Yoohoo I'm in Uluru!

Just came back from an amazing time in the "Red Centre", visiting Uluru (Ayer's Rock), The Olgas and King's Canyon. Had only 5 days away from Sydney, but it felt like weeks. Its such a huge contrast landing at Alice Springs coming from Sydney. I left behind the humid breezes of a busy high-rise-filled city centre, and landed 3 hours later in a roasting dry 35 degree desert, where the only building around for miles was the airport itself. The smell of the air too was of warm sweaty leaves, yum.

After arriving I went to the Desert Park in Alice Springs as my tour didn't start til the next day. Lots of interesting mini lizards (including a legless lizard, which isn't a snake because it has ears. Don't say I never teach you anything!), hopping marsupial mice, funny sounding birds, and of course more kangaroos and emus.

Then back at the hostel went and had few drinks with Sally who I'd met off the plane and was doing the same tour. At 1am got to bed a little drunker, then had to get up at 5am for an early start!! I forgot to change the time ( its half an hour behind Sydney time) and therefore woke up hlf an hour early too. Good job there was lots of driving so got lots of sleep on the bus. We went to Uluru first because if its too hot they don't let you climb up it. We were lucky it was only 34 degrees and the cut off point is 35, so about half the group opted to walk up the rock. The Aborigines say they prefer that you don't climb up the rock, so I was unsure what to do, and had been thinking about it for weeks before, asking Aussies what they thought. Some acted as though it was a ridiculous idea to even entertain and that the Abbo's heritage and wishes should be respected, and others didn't even think it was an issue. After hearing that it is forbidden to climb The Olgas (another bunch of rocks we visited), I decided to go ahead and climb. I think part of the reason they don't like people climbing is that many people have died climbing Uluru, because it is a dangerous climb, not just because its steep and there's not much to hold on to, but also because of the heat which causes people to collapse. So that's obviously not something they want to be responsible for. It is a really hard climb, especially in that heat. Took about 3 hours to get to the top and across a bit. The top isn't as flat as it looks in the pictures, it actually has lots of steep "valleys" or cracks to climb up and down, and there's nothing at all to hold onto at that point. I was also surprised to find trees and even shrimpy things and other strange water creatures in the puddles up there.

Camping in our swags under the stars was my fave bit. The first night I got to sleep easily, but the second, we stayed up drinking and talking about spiders and one of the rangers on the campsite/farm we stayed at found a python. We'd also woken up after the first night to find dingo tracks through our campsite...so the second night every tiny sound I heard scared me, and I thought a redback was going to kill me in my sleep. Getting up at 5am to go and see the rock at sunrise wasn't so much fun either...

Our guide was really cool, telling us all sorts of stories about the Aborigines and plant remedies and rituals etc. Although he wasn't allowed to tell us some stuff because it was too "sacred". He did tell us about a cringeful disgusting ritual they do to boys when they become men, and also later in their life (when they become old men, I guess). I've put a picture here so you get an idea what it involves...

It was interesting seeing how little the landscape changes out there too. We drove for

about 5 hours each of the three days of the tour, and every time I opened my eyes to look out the window, it was the same sparse dry flat land. Although there were a lot more trees than I'd imagined there would be. There had just been a bit of rain the week before we arrived, and we were going at the beginning of winter, so I can't imagine what it must be like in summer with temperatures in the 50s!

By the last night our group had bonded quite well and we all had a meal together back at the hostel in Alice Springs, and many jugs of beer. Next day I flew back to Sydney to dark and dreary RAIN. I felt like I'd flown to London by mistake!! I'm gonna have to come back to this country and explore more (as well as all the other countries I still wanna see).