Thursday, June 30, 2005
Driving down to Uluru
Soundtrack: “Songs About Jane” by Maroon 5. As if I’d own it. It was our guide Vic’s CD
Both of the girls in my room had to get up for 5.30am tours. The ugly Italian girl, however, hadn’t changed her watch properly, and woke us up at 4am, and I never recovered, which I was not pleased about after my sleepless night on the train. The morning was spent wandering aimlessly around Alice for a bit, and then my Wayward Tour Bus (driven by Vic) picked me up from bloody Melanka’s to go out to the outback. Also getting on at Alice were: Julie from Amersham; Judith from Somewhere In London; Jess from Manchester; Sam from Scarborough; Joss and Clemence from France; Stefan from Germany; Helen and Andy from Somewhere In London; Keiko from Japan; Marsha and Lisbeth from Holland; Haruka from Japan; and Monika from German Switzerland. From Alice Springs Airport, we picked up Monja and Jenny, who came from Italian Switzerland.
The drive down to Uluru was long, but full of landscape like I’d never seen in real life before. The earth is so red and the sky is so blue, and the light is so intense because there’s no industry there, and therefore no pollution to block out the sun. The land is very arid, but it manages to yield lots and lots of hardy trees and bushes. There’s roadkill all the way: dead kangaroos, dead wallabies, even dead cows. As a result, there are also a fair few rather large birds, like wedge-tailed eagles (which Alice locals call “wedgies”) and evil-looking buzzards. Scary creatures. Just before we got to camp, we also picked up Jenny and Monja’s friend Matheo from the airport, as well as some Americans called Jeff and Meredith.
We arrived at out campsite, around 20km from Uluru itself, as the Sun had nearly finished setting. The colours blending into one another above the Rock were beautiful, and I immediately felt a sense of calm and well-being having come into the desert. Julie and I struggled to set up out tent in the dark, but fortunately, Sam had spent the past few months camping on the west coast, and she helped us out. Andy and Joss did the whole alpha male thing and got the fire started, then we all sat around it drinking. Though it was cold, I slept very well as I had two sleeping bags and a swag (some kind of crazy Australian sleeping sack thinger), and of course, very little sleep from the previous two nights to go with it.
Both of the girls in my room had to get up for 5.30am tours. The ugly Italian girl, however, hadn’t changed her watch properly, and woke us up at 4am, and I never recovered, which I was not pleased about after my sleepless night on the train. The morning was spent wandering aimlessly around Alice for a bit, and then my Wayward Tour Bus (driven by Vic) picked me up from bloody Melanka’s to go out to the outback. Also getting on at Alice were: Julie from Amersham; Judith from Somewhere In London; Jess from Manchester; Sam from Scarborough; Joss and Clemence from France; Stefan from Germany; Helen and Andy from Somewhere In London; Keiko from Japan; Marsha and Lisbeth from Holland; Haruka from Japan; and Monika from German Switzerland. From Alice Springs Airport, we picked up Monja and Jenny, who came from Italian Switzerland.
The drive down to Uluru was long, but full of landscape like I’d never seen in real life before. The earth is so red and the sky is so blue, and the light is so intense because there’s no industry there, and therefore no pollution to block out the sun. The land is very arid, but it manages to yield lots and lots of hardy trees and bushes. There’s roadkill all the way: dead kangaroos, dead wallabies, even dead cows. As a result, there are also a fair few rather large birds, like wedge-tailed eagles (which Alice locals call “wedgies”) and evil-looking buzzards. Scary creatures. Just before we got to camp, we also picked up Jenny and Monja’s friend Matheo from the airport, as well as some Americans called Jeff and Meredith.
We arrived at out campsite, around 20km from Uluru itself, as the Sun had nearly finished setting. The colours blending into one another above the Rock were beautiful, and I immediately felt a sense of calm and well-being having come into the desert. Julie and I struggled to set up out tent in the dark, but fortunately, Sam had spent the past few months camping on the west coast, and she helped us out. Andy and Joss did the whole alpha male thing and got the fire started, then we all sat around it drinking. Though it was cold, I slept very well as I had two sleeping bags and a swag (some kind of crazy Australian sleeping sack thinger), and of course, very little sleep from the previous two nights to go with it.
