Beach Bum in the Desert
So I'm currently in Alice Springs - which really is in the middle of Oz. I'm here for another few hours before I fly back to Sydney. I'm in Sydney for the weekend and I have a bunch of friends coming up from Sydney to see me off, which I am VERY excited about. It's going to be bitter sweet. I'll love seeing them and then it'll be sad to fly to Hong Kong on Sunday night.
I've just spent the last few days in the Outback. It's been pretty phenomenal. I got into Alice Springs on Saturday night, which was sort of surreal. Leaving behind lush rainforests and beaches and most notably, warm weather - to find myself in the middle of a desert - lots and lots of red sand - in winter. Brrrrr....... There really isn't a whole lot to see in Alice Springs - pop'n of about 32,000, so I went to see Shrek 3 on Sat night which was awesome. I highly recommend it.
Over the next 5 days, I went on a pretty flash camping tour. Really nice 4WD vehicle with plush seats. Permanent tents and shower facilities. Surely, you didn't expect me to rough it that much. ;) We saw lots of beautiful sights. The desert has a lot more vegetation that I thought it would. There were lots of trees, little desert bushes, etc. We saw wild horses, camels, kangaroos, etc. There were also lots of annoying black flies....
We watched the sunset at Uluru the first day. Uluru - is the iconic big red rock in the middle of desert that I'm sure you've all seen pictures of. The big dilemma the next day whether to climb it. The Anagu aboriginal people in the area ask visitors not to climb it out of respect. I had no intention of climbing it until I talked to some other tourists who said it was amazing. It seemed to be quite the dilemma - some people thought it was culturally insensitive to climb it, others were saying it'd be amazing. I decided in the end to climb it, but unfortunately it was closed due to wind. Oh well... I guess the ancestral spirits won that day... That's okay, no regrets. And actually having met some Aboriginal people later on the tour - I'm really glad that I didn't get the chance to climb it. It really is a respect thing. While I might not share the religious beliefs of the aborigines, the least I can do is not climb their sacred mountain. Frankly, if it's that much of a big deal - I think they should just outright ban the climb instead of making a big thing out of it. You can even buy certificates that say "I didn't climb Uluru out of respect..." what a crock.
So we just walked the base of it at 7:00am, and it was freezing. I haven't been so cold in so long... it must've been just above 0 degrees. The next day, we climbed King Canyon's and it was amazing. I loved it! I think it was way better than Uluru.
Over the next few days, we did different walks through gorges, valleys, etc. It was sort of surreal walking through this landscape that was hundreds of millions of years old. In some places, I felt like I was walking in the footsteps of dinosaurs. It was so amazing. I"ll try to post some pics. And I loved being around the campfire each night and looking up into the night sky and seeing the Milky way.
Anywho, this will probably be my last post from Oz. After a brief layover in Hong Kong for a day on Monday, I'll be flying to Singapore to being a 3 week journey through Malaysia. Hurray!
Catch you boys and girls later.
I've just spent the last few days in the Outback. It's been pretty phenomenal. I got into Alice Springs on Saturday night, which was sort of surreal. Leaving behind lush rainforests and beaches and most notably, warm weather - to find myself in the middle of a desert - lots and lots of red sand - in winter. Brrrrr....... There really isn't a whole lot to see in Alice Springs - pop'n of about 32,000, so I went to see Shrek 3 on Sat night which was awesome. I highly recommend it.
Over the next 5 days, I went on a pretty flash camping tour. Really nice 4WD vehicle with plush seats. Permanent tents and shower facilities. Surely, you didn't expect me to rough it that much. ;) We saw lots of beautiful sights. The desert has a lot more vegetation that I thought it would. There were lots of trees, little desert bushes, etc. We saw wild horses, camels, kangaroos, etc. There were also lots of annoying black flies....
We watched the sunset at Uluru the first day. Uluru - is the iconic big red rock in the middle of desert that I'm sure you've all seen pictures of. The big dilemma the next day whether to climb it. The Anagu aboriginal people in the area ask visitors not to climb it out of respect. I had no intention of climbing it until I talked to some other tourists who said it was amazing. It seemed to be quite the dilemma - some people thought it was culturally insensitive to climb it, others were saying it'd be amazing. I decided in the end to climb it, but unfortunately it was closed due to wind. Oh well... I guess the ancestral spirits won that day... That's okay, no regrets. And actually having met some Aboriginal people later on the tour - I'm really glad that I didn't get the chance to climb it. It really is a respect thing. While I might not share the religious beliefs of the aborigines, the least I can do is not climb their sacred mountain. Frankly, if it's that much of a big deal - I think they should just outright ban the climb instead of making a big thing out of it. You can even buy certificates that say "I didn't climb Uluru out of respect..." what a crock.
So we just walked the base of it at 7:00am, and it was freezing. I haven't been so cold in so long... it must've been just above 0 degrees. The next day, we climbed King Canyon's and it was amazing. I loved it! I think it was way better than Uluru.
Over the next few days, we did different walks through gorges, valleys, etc. It was sort of surreal walking through this landscape that was hundreds of millions of years old. In some places, I felt like I was walking in the footsteps of dinosaurs. It was so amazing. I"ll try to post some pics. And I loved being around the campfire each night and looking up into the night sky and seeing the Milky way.
Anywho, this will probably be my last post from Oz. After a brief layover in Hong Kong for a day on Monday, I'll be flying to Singapore to being a 3 week journey through Malaysia. Hurray!
Catch you boys and girls later.
posted by John A @ 5:15 PM
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