Besides the Great Barrier Reef and the Sydney Opera House, there is another iconic Australian wonder, and that is Ayers Rock, or Uluru. Now the second half of the bus trip was us traveling from the Top End to Alice Springs and then continuing on to the Red Centre and Uluru. First of all, it took us two days of straight driving to get from Kakadu to Alice Springs, and there is nothing in between besides roadhouses and a couple of very small, very sketchy towns. Australia is around the same size as the US (maybe a bit bigger), but unlike the states, 90% of the population lives within 100 mi of the coast. That means the middle of the country is largely empty. In fact, some of the cattle stations are bigger than european countries! Driving through the middle of the country is an excellent way to get this perspective. Another really cool thing about this type of travel is that I could really see how the landscape and ecosystem changed as we got further south. Slowly the trees became shorter and fewer and the soil became rockier and redder (below), as the landscape changed from savanna to desert.
There were a couple of really cool geologic features on the way, like the Devils Marbles, huge eroded granite boulders (see below for a sense of scale, I'm 5'2"). For such an empty part of the country the outback certainly has its own stark dessert beauty. Also it's a geologist's dream :) We had one day to recover in Alice Springs before heading back out into the Red Centre. Myself and the other people on my trip spent the day walking around the town and doing laundry. We also enjoyed the hot desert sun at our hotel's pool. I decided to go in the pool which was a horrible idea. You see, it's winter in Australia right now, and since the desert actually gets really cold, the only thing that causes it to heat up during the day is direct sunlight. As soon as the sun falls, it drops into the single digits Celsius. Well, this pool had an awning over it so never received any direct sunlight, and was not artificially heated. So when I jumped in, my heart stopped. Actually, I've never been in water this cold in my life (and remember I've been swimming in cold waterfall pools and diving 20m under the ocean) and I immediately had to get out.
When we left Alice, we headed to the southwest. And finally we got to Uluru!!! The Rock is absolutely amazing because it is so isolated. There really is nothing but sand dunes surrounding it. You can see why the native people consider it a sacred site. In fact an entire side of the rock is considered sacred and you are not supposed to take pictures of it. That's way all the pictures you see of the rock are taken from only 3 angles. Also, while people are still technically allowed to climb the rock it is culturally disrespectful. I wouldn't have climbed it anyway, since I don't like heights, but it makes me sad that given this people still choose to climb it anyway :(
Another really interesting thing about Uluru is that it changes color depending on the sun's position in the sky. Sunrise, midday and sunset all have a different distinct color (see below). This is because the iron in the rock reflects the sun rays differently depending on it's angle. It's also incredibly beautiful to see, and sunset was one of my favorite parts of the trip! After Uluru we also went to the Olgas, or Kata Tjuta, which is a series of boulder like formations in the same national park as Uluru. We went on a wonderful hike there! Our last hike of the trip was the King's Canyon Rim Walk. It had some drop off parts, which made me a little nervous because of my fear of heights. But the views were amazing, and there were some really cool ripple marks in the stone so I'm so glad I did it!
Another great thing about being in the Outback is that the stars were amazing!!! We could see the milky way and, of course, the Southern Cross! Our last night was spent in swag… which is traditional bush camping. Basically, it's a tent with enough room for a sleeping bag and that's it. I was really excited to camp in the Outback, but unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations. You see, it gets outrageously cold at night, and anywhere the swag touches the sleeping bag all of your body heat is lost, so I spent a pretty miserable cold night in my swag :( The upside, the stars were beautiful, we got to hear dingoes howling in the distance which was crazy cool, and it was a great last night with the friends I had made on the trip!
Besides the fact that this is a totally unique and iconic part of the country, one of my favorite parts of this trip was meeting and traveling with so many different and fabulous people! Most of the bus was 20 somethings traveling on their own and it was so cool getting to know everyone and sharing these fantastic experiences together. At this point I have travelled on my own, with school groups, with friends, and now with tour groups. Each is incredibly different, but all have been fun and rewarding in their own way!
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