The Red Center Part II - Alice to Adelaide

Off we set, bright and early, meeting the tour guide and a 6 foot 7 160kg Bosnian man who later became known as Tiny outside of our hostel and off we set to Uluru!

This tour was with Groovy Grape on the Rock to Water 6 day tour. We had a really small group, there were only 6 of us in total, Nicola and I, Tiny, a 19 year old German couple and an older Spanish lady, random mix of people but we all got on well, which is all you ask for really when you are on the road with people for 6 days.

Camel Farm

Garden of Eden (Kings Canyon)

Our first day consisted of heading towards a camel farm for a quick stop and a ride if you fancied, on to Kings Canyon, where we trekked for three hours in blazing blazing heat, it was hard work but a great view and the beginning of the intense trekking days ahead of us. That evening we set up camp for another night of swag sleeping before rising early to head to Uluru and experience The Rock! I had been so excited about this tour, getting to see such an iconic part of Australia. On the way we stopped off to collect firewood and when I say collect I mean pull down branches from dead trees and break them to size able arms - be careful here I caused an awful cut on my upper left arm, a spike of wood literally tore through my skin leaving a good 6 inches puncture wound and horrendous bruising at the top of my arm. It wasn't serious but it hurt, my war wound for the trip!

Kings Canyon

Antilla

We 'stumbled' across Antilla which is a small rock formation in comparison to Uluru but the sight that everyone goes 'Is that...?' to the amusement of the tour guides I'm sure as they tell us 'No it's not'. We dropped our belongings at the what would be our home for the next two nights, and then later in the afternoon after the peak sun had died down we headed off to Uluru. We were extremely lucky that we ventured to Uluru on this afternoon as due to the increasing temperature, the next day Uluru was closed for groups to walk around. Even when we attended certain parts were still closed but we got around most of it before heading off to make dinner and watch the sunset over the rock.

The next morning we watched sunrise over Uluru and The Olgas before heading off to hike Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and the Valley of the Winds. This was my favourite hike, it literally felt like being on another planet, winding through amazing rock formations, it was hard work but like the others a real sense of achievement was felt once completed. We then had a bit of down time in the afternoon, so we drove back to Uluru but unfortunately the day was even hotter today (over 40 degrees) and so Uluru had been completely closed for any walking today. I haven't really gone in to much detail about the heat and the weather, but if you are planning on going and especially if you are planning on doing a DIY tour please please please research it first. On three hour hikes we had to carry 3 litres of water, the amount you sweat you need to replenish your lost water and salt and you need to aim for a litre every hour. Dehydration is one of the biggest threats when you are in the Northern Territory, do not underestimate it. Its also important to ensure that you replenish your salt, so use this in cooking. Carry rehydration tablets with you, a hat and SUNSCREEN. You will burn badly without it, you are not invincible and it will hurt and ruin your trip. We visited Uluru at the beginning of October and it was already in the 40's, the best time to visit is during the Australian winter months, but even then it is still hot. Another thing that is mentioned as much are the flies and insects - they are a bugger and unless you walk around with a mosquito net over your head / whole body they will get everywhere but its best to just except it and try to forget about them, as there isn't that much else you can do.

Kata Tjuta sunrise

Valley of the Winds

Day four we headed off to Coober Peddy, the opal capital of Australia.  before heading to Coober Peddy where we were staying in underground bun houses but the majority of people live underground in houses built in caves. This keeps the temperature of the house at between 21-25 degrees all year round. Its a strange little place, but visiting the opal shop and museum was interesting, and it made a nice change to sleep in a bed as opposed to in a swag. That night was our party night, after far too many drinking games and drunkard conversations, we hit the sack, ready to face the next day in a few hours. I thankfully was fine the next day, Nicola on the other hand spent most of it on her back sleeping, so it was a good job that most of the day was spent travelling. Stopping only a few times, one being  at a salt lake, (Lake Frome i think but I could be mistaken).

Salt Lake

Our next stop was a bush camp up near the Flinders Rangers, after dinner we all sat around the campfire and relaxed before another early start the next day. It was the owners birthday, so there was a nice jolly group of us and locals chatting away under the stars around a campfire. The scent of bonfire didn't leave my clothes for a while but it was a great reminder of a fabulous trip and enjoyable night with some very generous people.

Our last day and off we trotted to walk through Alligator Gorge, a less intense walk than the ones we had completed over the past five days, the scenery being a lot wetter, greener and richer too as we were now in Southern Australia, but it still required a good degree of physical fitness and agility as it still had some tricky formations. That's one thing I should say about the previous walks were that they were tricky, thin ledges, uneven rock formations, long drops make sure you invest in some good sturdy walking shoes and any other supports or equipment you may need to ensure you can complete the walks safely.

