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I decided to go to Uluru, the Olgas and King's Canyon on a tour. It was with a company called Outback Safari and the tour I went on was a 3.5 day camping trip around the outback. It was a really great experience and I met some pretty interesting people from all parts of the world. There were 7 English people, 2 South Koreans, 6 Germans, 1 Japanese, 3 French, 1 Italian and myself on the tour and it was a blast. Our guide (Mika) was quite knowledgeable because he's originally from Alice Springs and he's 1/2 aboriginal so he knew a lot of the history and reasoning behind certain practices and customs.

 

The major highlight of the trip was definitely climbing Uluru. It is frowned upon by the local Aboriginal people because it is a sacred site and only certain people are supposed to climb it. I decided to do it anyway because it's a once in a lifetime opportunity and more importantly - I disagree with the ruling at present. Basically, the local aboriginal people DON'T want non-Aboriginals to climb it but at the same time, they won't close it completely to tourists. Instead, they still give us that option. Why you ask? Because of these - $$$$$$. If they closed it completely, they would face a sharp drop in tourists and then what could they do? So really it's a catch-22 situation for sure.

 

The major lowlight had to be the flies. I just can't imagine how bad the flies would be if it was summer and +40 degrees out there. Those fly masks worked from time to time but definitely didn't do that great a job.

 

We slept outside in Australian sleeping bags called swags. It was brilliant cause we were under the stars for three days. There was absolutely no light polution. It's too bad I don't know much about the sky in the Southern Hemisphere - I would have really liked to know what we were looking at. Each day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, we cooked together and prepared our meals as well so that was quite a lot of fun.

 

After the tour concluded, we headed back to Alice Springs and stayed one night. Alice Springs is quite a boring little town but for one night/day I guess it's okay. I definitely wouldn't want to spend an extended period of time there. One funny thing happened to me at our hostel... They ran out of rooms and couldn't offer me any other dorms, so I got my own bed in a private room (apparently, it's called the "Romance Room". Needless to say, I had a good nights sleep.

 

The next day, after receiving a text message from Qantas at 5:00 am telling me that the flight was delayed, we visited the Baby Kangaroo Rescue Centre which was an absolutely brilliant thing to do. The kangaroos are so cute and I learned a lot from the guide. He used to work in zoos and now, he does this full time and nurses young orphaned kangaroos until they are ready to be released to the wild. Also, people can "adopt" them but they have to take care of them for the whole time. They take them home, bring them to work - basically like a little kid - they have several needs.

 

Got to the airport late and made our way to Cairns to begin my journey down the East Coast.