Adventure to Uluru with my sister KATE

Uluru was a rock I really wanted to see again, my parents took me to the rock when I was about 2 years old. I cannot remember a single thing from that trip so thought that this would be a nice little adventure.

We set off on a Monday morning leaving home at 415am it was going to be a 530am start but our flights were cancelled and had to depart from Devonport. I thank Belinda my travel agent who did some re organising on the Sunday prior to our departure to make sure everything was perfectly in place for us to have a great trip. This is a good reason why I employ a travel agent to plan and book my large trips. Belinda sorted everything I just sat back and watched the cricket.
We arrive in Alice Springs at around 11am we caught a taxi to our hotel with an Indian taxi driver which I was pleasantly surprised about. We checked into our hotel the Desert Rose Inn which is in Railway terrace, just back from Anzac Hill.
We headed to the CBD to check it all out and spotted bike hire and some mountain bike tracks so we had a crack at that. We covered 25km on the tracks and around the city. The tracks were fun and challenging I would definitely recommend doing them. It does get hot so take plenty of water. The tracks start at the site for the telegraph line which linked up Adelaide to Darwin and beyond. Some interesting facts and also worthy of a visit. This place is about a 10-15 minute ride from the CBD.
Tuesday morning our bus picked us up at 610am for our tour.
We covered about 470km on day one. The bus was comfortable and the time went quickly with a good book. On the way we stopped at the most central place in Australia. This was called Erldunda. We made it to our camp site for lunch which was chicken cooked on the BBQ with some nice salads. We pushed on from there to get to the Kata Tjuta. We did a quick one hour walk, very pretty place to see.
We then watched the sun go down behind Uluru while having orange juice or a wine, the tour company also supplied cheese and bickies which were literally inhaled by us as we were all very hungry after a big day. Back to camp for dinner, we had snags, kangaroo meat, some steaks, salads and some bush crumble for desert. Our tour guide informed us that we would be departing at 545am for the sunrise at Uluru which meant waking at 445 so it was an early night for me I think I was asleep by 9pm. We slept in some permanent army style tents, they were really good they kept the weather out and were quite cosy.

Wednesday started with an 11km Walk around the base of Uluru, this was really special. There was no chance of us climbing the rock as it was closed due to a 20% Chance of rain and I can totally understand the rules here now with the way they close the rock and suggest not to climb the rock. It is really steep and 35 people have died whilst attempting it.
We had an aboriginal guide take us around some of the sacred sights and tells us some stories. Dion didn’t say much mainly just mumbled but when I asked him if he played footy he came out of shell and started talking freely about his beloved North Melbourne. The thing that surprised me the most about Uluru was the amount of vegetation it had at the base of it and also all through the outback. I had a vision in my head it would be all sand and dust but it is a lot different to that, amazing how the world works and how nature finds plants and creatures that can survive in these types of locations.
Lunch was back at the campsite we had some beef burgers which went down nicely and then headed toward Kings Canyon which is the place for our second nights accommodation. The tour guide had promised us a nice pool to have a swim. We had a swim and visited the Thirsty Dingo Pub where we had a few ciders and chatted to our SWISS and Uk touring friends. I found a nice boomerang and a kids book which I bought for Zara as her teacher has asked to hear all about my trip back at school the next week.
Dinner was at 7pm we had a chicken dish with damper cooked over the fire. Very nice, shower and then a 9pm bedtime for me ready for another early start to see Kings Canyon.
Awake at 445am to be at the start of the walk at 610am the main reason is to beat the heat as it was forecast for 42 degrees on the Thursday and to also see part of sunrise during the walk. The walk we did was 6km we visited many viewing points of the canyon and checked out the garden of Eden where there is a watering hole. There were a lot of other tour groups around this area at the time we were there. It was still a very peaceful and unique spot to check out until one of the guys on the tour lit up a cigarette. Yuck.
The walk started of really solid with plenty of stairs, similar to the zig zag track in Launceston. But overall it was quite an easy walk.
Back to the campsite for an early lunch, we had some Mexican.
Our bus departed kings canyon at 11am we stopped at an aboriginal souvenir shop in Mt Ebenezer, nothing really tickled my fancy just the 42 degree sun was nice. I met an aboriginal man called Gary who had a chat to me about his local football team and suggested the players drank too much ‘piss’ and then back to Alice Springs to our Hotel.
A quick kick of the footy on a rugby field and then some dinner at sporties. I am still shocked that all of the staff in the restaurants are European or even Asian. I really did expect this place to be ran by Aussies.
Last morning before we caught our plane I did a steady 4km jog around the town, this is a great way to see towns and cities that I visit and I will continue doing it. We bought a few souvenirs from a shop in the mall and then headed to the airport.

A great trip and would recommend seeing it all for yourself sometime soon.

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