Yes. Alice Springs...centre of the universe.
Actually, it seemed a nice enough town. You hear horror stories, but Tennant Creek was much worse in my opinion! We stopped by for a few days, just so I could try a bit of busking, but it wasnt really the time of year for it. I think, after the campsite and food, i only made a spare $30, which sucked!).
Apart from that, we just wondered around, and took a look. There was this old telegraph station open just outside of the place, which was pretty cool to see, although it must have been bloody lonely working there! I was told about a Kangaroo sanctuaray by Debbie Brown back home ,but I couldnt find it. Never mind, so afterwards we carried on to Ayers Rock. Popular belief tells us that its actually in Alice, or at the very least 'just round the corner'.
Nope. Its 5-600 sodding Kilometers away! Took ages to get there...and petrol by that point was hitting uk prices at $2.50 a litre. $120 would just about fill the tank for 450ks. Then when you get to the rock, and are charged $25 to get in and see it, you're initially left thinking. Oh. Its a bloody great rock. Right. Then you go to the campsite there, and get charged $40 per night for parking on what was essentially a gravel car park, with no hot water in the camp kitchen, broken barbeques, and think 'Okay. What a waste of time and bloody money!'
THEN you see the rock at sunset, and everything melts away. It. Was. Stunning. You really have to see it, but to watch it turn from Brown, to Red, to Purple, and then (just after the sun went down) bright bright red for about 30secs or so, was pretty damn awesome...then we went to the bar. After loosing so much money that day on everything else, I figured 'hell. Why not add a few beers to the growing list of outgoings?'.
It was cool, there was a good band on, and we had good fun. I did break Alex, who, after driving round to the rock for sunset, promptly died, and didnt really surface properly for a good 12 hours or so! :P I got him up around 2pm, and did a bit of a walk around the rock. Not the whole lot...I figure once you see one part of a giant bit of stone, youve probably seen it all, and its 16k in circumference. So I drove. Job Done.
I was thinking about climbing, but it was ridiculous. it was a rock face with a iron railing on to pull yourself up. But not a ladder, just a railing and a 75% hill. :) So yes, went back to the car and started driving to Kings Canyon after that...
All the rest areas (roadside free camping places) in NT are really cool, although they did have 20 billion flies, and 100 billion trillion ants underfoot that kept biting you. Very VERY irritating! :) So yes, stopped over night, got to Kings Canyon the next day, which was really really nice. Much Better than Ayers rock...after a 500 climb up some steps carved in the rock, we walked along the top of the canyon back to the carpark. Took in the scenary, and loved every second of it, it was spec-bloody-tacular!
Then after that it was Cooper Pedy
Actually, it seemed a nice enough town. You hear horror stories, but Tennant Creek was much worse in my opinion! We stopped by for a few days, just so I could try a bit of busking, but it wasnt really the time of year for it. I think, after the campsite and food, i only made a spare $30, which sucked!).
Apart from that, we just wondered around, and took a look. There was this old telegraph station open just outside of the place, which was pretty cool to see, although it must have been bloody lonely working there! I was told about a Kangaroo sanctuaray by Debbie Brown back home ,but I couldnt find it. Never mind, so afterwards we carried on to Ayers Rock. Popular belief tells us that its actually in Alice, or at the very least 'just round the corner'.
Nope. Its 5-600 sodding Kilometers away! Took ages to get there...and petrol by that point was hitting uk prices at $2.50 a litre. $120 would just about fill the tank for 450ks. Then when you get to the rock, and are charged $25 to get in and see it, you're initially left thinking. Oh. Its a bloody great rock. Right. Then you go to the campsite there, and get charged $40 per night for parking on what was essentially a gravel car park, with no hot water in the camp kitchen, broken barbeques, and think 'Okay. What a waste of time and bloody money!'
THEN you see the rock at sunset, and everything melts away. It. Was. Stunning. You really have to see it, but to watch it turn from Brown, to Red, to Purple, and then (just after the sun went down) bright bright red for about 30secs or so, was pretty damn awesome...then we went to the bar. After loosing so much money that day on everything else, I figured 'hell. Why not add a few beers to the growing list of outgoings?'.
It was cool, there was a good band on, and we had good fun. I did break Alex, who, after driving round to the rock for sunset, promptly died, and didnt really surface properly for a good 12 hours or so! :P I got him up around 2pm, and did a bit of a walk around the rock. Not the whole lot...I figure once you see one part of a giant bit of stone, youve probably seen it all, and its 16k in circumference. So I drove. Job Done.
I was thinking about climbing, but it was ridiculous. it was a rock face with a iron railing on to pull yourself up. But not a ladder, just a railing and a 75% hill. :) So yes, went back to the car and started driving to Kings Canyon after that...
All the rest areas (roadside free camping places) in NT are really cool, although they did have 20 billion flies, and 100 billion trillion ants underfoot that kept biting you. Very VERY irritating! :) So yes, stopped over night, got to Kings Canyon the next day, which was really really nice. Much Better than Ayers rock...after a 500 climb up some steps carved in the rock, we walked along the top of the canyon back to the carpark. Took in the scenary, and loved every second of it, it was spec-bloody-tacular!
Then after that it was Cooper Pedy
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