ULURU / KATA TJUTA / ALICE SPRINGS 24/02/2009

I was waken up by Ruth at 4:30am. There was not too much time to get ready, but we managed to have breakfast. Then we drove to the place where we could see the beginning of the sunset, but we did not spend there too much time because then we went to another place. There were a lot of other people observing Uluru when the sun was rising. It was a great view, but the mountain did not change as much as I thought it would. Uluru was orange.

After the sunset we drove to the car park and we went on a walk around Uluru. Brave Ruth stayed on the bus sleeping and gaining energy. The walk lasted 2 hours 30 minutes. It is possible to climb Uluru, but in fact it seldom happens because Aborigines do not permit it too often. They say that it is because of the weather and heat. I think that if they do not want people to climb they should resign from this opportunity. Personally I did not want to climb. I respect Aborigines and it is great that they give this opportunity to walk around Uluru. However, there are signs asking the toursist not to take pictures in particular places because those places are sacred for them.

Walking around Uluru was great because Uluru has got many different faces and colours and looks different in many places. There are pictures on the rocks showing how Aborigines comunicated with one another.

Flies are present there all the time. I still remember taking pictures there when my hands were almost black full of flies. They live there so you must get used to them. That's it.

After finishing this fantastic walk we drove another 30 minutes to get to another Aboriginal mounatin Kata Tjuta, which is also called the Olgas. Aboriginal name Kata Tjuta means "many heads". We walked around the Valley of the Winds. It was a pleasant walk with silence all around. It is amazing because even in the Kings Canyon there were people from other trips but it felt like we were alone and we could easily commune with nature. It is great that there are still places like that.

We came back to the Ayers Rock Resort where we had a fast lunch. After the lunch we were divided into two groups. Those who stayed with Ruth went to Adelaide and those who were coming back to Alice Springs, like me, joined Ben's bus.

Ben's bus was GREAT because the air conditioning was out of order! It was so hard to imagine how to travel on the bus with such heat. Well, it was not so bad. It was not a luxurious travel, but we were able to survive:-) All windows were opened and there was wind so it was quite nice. The only problem was lack of water. I wanted something cold to drink. The only water I had was hot and I had to drink it. I was dreaming so much about cold water!!!! I was thinking only about water, but there was no water in the Outback. After two hours of drive we turned left to the petrol station. Oh my God everybody was so excited that finally we could drink something cold. I drank cold Ice Tea in one swallow. It was what I wanted. The last time I was so thirsty was in Rome when the temperature was around 40 degrees.

Coming back to the bus was not bad at all after drinking something cold. It took us another two hours to get to Alice Springs. I was a bit surprised because I thought it would last longer. I left the bus first. It was a fantastic trip and I have got so many great memories.

I LOVE OUTBACK

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ALICE SPRINGS - KINGS CANYON 23/02/2009

It was a short night. Before 5am the bus came to take me on a two-day trip to Uluru. The driver of the bus was an Englishwoman - Ruth. She has lived in Australia for 7 years and has worked as a tour guide in Alice Springs for a year. She seemed to be a crazy Aussie, not an Englishwoman, but maybe she found her place in the world. Ruth was our driver and a tour guide and till the end she had a lot of energy, which was amazing.

Ruth collected other participants of the trip, which took some time, especially because two young British people overslept and they were late. Apart from me there were people from Holland, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, the UK and Canada.

Before we set off we went to the office and paid for the sleeping bags and bought water (=ice). We set off around 6am and the whole time we were driving on a motorway with one lane only. It is possible to meet another car every 30 minutes more or less so the view of another car is really fantastic and there was always a lot of joy from the side of both drivers. The motorway is really long and when you realise that it is in the wilds so it is even more amazing that they decided to build it.

During our drive Ruth called each one of us to sit next to her and tell others about yourself, which was great becasue we could know something more about other people travelling with us.

Around 12 we stopped for lunch. Food was in a trailer so we had to cut bread, meat and vegetables by ourselves to make sandwiches. It was also the first meeting with flies. :-)



After lunch we drove a while and then stopped in front of the Kings Canyon. I decided to take the longer walk together with Ruth and majority of people. It was boiling hot and I was a bit weak because of my sore cold, but I did not want to resign from something that would rather not happen again. The walk lasted over three hours. The beginning of it was the hardest part because we had to climb up a bit, but after that it was not so bad. I really enjoyed the walk, even though Ruth was walking so fast that I was breathless, especially because I wanted to take pictures all the time. It was very important to drink water all the time and Ruth said that she would not take anyone if someone did not have 2 litres of water. The colours all around were amazing, nature unspoiled with withered trees.

The only thing which I did not like there was flies. You have to get used to them or otherwise you will spoil the pleasure of the trip. It was great when the wind was present as it was the only moment flies did not attack you, but there were not too many moments like that.

Anyway I enjoyed the walk a lot. After leaving Kings Canyon we drove quite a long time to get to Uluru. We reached the Ayers Rock Resort in the evening before the sunset. We could admire the sunset from the place where we could see both Uluru and Kata Tjuta, but the sunset was not the best.

We came back to the camping which consisted of small houses which looked like big tents, inside them there were two beds. We also had a kitchen to share where Ruth was preparing the supper. She did not want any help. I still do not know where did she take the energy from:-) For the supper we had some meat like kangaroo steaks, sausages and beef. There were also vegetables. When everybody ate and cleaned, we could have a shower in a place which was not far away from our camping. It was risky because you could read there about the possibility of meeting snails or lizards. Fortunately I did not meet any of them.

Instead of sleeping in a tent I decided to take a swag and sleep outside on the ground under the starry sky. I did not think about snails or other great creatures. All I wanted was to sleep there. Oh by the way there were no flies at night. How great! It was the best night in Australia. I slept so well maybe because I was tired after the whole day or maybe because there was fresh air throughout the whole night. It was just amazing to spend the night there. I fell asleep quite soon and woke up very early fresh and ready for another day.

Maybe not everybody knows what SWAG is. I did not know the word before mainly because it is connected with Australia. Maybe you have heard the song Waltzing Matilda which is about a swagman (a tramp) travelling with a swag which is a kind of bundle on which he slept. He called the swag Matilda. By the way the swagman was chased by the police because he stole a sheep and as he did not want to be caught he decided to commit a suicide and jumped into the lake Billabong and died. Have you heard about the brand Billabong? I think that maybe it has to do with this story. Who knows. I may always be wrong. :-)

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