Alice Springs and The Outback
As part of our experience in Australia, we wanted to go to some of the classic places. One of those is the Outback and seeing Ayers Rock, which they also call Uluru, the Aboriginal name. So we flew to Alice Springs in the middle of Australia. Okay, so this couldn’t be more different then being on the coast in Sydney or Cairns. They pointed out a river, called the Todd River but it’s a dry riverbed and hasn’t had water in over a year.
Ah, but at our little hotel we found a washer and dryer. SO EXCITED! It’s amazing what we look forward to! Clean clothes, after washing in bathroom sinks.
We toured around the town, it is very small, then decided to rent ebikes to bike to Simpson’s Gap. It was a very fun biking day. See below. Notice Matt’s helmet head.
To see Uluru from Alice Springs, we took an 18 hour tour on a bus where we stopped at a roadhouse, saw cattle stations, and lots of desert before getting to Kata Djia and Uluru, huge sacred rock mountains out in the middle of this dry area. It was a great trip, despite the long day, because we learned a lot about the area, the indigenous people and history that has impacted the Outback. The Aboriginals appeared in Australia about 50,000 years ago, and it’s theorized that they came through Indonesia, and what is now Papua New Guinea. (Tune into upcoming blog for comparison on when the first inhabitants of New Zealand appeared.)
Our guide was a real character, keeping us amused on the bus with terrible jokes but great stories. We also saw a kangaroo in the road on the way back , we were glad we did not hit it!Matt was really excited to have him point out the Southern Cross in the sky, because yes we were traveling at night. We ended the day with a sunset BBQ right near the Rock. It was quite a sight and quite a day.
The place is unique, hard to describe, standing next to it you see the size, scale and scope. Like an iceberg the vast majority of the rock is underground so what you see above is a small percentage.
Recently, the area has been returned to the Aborigines, as Australia tries to recognize their original inhabitation and importance.
As we left Alice Springs we actually flew into Uluru before we went to Cairns, our next stop.
On to the Great Barrier Reef!
