Outback - 6 things to consider

Servus folks,
Alrighty, I am on the plane from Ayers Rock to Sydney where we will hopefully get on a flight to Melbourne. This morning we got the information that the flight we were initially booked on was cancelled and we did not get any other information than to see the Customer Service Desk in Sydney to be booked on another flight to Melbourne. But don’t worry. We have been told that there are about five more flights scheduled for today from Sydney to Melbourne and none of them are completely booked out. Let’s see what happens.
Anyway, we have still another hour to fly and I would like to reflect on the three days in the Outback.

Kings Canyon - Hard and easy walk

Hi,
I am not a morning person at all and getting up at 3am (this time really exists??? Aussies call this stupid hour) certainly makes me grumpy. But we were determined to not miss our coach at 4am which will get us to Kings Canyon. After a three-hour-drive where I slept a bit more we reached Kings Canyon Station where we ate some breakfast before we headed to Kings Canyon itself.
The two guides would each guide a group of people but down two different tracks. The Rim Walk is the far more difficult one with a length of 6km and having to climb 500 natural steps to the top of the 160m high Canyon. This is considered a difficult walk, exposed to the sun most of the time and not suitable for unfit people. You also have to carry at least 3 liters of water with you which the guide checked before you had to sign a waiver and could join the tour. The other Creek Bed Walk is a lot easier, you stay in the canyon and it is only 2.6km long. I did not feel too well and decided to do the easy walk together with nine other people whereas Markus went up the Rim Walk with the other 26 folks.

Ayers Rock - Outback Sky Journey

Hi there to all of you,
This day was really packed with lots and lots of activities and at 9:30pm we met at the Town Square again and were lead to a set-up dark site nearby behind the car park. The tour guide explained some basic things about the Outback Sky and why it is so special: there is almost no light pollution in the Outback and it is very flat. Therefore you see about 3000-4000 stars with your naked eye! And it was an incredible sky, I can tell you. We were lucky as the moon was not up, absolutely no clouds whatsoever and it was very cool at about 25 degrees Celsius! With the help of a green laser pointer, two high-tech telescopes, some binoculars and an iPad with the StarWalkApp we learned a lot about the stars, planets, galaxies, the constellations, the birth and death of suns and so on. Here a picture that I took of the iPad.

Ayers Rock - Spear and boomerang

G’Day mates,

After the sunrise viewing of the Uluru and the base walk in the morning we had breakfast in the Town Square of the resort and then got some lessons in how to throw a spear and a boomerang! Markus and I were not too bad at the spear at our first (and only) try (there were too many people to do another try as this daily activity is free of charge). Nobody hit the kangaroo though.

Ayers Rock - Sunrise

Greetings to the world,

On Friday morning at 4am (WHAT TIME????) it is fairly busy at the Ayers Rock Resort as the people get ready to see the sunrise. And today we had some cool 26 degrees Celsius! There were two coaches picking up people from the various hotels of the resort at 4:45am. We actually wanted to do the Desert Awakening Tour which would have been in a small group and at a secluded viewing area but that was booked out, so we had to go with the big crowd to the common viewing area. I paid our National Park tickets with the specially folded 50 AUD-note that my friend Karl gave to me (see here: 3 days left). Thanks a lot for that Karl!!! I know you have never been to the Ayers Rock and I think you should go there – but not in summer! After a 20 minute drive we arrived at the viewing ground and directly headed for the main platform at the highest point.

Ayers Rock - Camel riding to sunset

Palya to everybody,

This means ‘Hello’ in the Aborigine language of the Anangu. These are the ones who are the traditional owner of the land around Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). We left Cairns on Thursday the 2^nd of January 2014 very early in the morning. After a 2.5 hour flight we landed at the Ayers Rock Airport at 37 degrees Celsius! Oh yeah, that was really hot. On the courtesy bus transfer to the Ayers Rock Resort (where we are staying at the Outback Pioneer Hotel) we got told that it will get up to 43 degrees Celsius in the afternoon! Due to this heat in summer months we are advised to drink one liter of water per hour per person whilst outdoors! So we did our maths and after checking into our hotel we bought 27 liters of bottled water! And it is quite expensive even in the supermarket at the resort.