The Outback Day 1

This morning we left our hostel for the Outback with Adventure Tours. They picked us up around 6.  There were already 6 others the van and there would be an additional 4 to meet up with us at Uluru (Ayers Rock).

You really didn't have to go but 10 minutes out of town to make you feel like you were in the middle of nowhere. But we kept driving. 

We took the Stewart Highway out and in the 3000k that the road stretches, there is only one turn, in Alice Springs.

Our first stop was at a camel farm and no one wanted to do a ride.  Mesa and I have already been on camels in Egypt so we didn't feel the need to pay for a 5 minute ride again.  We only made a few other stops, to get gas and have a few lookouts.

The beginning part of the day was a little slow going. It was just a lot of driving. We drove past Mount Conner and the finally made it to Uluru and Kata Tjuta.  Our campsite is permanent, so we didn't have to pitch tents.  We had a quick lunch and then went off for the afternoon.

It was too hot to do the Valley of the Winds walk so instead our guide, Juno, brought us to an Aboriginal Cultural Center.  We learned a little about the aboriginals of this area and some of their stories about Uluru.

From here we went to Kata Tjuta. This is another large rock, like the most famous Uluru. But it isn't flat on top, instead it has 36 different heads, or mounds. We did a nice walk up close and it was pretty impressive. The rocks are just huge. Kata Tjuta is a conglomerate, so it is made up of many different rocks like basalt, granite, etc. And they're all squished and held  together like a fruit cake. Much of the rock is below the ground.

Uluru, is a little different. That is one complete rock and instead of pushing straight up from the land, the rock broke below ground and pushed up vertically on top of the other piece. So you actually see the difference in the way the setiment runs on each rock. The 3 big rocks: Mount Conner, Kata Tjuta, and Uluru are all in a straight line of eachother.

We had a nice view of Uluru for sunset, complete with champagne. Some of the other tours had fancy tables, but we had ours out of plastic coffee mugs. A real outback experience.

We got back to the campsite for dinner, kangaroo meat and camel sausages. Both were not as bad as they sound.  Going to sleep outside in a swag tonight. Wish us luck!