It's gonna be a lot of blogs for you to read since I don't have any internet connection in the Outback. I hardly have any cell phone connection either but I don't care. Because it's soooooo beautiful here.
I love the outback. The red sand, the weird creatures that live here and survive here, the rocks... But before talking about that let's start with my firt day in the Northern Territory.
NT, the last state I needed to visit in Australia and probably one of the most beautiful.
Alice Springs, a town in the middle of Australia, in the middle of the outback. Lots of Aboriginal people, red sand and dry heat.
I landed at 5pm and expected to be able to get a bus or shuttle to the city. But in the Northern Territory things don't work like that.
The next shuttle was gonna come in 2 hours... And a taxi was 34$.
I looked at the friendly man and he must have read it in my eyes '34$? or 2 hours waiting?'
So he said: wait here, i'll try to find a solution.
At the same time a taxi driver overheard my conversation and asked if I needed to go to the city.
I told him: Yes, but I only have 20$ on me.
The taxi driver, in need of work, said: I'll take you there for 20$.
And so he did. I arrived at my hostel with swimming pool and outside cinema with beachchairs and felt happy.
The woman at reception told me to go up the Anzac Memorial hill to see the sunset. It was amazing.
The next morning I had to wake up early because my 11day Contiki tour was about to begin!
I got to the All Season Oasis Hotel to meet my tourleader and fellow travellers.
We started our trip on Easter in Alice Springs and visited the base of The Royal Flying Doctors. Pretty cool what they can do.
We also went to ... where we got a headset to wander around the park and learn about the 'death centre'
Why the sand is red (it's an iron in the stones), which animals there live (f.e. the Thorny Devil) and saw some birds and kangaroos with a little joey!
The next morning we had a bush tucker experience. They took us to an aboriginal camp and explained how they live.
Aboriginal people always lived a nomadic life. They learned to survive in the outback to watch the birds. If birds would eat certain fruits, they knew it would be allright.
They are a very sharing community. If they would konw someone ate a fish he caught by himself without sharing it with the others, they would spear his leg. If you were a woman doing that they would break your arm.
Aboriginal people do have a smell. They stink. But that's because they learned to survive in the outback. Where there is a lack of water. So they don't understand why white people waste water on there body while it's so precious to drink it.
At the end of the presentation we got to taste some bush bread and tea.And also so bush raisens, bush banana's, dried bush tomato's and a kangaroo tail. Which tasted a little like pork. The guide also suggested to taste the wichetty grup, a big caterpillar that lives in a certain try.
One brave guy in our group wanted to try and eat the grup alive.
He said the insides tasted like raw egg and all that was left was the chewy skin. Yum!
After the 'tasting' we were introduced to some aboriginals and there art.
Painting they made. Each tells a story. You could buy them for 50, 100 or 200$ which is really cheap for a real aboriginal painting. Unfortunenately I only had 10$ in cash on me.
I still kick myself for it that I couldn't buy a painting.
Oh well, maybe I have an excuse now to go back ;)
In the afternoon we went to Kings Canyon to do a 6km hike.
Everywhere you can hike there are sings warning you to drink enough water. Dehydration is the number one cause people need to be taken to a hospital. And if they call the flying doctors because you didn't drink enough it can cost you a lot of money if your insurance does not cover that.
The other things you need are a hat, sunglasses, a good sunscreen and last but not least: a fly net.
Flies here can be irritating as hell. Zooming in your ear, trying to get op your nose or in your eyes or mounth.
It is a funny sight to see everyone with a flynet but we do prefer to be comfortable istead of fashionable in the outback :)
The hike was beautiful. Between the red rocks all the way up where you had amazing views. I was speechless.
After the hike we were brought to a campingground where we would sleep under the stars! Although I hate bugs, I was really looking forward 'swag-night' We'd get a sleeping bag and a swag which is matras with zipped up canvas around it.
When the sun had set, and the flies had disappeared we built a campfire.
But you know me, a star-geek, instead of looking at the fire I was looking up most of the time. You could clearly see the Milky Way. Amazing...
Around 11h30pm I crawled into my comfortable swag and after seeing 4 shooting stars (and 4 wishes) I fell asleep... Untill 5h30am when it started raining.
The swag does have a cover for the head to so I just graped my backpack and nike's next to me and shoved it down my swag. But the head part down and turned around to sleep some more.
But most people (sisi's) didn't wanna stay in the rain and woke up the busdriver who openend the bus for them.
I asked him: do I have to get in the bus?
He: no, your swag is waterproof, if you're comfortable, just stay there.
So I did, crawled a little deeper in my sleeping bag and fell asleep again. I woke up around 6h30 because the sun was out but decided I was way to comfortable and turned around untill 7h15.
I got up, showered with bugs and had a bacon and egg breakfast.
Back on the bus on our way to Uluru.
Along the way the driver had to slow down because there were wild horses crossing. Stunning!
We stopped at Kata Tjuta, a simular rock as Uluru but smaller and more curvy. A little walk to the heart of the rock, again, breathtaking.
Right now I'm typing this at our logde in the Outback. Don't know when I will be able to post it, but I need to write all of this down before I forget!
Anyway, it's 8u16pm right now so I'm gonna take a shower and won't go to bed too late since I have to get up at 5am to go and see the sunrise at Uluru...
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