9/17/06 – After breakfast we were transferred to Cairns for our flight to Alice Springs. The flight was uneventful and we were met by the transport company to take us to our hotel. We had a nice woman driver who had lived in Alice Springs for about 5 years. She was a licensed nurse but decided to take a break from nursing and work in the tourist industry. She mentioned something about being with happy people more.
We were delivered to our hotel, the Alice Springs resort and given a nice, big room. After some effort we determined that we would also be staying here for two nights which has become welcome. We walked into town and had dinner at Bojangles. They have a bar with entertainment that broadcasts the show and video shots of the crowd on the internet. I wonder if anyone we know saw us? I found an internet hot spot and uploaded my photos to my pbase site.
9/18/06 – Today we met our new guides, Jesse and Rachel and headed out to tour the MacDonnall Range from Alice Springs. There were five of us in a Nissan Pathfinder but all seemed comfortable. Today was a day of landscape vistas. We visited Ormiston Gorge and Ellery Creek and finished with a vista of Mount Smoden. We saw waterholes, wide open spaces, mountains, gorges and even stopped to view a 145 million year old crater, called Gosse’ Bluff, that was formed by an impact with a comet. It was quite a ways away, but impressive nonetheless. We saw a lot of old geology, what with the arid climate. They believe one of the “rivers” (a dry bed) was the oldest river in the world.
We had lunch on the tour at a beautiful spot and returned to Alice Springs fairly early. My tripod was broken and I spent some time trying to find supplies to fix it. Never did, and then tried to buy a new one but the photo store closed five minutes before we got there.
9/19/06 – We headed west from Alice Springs on our way to Kings Canyon. Our first stop was Hermannsburg where we learned about the first Aboriginal mission in the northern territories established by the Lutherans. We also learned about Australia’s most famous aboriginal painter, Albert Namatjira. Then on to Palm Valley in Finke Gorge National Park. It was a rough four wheel drive over an old river bed into an oasis like canyon that had a rare population of palm trees. The guides speculated this geologic formation could be traced back to the formation of the continent to a time when the desert was a rain forest. A very unusual place. A beautiful tropical setting amidst the harsh beauty of the desert. This night we spent in a resort near Kings Canyon.
9/20/06 – It was up early and on the road to Kings Canyon to start a four hour hike at sunrise. We basically hiked up the side of the mountain that formed one side of the canyon and then walked around the rim, coming down on the other side. There were many beautiful vistas along the walk. The canyon walls are made of sandstone, which over the years has exposed a certain amount of iron, which rusted and turned the entire place in to a bright reddish brown unlike anything I have seen.
After our hike we proceeded to Ayers Rock (Uluru) and checked into our hotel. We left Rachel and Jesse after a great experience. At 4pm another guide picked us up and we went to the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. We began to learn a lot more about the history and culture of the aboriginal people who have inhabited this area for thousands of years. We stopped to view the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) a rock formation rising from the desert like a series of domes. We hiked up into a small canyon and then bussed to the site of our sunset photo up. This formation also has spiritual significance to the aboriginals but, even though physically more imposing, wasn’t as famous as Ayers Rock. We celebrated sunset with a champagne toast and returned, tired, to the hotel where we had pasta in a café.
9/21/06-Today we visit Ayers Rock, or Uluru to the natives. We had a sunrise tour so we were up before 5am. We took the bus with our tour group about 20km to the rock and spent about 45 minutes observing sunrise. A bowl of cereal and coffee for breakfast and we were back in the bus for a narrated tour around the rock. Our guide was very informative and clearly had a passion for native lore. I found his commentary the most interesting of the trip. It always amazes me to learn about the unique parts of our world and how humans have adapted to their environment. It also always amazes me how the human condition seems to experience the same emotions around the world. The aboriginal people have a history with westerners not dissimilar to the American Indians in America. The good news is that they have restored ownership over the land in the park and have a controlling say in how it is managed. Jan and Molly spent the afternoon at the resort pool. At 5:25pm, Mike was back on the bus to catch the sunset viewing and photo op for Ayers Rock.
The desert experience was different than we were expecting. It is a desolate place with a very sparse population of people. But those we met seemed to be very much in love with the place and wanted to share it with others. After a while, the real beauty of the desert plains, mountains and valleys impress you with the sharp contrasty scenes of brilliant color, plainness and vastness.