ULURU AND A TOWN CALLED ALICE

It's hot in Alice Springs. Signposts as you approach the town, like Arid Zone Research Institute and Desert Monitoring Station give a few clues as to what to expect in the Red Centre. We arrived in Alice during rush-hour - we saw at least four cars on the main street as we drove to the hostel which is situated on the banks of the normally dry bed of the River Todd. You are advised however not to park anywhere near the riverbed as your vehicle could be washed away in an instant by the torrents that can thunder down without warning from upstream and you don't want to be a statistic on the wall of the Desert Monitoring Station. Going by what we'd read and had been told about Alice, we weren't expecting much more than a couple of red dusty streets and dingos wandering around, but the town was a very pleasant surprise. With a population of nearly 23,000 people, and the stop-off point for just about everyone heading off in the direction of 'The Rock' - it has all the amenities you could need and a roaring trade in all things Aboriginal.

At 5.55am, the bus come truck of Outback Safari's arrived outside the hostel to pick up one Marc Richards and one Nina Heavens for a three day adventure to the Red Centre. Another myth that was dispelled for us was the distance from Alice Springs to Uluru (Ayers Rock) - it is 444km (275 miles) which took a pretty long time - time enough to stop for a break at a camel farm and for Marc to give an excellent impersonation of Lawrence of Arabia (well he was Welsh) as he masterfully rode a trotting camel around the paddock, well that's what I understood the flailing arms to be anyway. On we went, the unrelenting sun beating down on us (hope you're getting the picture) to a viewpoint of Kata Tjuta which is a group of 36 large domed red rock formations as sacred to the indigenous people as Uluru. After being driven nuts by the flies (they even managed to get under my very attractive head-net) we drove on and took a relatively short 2km walk into the Kata Tjuta Walpa Gorge Walk and boy, was it hot! Steve, our guide had advised us that throughout the safari, we should be drinking little and often to keep dehydration at bay, and even on this 1 hour walk, we should have drunk at least 2 litres each by the time we got back. He also advised that a wet bandana around the neck is a great way to keep cool which proved very true.

That evening, we got to see Uluru for the first time and it was truly awesome and breathtaking. We couldn't believe that we were actually there. We joined the hundreds of other tourists in the sunset viewing area a few kilometers away to watch the rock steadily change colour, one woman swiftly painting a watercolour of the vibrant scene as the sun went down.

Our accommodation for the safari were camps and permanent tents with beds (luxury) and we would all muck-in with preparing the meals and other chores like making sure that the beer was cold. Following a great BBQ on the first evening, we all turned in quite soon afterwards, as Steve had advised us of the early morning wake-up call so that we could return to Uluru for sunrise (we thought that he was joking at first). It was such a lovely night that Marc and I dragged our beds out of the tent and in no time at all, most of the others had done the same, so we spent the night under the most incredibly star-filled sky, just lying there watching shooting stars whizz across the sky, still not able to get used to Orion being upside down...

The wake-up call came at 4.15am and we all dragged ourselves to the food hut for some breakfast before getting on the bus and falling asleep again. We had been given three choices of walk for Uluru. Firstly, the climb which is against Aboriginal wishes, which no-one on the bus elected to do, a 5km walk to see sunrise, where we would no doubt have met up with the hundreds of tourists we had seen at sunset the night before, or the 8km basewalk, where you would see sunrise wherever you happened to be at that moment. Marc and I, along with another three couples, were dropped off in complete darkness and pointed in the direction of the rock with insturctions on where we could find the bus 2 hours later. We had one false start, where we ended up peering into the gloomy depths of a watering hole up a dead-end well it was still dark), but soon found the right track and started our walk along the path which snakes around the base of this giant. Again, we could hardly believe that we were so lucky to be doing something so amazing, touching and feeling the texture of the rock which was still warm from the sun of the day before. First light came and the rock became a purple colour and we gazed up at the sheer rockface as the patterns and shapes in the rock that tell the story of many an Aboriginal legend were revealed. High clouds muted any spectacular sunrise but as the skies brightened the rock turned into its familiar rich red-ochre colour.

There are many sacred areas around the base of Uluru, some that are traditionally for viewing only by Aboriginal elders and the initiated, there are also male sacred areas and female sacred areas none of which are accessible and photography of these areas is also prohibited and liable to a very hefty fine. We followed the flat red paths through trees, bushes and scrub and entered some small caves which were decorated with Aborignal paintings on the walls and ceilings. Many were fading, no thanks to the practice of European tourguides in the not-so-distant past of throwing buckets of water at the walls to brighten the colours in the gloomy caves! We joined the remainder of our group and were taken to a small watering hole at the top of a dead-end (ahem), where Steve explained that this was a sacred spot, the waters of which had bene used in Mala ceremonies on the rock for centuries. We had a quick stickybeak around the Aboriginal Culture centre where we were greeted by an old Aboriginal man who showed us how to throw a boomerang properly, then it was back on the bus.

Our second camp at Kings Creek Station, was about 300km away and we all dozed a bit as we drove along, seeing camels, emu and wild horses in the bush. We ventured into the off-road to collect firewood for cooking supper - all pieces had to be about 4 feet long and as thick as an average wrist (as soon as Steve said this, you could see everyone looking at their own wrist!) Our pot-chicken supper was cooked over the fire for us, accompanied by some tasty freshly-baked damper bread. We enjoyed some wine and chat until the camp fire went out then went to bed, the thought of another early start looming.

He was back at 4.15am, calling "It's probably not the time to rock and roll, but the kettle's boiling...". We drove out to Kings Canyon which is Australia's answer to the Grand Canyon. At 6.00am, so avoiding the heat of the day, we started out on the
Kings Canyon Rim Walk, the longer of the two walks around this spectacular area that traces the top of the canyon walls, which are over 100 metres high. A steep climb at the beginning of the walk, which locals call Heartbreak Hill due to its gradient took us to the top and stunning views of the gorge below and sunrise on the other side. About half way round the walk, a detour down a series of wooden steps and walkways descends to the Garden of Eden, a permanent waterhole surrounded by lush tropical plant life and a lonely duck called Adam. Apparently Eve left a couple of years ago and hasn't been back since. Marc was first into the deep black water followed by another two brave souls. I just sat on the bank taking pictures and wondering if he would ever surface again after diving down to see how deep it was. The plant life on the rocks was unique - because they grow in small fissures and clefts in the rock, the trees have small root systems and grow like bonsai. We came across a spectacular palm tree, about 2 metres high and Steve explained that this type of palm grows about 1 metre every 800 years. I remember thinking that I could well have one of these in my hallway! Given the early start we were back at camp for lunch by 10.00am and after loading all the Eski's into the back of the bus and sweeping out the red sand from our tents we headed back to Alice Springs, absoloutely shattered and looking forward to not being awoken at 4.15am, well not for a while anyway.