Red Centre and the Top End
Ayers Rock. Uluru if you like. It's big. It's red. It's in the middle of bloody* nowhere. Nothing there at all. Oh, except, remember I mentioned that Alice Springs had flies? Well, now I know that Alice is where flies go when they want to get away from all the other flies that live at Ayers Rock. Jeez, there's millions of the buggers.
Many, many people went for the fashionable flynet look. I thought I'd go for the whole outback experience, develop the Alice Wave, and went sans flynet. It was tough, but on the whole, I managed it. Aren't I the hero eh?
Anyway, Ayers Rock is very nice and all. Saw it from a distance at sunset, then walked around it. From a purely aesthetic point of view, the Olgas (or Katja Tiju - maybe, something like that) were more beautiful. Sunset at the rock aren't quite the wilderness experience it may seem. There are heaps of tour groups, all serving some kind of champagne or the other, clammering to take piccies.
On to Kings Canyon, which was rather groovy, then three of us went on to camp at more remote locations, before heading back to Alice.
The trip up to Darwin was long, long, driving days. Still had time for a brief walk or two, but essentially having to travel over 500Km a day in a coach puts the mockers on any other activities. Got a good impression of how vast the landscape is though.
Then it was on to Lichfield and Kakadu national parks. Very beautiful, full of fantastic waterfalls and warm water swimming. And mosquitoes. Hell, for the first time in six months mossies bothered me at night. Not bad I suppose.
And then it was out of Darwin and on to Perth, and here I am now, staying with Steve. Raining hard at the moment, but I'm sure it will clear up.
*Heard that Australia Tourism's "Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign has been banned in the UK. Sorry if I bloody offended any bleedin' person there with the use of that "bloody". Oh, for the sake of whatever god you pray to; grow up UK. It's only a bloody word.
Many, many people went for the fashionable flynet look. I thought I'd go for the whole outback experience, develop the Alice Wave, and went sans flynet. It was tough, but on the whole, I managed it. Aren't I the hero eh?
Anyway, Ayers Rock is very nice and all. Saw it from a distance at sunset, then walked around it. From a purely aesthetic point of view, the Olgas (or Katja Tiju - maybe, something like that) were more beautiful. Sunset at the rock aren't quite the wilderness experience it may seem. There are heaps of tour groups, all serving some kind of champagne or the other, clammering to take piccies.
On to Kings Canyon, which was rather groovy, then three of us went on to camp at more remote locations, before heading back to Alice.
The trip up to Darwin was long, long, driving days. Still had time for a brief walk or two, but essentially having to travel over 500Km a day in a coach puts the mockers on any other activities. Got a good impression of how vast the landscape is though.
Then it was on to Lichfield and Kakadu national parks. Very beautiful, full of fantastic waterfalls and warm water swimming. And mosquitoes. Hell, for the first time in six months mossies bothered me at night. Not bad I suppose.
And then it was out of Darwin and on to Perth, and here I am now, staying with Steve. Raining hard at the moment, but I'm sure it will clear up.
*Heard that Australia Tourism's "Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign has been banned in the UK. Sorry if I bloody offended any bleedin' person there with the use of that "bloody". Oh, for the sake of whatever god you pray to; grow up UK. It's only a bloody word.
posted by Johnnie at Wednesday, March 22, 2006
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home