacamole challenge! The Guac-off between Alfred and Sophie was tight, but the recipe that took the crowning glory included tomatoes amongst the typical ingredients of lime, avocado and onion (well done Soph...good try Alfred!).
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| All in a name |
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| Home from home |
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| Cooling off |
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| mmm! |
Dinner followed, which was my first taste of Kanagroo steak (delicious and quite healthy as its a very lean red meat) and we finished another great day round the campfire attempting to play the didgeridoo, roasting marshmallows and playing campfire games under the dark night sky with some stunningly bright shooting stars.
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| Campfire's burning |
Day 3
Yet another early wake up at 4.50am, but again it meant we were walking in the cool morning before the sun had time to heat up the rocks.
We headed off on a 6.5km walk through Kings Canyon, with dramatic views dropping over the edges of the deeply cut canyon landscape.
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| Kings Canyon |
Lincoln kindly pointed out the tree of pigmy koalas (some of us took longer than others to catch on to the small clip on koalas), and warned us to stay 2m back from edge whilst pointing out the edge where a girl fell to her death. The song we'd first heard on the bus started ringing again it our ears "welcome to Australia, you might accidentally get killed"!
He did also show us some of the natural sights of the landscape;
The Ghost Tree, a shimmering white barked tree, which the aboriginals used to rub the residue of the bark onto their skin to reflect the sun, like a natural sunscreen.
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| White as a ghost |
The Mulgas tree, used by aboriginals to make boomerangs. The return of them was actually to cut across and knock out a flight of birds rather than to come back to the thrower. Its twigs were also used to make spears to hunt animals, as the tree sap is slightly poisonous and able to slow the animal down.
We heard all about the bushtukka they eat too, and Lincoln's top tips for eating a witchetty-grubs, which involved biting the head off a live one! Despite being high in protein and low fat, we definitely weren't convinced, especially as he continued to explain how they then explode it your mouth!
The walk gor hotter and hotter, reaching 40°C as we neared the end. But with all the stories, views and photo opportunities, the walk took us longer than planned (4hrs), especially with a certain "someone called Chris" constantly at back whole way taking lots of photos!
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| Canyon view |
We all welcomed the bacon, egg, sausage sandwich brunch once we'd completed the walk and got back to camp, with some (Chris and Alfred) taking the fried breakie perhaps a little too far, making fried bread or in Alfred's case a fried wrap with the bacon fat!
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| So much bacon! |
We then had to sadly say goodbye to those just doing 3 days so they could head back to Alice Springs, leaving just half of the group.
We enjoyed one last dip in the pool, and whilst splashing about, we were approached by an aboriginal family who asked if it was OK to swim with "us white folk'. After being shocked and saddened by this backwards feeling of society making them ask, rather than just letting the kids jump straight in, we then learnt that until 1960s aborigines were actually considered as part of the land, like a plant or animal rather than a human being.
We heard the story of the first aboriginee to be granted citizenship. A great aboriginal painter who had been spotted by Queen Elizabeth and invited to England, but as he wasn't considered a citizen he didn't have a passport and couldn't travel.
The queen insisted on inviting him over, and magically a passport was arranged and he headed off to England to meet Lizzy!
On his return he found that now as a citizen of Australia, and now on paper considered a legal citizen, he could could buy alcohol; a substance that aboriginals had definetly not come across at that time and he quickly became addicted and reliant to the drink.
He's bad influence spread before he drank himself to death, and as with the strong aboriginal sharing culture, it meant that he ended up buying, distributing and introducing the aborigines, with very their alcohol un-exposed bodies to a tipple or two...or three...or four, and soon enough they ended up with a reputation for being drunk and disorderly, addicted and reliant on the drink. It wasn't units the 1980s that the aboriginals were given the right to vote, and sadly racism is still common today.
After hearing these tales of Australia we decided to go to Kathleen Springs for a quick walk in the rain which wasn't anywhere near as spectacular as the morning walk of kings canyon, the best we found was this tree...
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| The tree! |
We headed back towards Uluru to our final camp stopping at the Vegemite tree (a real native species to Australia)...
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| Vege or Mar? |
And with beers in tow we settled in for the night, at a much more remote and definitely our favourite campsite. It had the loo (drop toilet) with the best view that's for sure!
Whilst Spaghetti Bolognese was on the stove we enjoyed another red centre sunset, and Chris and Alfred caught an unexpected view of a snake ("welcome to Australia, you might accidentally get killed" comes back to mind!).
We ended our evening round the campfire with various drinking games from around the world, Zimmy Zimmy, Vikings and Ye Ha!
Day 4
On our final morning we awoke with flies at 5.30am! After packing up we headed back to our first camp for breaky (already down with the Aussie lingo!) of what was left over - a great mix of eggs, pineapple, cheese, toast.
After one last dip in the pool (that we didn't know existed on Day 1 - you kept that one quiet Lincoln!) and a quick shower we hit the road one last time, heading back to Airport to say our sad goodbyes.
Uluru is right up there on our list of top experiences in Australia. The rich red sands, amazing landscapes and experience of camping in the outback gave us the true experience of the Australia that you imagine from back home. Plus we had an amazing group of people to enjoy it with! Guacamole gang if you are reading this I hope we'll see you again in the UK sometime in the future!
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| What an awesome group of people |
Watch youtube's finest version of the song...
P.S Don't worry, we survived Australia and made it to Bali !
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