Layers
Originally uploaded by Toytown Mafia.
At King's Canyon
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Adventure Tours day six - King's Canyon
On 31st May, we rejoined Adventure Tours on a new six day tour from Alice Springs to Adelaide. Since reaching Alice, the temperature had made a notable decline and it was back to wearing trousers and jumpers. It might seem strange, but the desert is a place of extremes and this was winter; 20C during the day, 2C at night.
For the first two days of our new tour, a two-day and our six-day group were combined, so we had a full bus as we drove south out of Alice Springs in the early hours of the morning. King's Canyon is part of the Watarrka National Park and was several hours away so we got there at about 8:30am.
Two walks were available at the Canyon, but almost all of us chose to do the 6km rim walk, taking us all the way around in a loop. King's Canyon is actually far more dangerous than the Uluru climb - over 30 people have died on the walk - but since it was winter we were perfectly safe unless we walked too close to the edge! The first part of the hike is an ascent up 'Heart Attack Hill', so called because it's the hardest part of the walk and claims the most casualties. We got up there without much hassle and from there you begin to appreciate how stunning the Canyon really is. Sheer cliffs rise from a inconceivably placed forest called 'The Garden of Eden' rich in plants and animals that seem so out of place in the desert.
The walk was excellent and we were introduced to the area's geological past as well as its stunning views. The was once an inland sea in Australia and you can still see fossilised ripples in sand at King's Canyon. After our hike, we had lunch at the campsite in King's Canyon Resort, then headed south to Uluru that afternoon. After a lengthy drive, we arrived at Yulara (the Ayer's Rock Resort town) after sunset and stayed the night at the campsite there, sleeping around the camp fire under the stars in swags.
For the first two days of our new tour, a two-day and our six-day group were combined, so we had a full bus as we drove south out of Alice Springs in the early hours of the morning. King's Canyon is part of the Watarrka National Park and was several hours away so we got there at about 8:30am.
Two walks were available at the Canyon, but almost all of us chose to do the 6km rim walk, taking us all the way around in a loop. King's Canyon is actually far more dangerous than the Uluru climb - over 30 people have died on the walk - but since it was winter we were perfectly safe unless we walked too close to the edge! The first part of the hike is an ascent up 'Heart Attack Hill', so called because it's the hardest part of the walk and claims the most casualties. We got up there without much hassle and from there you begin to appreciate how stunning the Canyon really is. Sheer cliffs rise from a inconceivably placed forest called 'The Garden of Eden' rich in plants and animals that seem so out of place in the desert.
The walk was excellent and we were introduced to the area's geological past as well as its stunning views. The was once an inland sea in Australia and you can still see fossilised ripples in sand at King's Canyon. After our hike, we had lunch at the campsite in King's Canyon Resort, then headed south to Uluru that afternoon. After a lengthy drive, we arrived at Yulara (the Ayer's Rock Resort town) after sunset and stayed the night at the campsite there, sleeping around the camp fire under the stars in swags.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Alice Springs
On May 29th, I had the first of a two free days in Alice Springs. After going on the Internet, Alex, Nina (the two German girls who were doing much of the same tour as me) and I went to the Royal Flying Doctors' Service with Andy, another guy on our tour.
Throughout the Outback there are people whose only link to medical services are by plane, some still up to two hours away. The Flying Doctors' basically acts like your GP and ambulance for thousands of people who wouldn't otherwise be able to have access to a hospital. After a look around the museum there, we saw a short film on the role of the Service and then were taken to see the control room by a guide. The whole thing was pretty informative and well worth a look, since it's so different to our health system at home whose transport problems are tiny compared to what these guys have to deal with.
We went up to Anzac Hill that evening to see the sunset and then went out to a couple of bars after dinner to meet up with a few others from our tour.
The next day we went for a walk down the (dry) river to the Telegraph Station before heading to the School of the Air. As you can imagine, it's not practical for a lot of children to commute to school each day because of the immense distances in the Outback, so kids have to remote learn over radio and the Internet. You'd think that the quality of education would be less by learning like that, but they actually get some of the best school results in the country, probably because the pupils aren't distracted so much. Once they get to secondary school, they have to go to a boarding school, so they don't miss out completely on social skills and the like. We had a short tour all to ourselves, so got the chance to have a really good look around and ask any questions we liked. It was all fairly impressive and informative, much more so than I expected.
Throughout the Outback there are people whose only link to medical services are by plane, some still up to two hours away. The Flying Doctors' basically acts like your GP and ambulance for thousands of people who wouldn't otherwise be able to have access to a hospital. After a look around the museum there, we saw a short film on the role of the Service and then were taken to see the control room by a guide. The whole thing was pretty informative and well worth a look, since it's so different to our health system at home whose transport problems are tiny compared to what these guys have to deal with.
