The Outback!

Wow! So much to update on. This past weekend I went to the Outback which was absolutely incredible, but before I begin with all that, let me just back track a little bit and do some pre-outback updates.
Halloween weekend was a lot of fun. Friday during the day Lizzy, Steph, Brodie, Ashley and I went out shopping for costumes. The costumes in Australia are literally about $150, so we quickly dropped the costume idea and settled for some funny Halloween accessories. I got a ridiculously awesome Halloween hat with a bat on it and a pump attached so that when you squeeze the pump the bat's wings fly. Its great. After that, we went over to Robina Town Centre where I tried my first Australian kebab. The kebabs here are different than at home.. they're not meat on a stick. Rather, they're sort of like if a wrap and a gyro mated, you would get a kebab. It was really delicious. After that, we went over to the pet store to play with the puppies and kitties (Lizzy and Brodie are going to get a dog) and it made me miss all of my animals, and then we headed home. Later that night we headed over to Ashley's sister Steph's boyfriend's house (confusing yes) for some pre-gaming, before heading out to SinCity- a bar down in Surfer's, for a continuation of Steph's 21st birthday. Steph's boyfriend apparently has a lot of money and rented a limo for everyone and then rented out the VIP section of SinCity for the night. It was tons of fun and we got unlimited drinks and danced and had a good time. Saturday was Halloween, and we went over to Mik and Nik's for a Halloween barbeque. I tried kangaroo for the first time, and we hung out and just had a relatively relaxed night and ate, drank and watched the soccer game. Sunday was just a catch up on school work day, and then the rest of the week was pretty normal with classes and papers and whatnot.
Okay now on to the Outback! Thursday morning I woke up at 3:30 am to catch the airport transfer at 4:15 on campus. Our flight out of Brisbane was at 6:55 am. We flew from Brisbane to Cairns, then from Cairns to Ayers Rock (Uluru). Our tour guide for the weekend, Brad, was waiting by baggage claim at Ayers Rock airport, and once we were all gathered, he took us to our truck and brought us immediately to the Cultural Centre at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. There we walked through the centre and learned a little bit about Aboriginal law, religion and art, and I bought my first big souveniour for myself: an original Aboriginal painting! The Aboriginal art is so neat and I loved it and can't wait to get it framed and hang it in my room back in Columbus! After walking through the Cultural Centre, we had a quick lunch and then headed out for our Uluru Base Walk. The walk was about 9.6 km (approx. 6 miles) and took a few hours, but the views were absolutely spectacular. We filled our bottles of water up several times, and the immense dry heat kept us from sweating or having to pee too much! After we finished our base walk, Brad met back up with us and drove us out to our campsite for the night. We dropped our stuff down and headed straight for the pool at the main building at the campsite! It felt SO good to jump in the cold water and cool off. After cooling down in the pool, we headed back to the campsite where Brad gave us some sparkling wine and crackers and dip and pointed us up toward a path where we could see the sun setting over Uluru. The views were spectacular and it was such a nice way to relax as our first day was coming to an end. When the sun had set, we went back to our campsite where Brad had prepared our dinner. He made kangaroo bolognese- pasta with kangaroo meet and lots of vegetables-- it was absolutely delicious. After that, we all began getting ready for bed. We rolled out our swags (coolest things in the world: they're basically matresses that roll up like sleeping bags and they're SO comfortable) by the campfire, listened to dave matthews, and got ready to sleep under the stars. I have never seen so many stars in my entire life and it was so beautiful (even saw a shooting star!). I cannot even describe the feeling of lying out under and open sky so far away from all civilization. Its so unreal and so fantastically exciting and relaxing all at the same time.
Friday morning we were awoken at 4:00 am so that we could get to a lookout close to our campsite to watch the sunrise over Uluru and Kata Tjuta. The sunrise was SO beautiful. It reminded me of watching the sunrise at the top of Mount Haleakala. Once the sun was up, we drove over to Kata Tjuta for a 7 km hike through the "Valley of the Winds". On the drive over to start the hike we saw free roaming camels on the side of the road! So strange to see camels just walking along! The Kata Tjuta hike was by far the prettiest hike of the entire trip. The views were absolutely stunning. While on our hike we also saw a bunch of kangaroos bouncing around. After our hike we got back in the car and stopped on the way at the Resort, which was basically a little shopping center and resort in the middle of the desert, to walk around a bit and buy some more water bottles and fill up on fuel. We hit the road again and then stopped once more at another campsite for some lunch. Here we walked around a bit, saw some really beautiful flowers, saw an emu picking at some hung laundry, saw some beautiful Australian birds, and then all gathered up for a delicious barbeque of sausages and cheeseburgers. After we were all nice and full, we got back in the car and headed for our second night's campsite: Kings Creek Cattle Station, stopping once more on the way for a spectacular view of Mount Connor and a really neat looking salt pan. When we arrived at our campsite, we were pleased to find out that this site also had a pool, so we dipped in and cooled off once again. This campsite's main area was also amazingly clean, so a few of us decided to have our showers there, before heading out to our more remote camping location. When we got to our site, we were all exhausted and immediately rolled out our swags by the fire and relaxed for awhile while Brad cooked another delicious dinner. This night we had chicken and vegetables over rice and homemade garnished bread. After dinner we all basically immediately passed out and got ready for another early morning in the desert.
Saturday morning we were awoken at 4:00 am again, this time to get an early start on our hike at Kings Canyon. This 7 km hike was so incredible. The sights were once again breathtaking. It started with an extremely steep treck up to the top of the canyon, but then was pretty relaxing and relatively flat the rest of the way through. Brad stayed with us the entire hike this time which was really nice, because we got to learn a lot about Aboriginal culture and the geology of the canyon. About halfway through the hike we stopped at the "Garden of Eden," which was a beautiful little natural spring in the middle of the canyon. We also visited spots on the canyon known as the Amphitheatre and the Lost City, and Brad taught us a lot about all of the different plants and the medicinal purposes they served for Aboriginals. After our hike, we went back to the main station at our campsite for a quick lunch, and then piled back into the car for a long drive to Alice Springs. When we got to Alice Springs, we checked into our backpackers, which turned out to be really nice, with a bathroom in our room and everything, and then headed to Toddy's, the bar at the backpackers, for dinner and drinks. It was a very nice way to unwind from an amazing weekend in the Outback. The next morning we woke up at around 8:00 (which felt so late!), ate some breakfast, and caught our 9:30 am transfer to Alice Springs airport where we caught our plane back to Brisbane!
My trip to the Outback was so much more beautiful and exciting then I would have ever imagined and I'm so glad I decided to do a trip so different from everything else I've done so far in Australia. This week its back to schoolwork, but then next weekend its off to Melbourne! Can't wait to update on that trip!
Love and miss you all!
Arlyn