Si's Year Out! (Plus Europe! Plus Morocco!): September 2007

The next day we started our two day tour of the outback! As we kicked off the first day our guide told us that today we'd be driving over 800km! Our first stop was Kings Canyon, a huge canyon with walls over 100m high, for a 5 hour walk around the canyon. The first part of the walk was up "heart attack hill", named for the steep gradient you have to climb in usually searing heat (it was over 30 degrees in the shade and this was apparently a cool day!!). After conquering that we were rewarded by amazing views right across the canyon.

We visited the "Garden of Eden" for a swim in a very cold pool of rainwater and carried on round to a huge area of weathered sandstone domes that looked like a big city! That evening we camped out by the fire and ate BBQ food.

The next day was a REALLY early start at 4:45am so that we would make the sunrise at Uluru (Ayres Rock). Uluru is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory that is about 350m high and over 9km in cercumference. I wanted to climb the rock but it was too windy so we did the walk around the base. It was amazing to see the rock so close and strange to see something so big in the middle of nowhere with nothing for miles around! We saw the sunrise and marveled at the rock as it seemed to change colour as the sun hit different angles of it. After driving out a bit and taking the classic Uluru picture we headed to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas).

The Olgas are a group of huge sandstone domes very similar to Ayres Rock, that cover an area of about 20km squared. We took a walk through a valley in between two of the domes and got a close-up of the surface of the huge domes, which looked like the surface of the moon - only red!

It was then time to head home, with a quick stop to see Mount Connor, the highest peak in the area. That was our outback trip over, it was a truly amazing journey on which we saw some amazing natural wonders and cover about 3000km in only 7 days!

Looking down from the top of 'Heart Attack Hill', the carpark is somewhere down there!

'Get away from the edge', our guide screamed!

Looking into the canyon

An old tree at the top of the canyon

Looking out for miles from the top

Another canyon view, a big section fell off this bit about 40 years ago

You can see the remains of the section that broke off crumbled at the bottom...wouldn't have liked to be standing there when it fell!

A city of domes!

Ayres rock up close just before sunrise...

...and after!

The surface of the rock looks like red moon rock!

The classic Ayres rock picture

And again in portrait

The lesser known 'Mini Ayres Rock' :)

The Olgas seemed to glow red when we saw them up close

Looking out of the valley we walked through

The Olgas from far away

The second part of my outback experience was the 1600km drive from Darwin to Alice Springs. Luckily there was lots to see on the way, and we had three days to make the trip....

The first stop was Katherine Gorge, where we climbed a hill to see the river wind its way dramatically through the rocky landscape. After that we jumped in the river to cool off. We were told we were swimming with freshwater crocodiles....after we got out! That night we made a big fire and ate BBQ food!

The second day we started off by visiting some thermal springs. As we were all lounging around in the warm water a snake slithered down from a tree and dipped its head into the water for a drink! Needless to say, the pools got very empty at that point! That afternoon we visited the outback pub of Daily Waters. This pub, in the middle of nowhere, had become a famous stop-off point for people exploring the outback. A strange tradition, travellers leave stuff to mark the fact that they have visited the place. Because of this the pub was full of junk, from t-shirts to flip flops to surfboards to car license plates...there was even a prosthetic leg!!! Pub pool rules dictated that if you lost without potting a ball you had to leave your underwear and you could play ten-pin bowling in the road outside!!

We spent that night camping on a horse farm. After dinner we built a huge fire and slept under a very starry sky in swags with our sleeping bags and the fire for warmth :)

The highlight for me was seeing the "Devil's Marbles" on the third day. In the middle of nowhere is an area of flat land covered in large, red, granite boulders. We were all amazed at how they could have got there and I had a good climb to the top of a big pile of spherical rocks. There was a lot of road between us and Alice springs so we braced ourselves for a big drive but our guide had a surprise for us....she suddenly pointed out a big green splat on the road and cryptically asked us what we thought it was. Five minutes later we arrived at Wycliffe Well - the town with the most UFO sightings in Australia! It was a strange place with alien pictures and statues...and people with very 'open' minds... Anyway we got on our way and that evening we crossed the tropic of Capricorn and headed to Alice Springs for dinner and some much needed sleep...the next two days would take us to Uluru!

P.S. I forgot to mention that we went to a few places relating to the Peter Falconio murder. Basically, the guy was a British tourist travelling in the outback with his Mrs. and was, his girlfriend claims, murdered by a bloke who flagged them down with a problem with his car. The body was never found and the case got a lot of media attention. Some people think he faked his death, some people think she was in on it.... anyway to read about it properly follow this link:

Falconio Murder

we went to the last petrol station he was seen alive where he supposedly filled up with only 20 liters, which wouldn't get you far in the outback. A common thing in the pubs in the outback is to leave money, which is pinned to a board and signed by the person who left it. When that person passes back through, they re-sign the money, to prove it is theirs, and therefore have money to buy some beer with incase they are short of cash! Anyway, there is a $5 note that Peter Falconio left just before he disappeared pinned to the board of a pub we went to....spooky huh!