We went up to Anzac Hill that evening to see the sunset and then went out to a couple of bars after dinner to meet up with a few others from our tour.
The next day we went for a walk down the (dry) river to the Telegraph Station before heading to the School of the Air. As you can imagine, it's not practical for a lot of children to commute to school each day because of the immense distances in the Outback, so kids have to remote learn over radio and the Internet. You'd think that the quality of education would be less by learning like that, but they actually get some of the best school results in the country, probably because the pupils aren't distracted so much. Once they get to secondary school, they have to go to a boarding school, so they don't miss out completely on social skills and the like. We had a short tour all to ourselves, so got the chance to have a really good look around and ask any questions we liked. It was all fairly impressive and informative, much more so than I expected.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Adventure Tours day five - The Devil's Marbles and on to Alice
On May 28th, we got up early and continued south along the Stuart Highway towards Alice Springs. Our first stop of the day was at The Devil's Marbles, a strange rock formation in the middle of the desert. Formed by millions of years of weathering, the field of 'marbles' stretches as far as the eye can see. After plenty of photo opportunities, we were back on the road until we got to the Wycliffe Well roadhouse - Australia's UFO capital - a bizarre little place full of extra-terrestrial memorabilia.
After that, it was on to Barrow Creek Telegraph Station, an example of what made the Stuart Highway as important as it was. Before Adelaide was linked with Darwin, messages took weeks to be delivered back to Britain, but with the telegraph line that joined the north and south of the country, this was reduced to days. Every few hundred miles, a telegraph station was built next to the line as a repeater station, with a few men manning and maintaining each. The sheer isolation and dangers of such a job must have been incredible.
Back on the bus, our driver spotted a parked road train, so we promptly pulled over and jumped out to take a few photos. It's pretty rare to see them stopped anywhere because it takes them half an hour to get back up to speed again, so we were especially lucky. Road trains are usually preferred to the rail link that now runs from Adelaide to Darwin because they can transport goods by road along the same route faster than by rail. Whether it's a job that any of us would contemplate doing is another matter!
Lunch was at an art gallery in Ti Tree, not far north of Alice. Although it seems like another little settlement on the never-ending Stuart Highway, this one has a somewhat infamous past. It was where Peter Falconio and his girlfriend were attacked in 2001, leading to his death while she escaped, with the killer recently put away for 28 years. We only found that out after we'd left town!
Our penultimate stop of the day was at the Tropic of Capricorn, before we arrived in Alice Springs at about 6pm that evening. A few of us checked into the YHA there and we met up later for a few drinks to end our Darwin to Alice trip.
After that, it was on to Barrow Creek Telegraph Station, an example of what made the Stuart Highway as important as it was. Before Adelaide was linked with Darwin, messages took weeks to be delivered back to Britain, but with the telegraph line that joined the north and south of the country, this was reduced to days. Every few hundred miles, a telegraph station was built next to the line as a repeater station, with a few men manning and maintaining each. The sheer isolation and dangers of such a job must have been incredible.
Back on the bus, our driver spotted a parked road train, so we promptly pulled over and jumped out to take a few photos. It's pretty rare to see them stopped anywhere because it takes them half an hour to get back up to speed again, so we were especially lucky. Road trains are usually preferred to the rail link that now runs from Adelaide to Darwin because they can transport goods by road along the same route faster than by rail. Whether it's a job that any of us would contemplate doing is another matter!
Lunch was at an art gallery in Ti Tree, not far north of Alice. Although it seems like another little settlement on the never-ending Stuart Highway, this one has a somewhat infamous past. It was where Peter Falconio and his girlfriend were attacked in 2001, leading to his death while she escaped, with the killer recently put away for 28 years. We only found that out after we'd left town!
Our penultimate stop of the day was at the Tropic of Capricorn, before we arrived in Alice Springs at about 6pm that evening. A few of us checked into the YHA there and we met up later for a few drinks to end our Darwin to Alice trip.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Warning
Warning
Originally uploaded by Toytown Mafia.
You won't find a sign like this at home, that's for sure!
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Adventure Tours day four - on to Juno Farm
On the 27th, we set off south again down the Stuart Highway, covering much of the same ground we had seen on the Desert Venturer trip days before. Our first stop was at Mataranka, where we went for a swim in the thermal pools, before continuing on to Daly Waters for a barbecue lunch. Our next break after that was at a roadhouse where we got to handle a few snakes and lizards, including a bearded dragon which was quite cool in both senses of the word (they're cold-blooded). Our overnight stay was at Juno horse farm, where Adventure Tours have another private permanent campsite. We slept in 'swags' that night, which are basically canvas sleeping bags with a mattress sewn into them. You sleep under the stars, inside your sleeping bag and swag, hoping not to wake up with a dangerous animal crawling all over you!
Friday, June 23, 2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)