Flinders Ranges

Our final afternoon and it involved a lovely stop at a winery in Clare Valley, unfortunately I can't remember the name of it otherwise I would recommend it and then onwards to Adelaide. After saying our goodbyes (and its surprising how fond you can become of people after only 6 days) we checked into a hostel - Annies Place. Now we stayed here because we enjoyed our stay at Annies in Alice so much but I would NOT recommend staying at Annie's in Adelaide, unless you are a stoner and enjoy being high as a kite because that was basically all the staff and other guests staying there did. So we went our for dinner, thankful that we had booked a girls dorm with only one other girl in it and were checking out the next day.

I stayed in Adelaide for a few more days to visit friends and family before heading back to Melbourne to see Matt Corby and say my final goodbyes there also. After the last amazing two weeks on my favourite Australian adventure I was off to Tasmania for my final trip before heading home.

Last view of Uluru

The Red Center Part I - Darwin to Alice Springs

I finished up with work and life in Melbourne, packed my rucksack and set off on my most favourite adventure, down the red center.

This time around I had a friend to travel with, Nicola (whoop) and we started our 2 weeks in Darwin.
We spent 3 nights in Darwin, staying at the Melaleuca on Mitchell, which is situated on Mitchell Street one of the main streets in Darwin. If I'm honest, I didn't really like Darwin too much, it reminded me of a Spanish holiday strip like Magaluf or Tenerife. We went out a few times to different bars but we decided to try and see and do more around the top of the Northern Territory, before heading off on our 3 day Cicada Dreaming Safari.

We did a day trip to Litchfield National Park where we started off holding snakes, going on a jumping crocodile cruise and swimming in various watering holes. That evening we went to Mindil beach and market in the evening, which is a really popular haunt, they have lots of food stalls and you basically grab what you fancy, get some beers and head to the beach to eat and drink and watch the sunset. We chilled out by the lagoon, which is a lovely part of Darwin and lazed around the hostel. It was nice, and it took me a good few days to fully relax and get into holiday mode! And if I'm honest (and Nic won't mind me saying this) - adjusting to travelling with somebody who embodies organised chaos. I kid you not when I say the minute Nicola put that 85 litre rucksack (don't ask how she carried it, I guess its the Scottish in her...) it EXPLODED to cover as much of the floor space and even my bed as possible. Now when you're travelling you don't have a lot of things which are 'yours' in terms of space and territory, you share a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, a lounge, you share everything so the bed, 'my' bed is my space, that's my little sanctuary please don't invade it, its more than your life is worth. But once I'd learnt to look back and laugh (as opposed to pull my hair out at Nic's antic's) it all fell into place nicely and off we set on the first of our 3 day trips with Way Out Back.

Mindil Beach

Way Out Back's, 3-day Cicada Dreaming Safari, was a really relaxed and chilled out saunter down from Darwin to Alice Springs. We spent a lot of time lazying around in (freshwater) crocodile infested watering holes, viewing gorgeous waterfalls, visiting the Devils Marbles, Katherine Gorge, Mataranka thermal springs, Tropic of Capricorn, the Daly Waters pub and first ever airport in the NT, staying at a Banka Banka cattle station and having my first ever experience of sleeping in a swag.

Devil's marbles

Now if you don't know what a swag is, let me explain ... a swag is basically a waterproof canvas sleeping bag, with a thin mattress built into the bottom, into which you place a sleeping bag and a pillow and then yourself, and sleep (peacefully) under the stars. Unless of course you are Nicola and then you cocoon yourself inside it so tightly and pull the flap up over your head, almost suffocating to avoid and creepy crawlies getting you in the night. A slightly hilarious sight, but one of the reasons we all love her for it.

On the third day we arrived at Alice Springs, a random, tiny town in the center of Australia. I really liked Alice for its simplicity and oddity, I guess. It helped we stayed in a really nice hostel - Annie's Place. We had a little issue when we first checked in that basically a guy hadn't checked out of the 4 bed dorm that we went into and so we got upgraded to our own private room! It would have been funny if we hadn't established with the guy who's bed Nic had stolen, the fact that there were five of us in a four bed dorm, we had images of her crawling into bed with him after our night out! Any who after the kerfuffle we adopted this guy as our little pal and took him out with us when we got so drunk on the second night. Note to you all - be careful drinking a lot, not eating properly and being out in 40 degree plus heat the next day - its a killer. I was quite ill because of it. Nothing that a bit of watermelon and a sleep didn't sort out but it wasn't my best moment. Anyway Annie's was great and I'd recommend it. Also a note, if you go to Alice after about 7/8pm DO NOT walk around on your own, even if you are in a group - always get a taxi, its a small town so never too expensive and there are too many troubles to be had with ostracised aborigines that its not worth getting mugged or attacked for the sake of an $8 taxi ride.

Drinks in Alice

On our last night we said our goodbyes to a a friend we had made on the 3 day tour, made dinner and then hit the sack for the second part of our adventure - Alice to Adelaide and most importantly ULURU!!