We woke up at 3:30 am to take the bus to the Cairns airport so we could catch our early morning flight to Uluru (Ayer’s Rock)! This was the part of the trip that I was most excited about. It conjured up ideas of adventure, Crocodile Dundee, intense heat and of course, poisonous snakes! Did you know the Outback is home to 7 of the 10 most poisonous snakes in the world? Neither did we at the time.
In addition to being home to deadly animals, the Red Center (as it is known) has one of the most annoying creatures in the world: flies. How bad can it be, right? Chris had traveled to Africa before, and I had spent some time in the rainforests of Costa Rica, so we thought we could handle it. We couldn’t. As soon as we landed, we headed straight to the local store to purchase our own the mosquito face nets. They’re all the rage in the Outback: all the tourists wear them and those that don’t, wish they did. By far, this was the best $6.35 we spent on our trip. And then there’s the heat. Holy cow was it hot there. The temperature never fell below 30°C, and by 9am, it was up to 38°C. Chris hated it all: the flies, the heat and the hike, and kept regretting our decision to ever leave Port Douglas.
But honestly, the Outback is a pretty amazing place. The scenery is unlike anything we had seen before: flat lands with orange sand the colour of butter chicken, distant canyons, small mountains that seemed to have popped out of the ground by themselves, and the remoteness of it all: there is nothing or no one for a hundred kilometer at a time.
On our first evening in the Outback, we visited Uluru to watch the sunset, which set right behind us, gorgeously illuminating the rock as it went from brown to red, to orange and then black. We were also lucky to be there during the full moon, which we saw rising beside Uluru.
The following morning, we returned to Uluru to watch the sun rise bright and early before driving 300 km to the Watarrka National Park (King’s Canyon).
Some interesting things we noticed during our drive in the Outback:
The vastness, and emptiness
The Outback is huge, but hardly anyone lives there. There are no houses or shops or huts, it’s just you, the road and the sand. Gas stations are 100 km+ apart, and the attendants seem to suffer from cabin fever. Gas prices are also pretty insane at 1.96$ per liter.
The isolation
Approximately 200m outside of the Yulara resort in Uluru, we lost internet and phone connection. There is no way to connect to the outside world, no directions (or GoogleMaps), no radio or music. However, once we got to King’s Canyon, we did pick up one radio station that played the same soft rock elevator music song… on repeat.
Camels!
We saw a herd of camels (8-12) traveling in single file across the horizon, during our drive. Camels were originally brought from Afghanistan to Australia in the late 1800s as a means of transportation to explore the Outback. When the Ghan train from Darwin to Adelaide was completed, camels became a superfluous mode of transportation, and they were let loose in the desert. It is estimated that 11,000 camels now roam free in the Outback.
At King’s Canyon, we hiked the 2-hour Canyon Rim walk. It was 11am and a balmy 45°C weather when we got there, and the rangers were about to close the hike for tourists due to the heat. Well, we hiked it anyway. Crazy, I know, but totally worth it! This was definitely the hottest that either of us had ever experienced. And to top it all of, we wore our mosquito nets shamelessly for the whole hike. The scenery was spectacular: deep and gorges and cliffs, amazing wind-shaped rock formations and beautiful views of the Outback.
The following day we drove to Alice Springs, the only “real” town in the Outback.
We immediately set off to see the sights at the West MacDonnell Ranges. Our first stop was Standley Chasm, an impressive split rock formation. We then headed off to Ellery Creek Big Hole to have a quick dip in the cool pool between red cliffs; and finished our day at Simpson’s Gap, a popular watering hole for black-footed kangaroos (unfortunately, we didn’t see any).
We then made our way back to Alice Springs to ANZAC hill, a memorial hill for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, where we watched the sun set over Alice Springs.
The next day, we hopped on the historic Ghan train, where we will be spending the next 24 hours on our way to Adelaide! All aboard!
Happy Wife, Aussie Life 