Alice Springs and Uluru

We had a VERY early Qantas plane to catch to Alice Springs. It’s a beautiful and sunny day, and the land is quite different than I had imagined. It is much more vivid, lots of green and very red sand. This whole area has been named the Red Center for good reason. It is desolate, barren, and isolated. Our Australia Pacific Tour driver tells us that it had been raining the day before. We’ve been so lucky with the weather! We then had a 2-hour break for lunch and shopping at a local market. Lots of crafts and local things to purchase. The UK influence is here, and we enjoyed some scones as part of our lunch. Later in the afternoon we had a tour with an aboriginal guide. He seemed to have lots of information to share the "Dreamtime" culture, but was rather difficult to hear or understand at some times. We were taken to the old telegraph station and some climbed a hill to see the area. Later we went to an aborigional cultural center for some Australian style bread and billy tea. We were shown demonstrations of the dideridoo (which is sort of a musical instrument), spears and boomerangs. Finally back to the hotel for dinner. Such a busy day, with an early start, so we were grateful for an early night.

We left Alice Springs at 8am after another great breakfast. Some have decided to do a sunrise balloon ride. It sounds wonderful, especially the champagne breakfast. First we make a "camel ride" stop. These camels are descendants of the single-humped dromedaries, which were the lifeline of the area, prior to the coming of the railway in 1929. Thousands were let loose in the desert, and some still run wild today. We also made a stop at a coffee shop, which is out in the middle of nowhere, but they seem to have everything. We even have the opportunity to see a road train in route. We are on our way to Ayres Rock, or Uluru as the Aborigines prefer it to be called. Lunch was a stop on the Lasseter Highway. After 5 hours, and a couple of photo stops we finally arrived at the "rock".

Uluru (also known as Ayres Rock) is one of the world’s largest monoliths, rising almost 1,150 feet. It is the summit of a massive underground piece of sandstone about 600 million years old. It is believed that only the top 10% is actually visible. Even though the aborigines prefer that visitors not climb the rock, about 70% attempt it.

We are going to a very special "Sounds of Silence" dinner this evening. We start before sunset and when the sun goes down, it is very dark! It’s an odd feeling of being very alone in the outback, however you certainly do need a sense of humor. We have candle lit tables, and we find we aren’t alone for long. There are BUGS everywhere. We did discover that they don’t seem to like he wine served with dinner, but are looking for water. They find the water glasses as quickly as they are filled. I don’t think I’d recommend this for those who have an aversion to bugs. We also saw an electrical storm moving in. It was quite a sight with the sky lighting up in almost every direction. But because of that, and the clouds, we weren’t able to see many stars. However, we did have an astronomy lesson with the stars that we could see. The Southern Cross is most impressive. We do hear some big news. Two of our group became engaged. Congratulations to Laura and Paul!!

The next morning my husband was out by 6 o’clock to walk around Ayres Rock. Some are going to climb it. I think I’ll take pictures. When everyone has returned to the bus, we are on our way to the Maruku Arts and Crafts Gallery. They don't want to have pictures taken and you can't take your cameras into the buildings, however they are present in videos and pictures and have demonstrations of crafts. We also see the Olgas, ( Kata Tjuta, which means many heads). These are a collection of smaller and more rounded rocks. No one is allowed to climb the Olgas since they have been declared a sacred site. All too quickly it was time to leave for the airport and the flight to Cairns. If you would like more information on our Australia Pacific Tour or the hotels, etc, please see below.