Copyright 2005 -- Rachel Saunders

The Red Center


Agra is believedsite of an ancient Hindu Kingdom, but the city
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December 19, 2004:
What a whirlwind. It is amazing how much I have seen and it has just been a few days. You know, in the real world weeks will pass and not much will have changed. I was sooo used to doing the same thing every day and here I am ... no two days is alike.

I think that I last wrote about driving into Brisbane -- which was a very long trip. The hardest part of the entire trip down was the last bit. There I was driving along about an hour outside of Brisbane and I had no idea how I was supposed to get to where I was staying. I was supposed to stay in a hostel in the city center, but I didn't have a clue where it was or how to get there. I was driving an ocean liner car because the car rental company gave me the big car instead of the little honda I was supposed to have cus they ran out of those. So with my ocean liner, I was trying to navigate an unfamiliar highway towards an unfamiliiar city with exits that I didn't know to find a street that I had never seen. I literally was driving by instinct because the only maps that I had were the city center map in the lonely planet guidebook and the queensland state map. I didn't seem to have any information that demonstrated what you do from the great Bruce Highway to get to the cuty center map.

Journal Continued:
Somehow, I made it. I was so thrilled when I saw the hostel... in all of its incredibly grimy glory. I think that I mentioned already-- I had to leave the hostel by 4am to catch the flight and I didn't sleep much because 1) I was worried about finding the airport ok 2) the hostel and its 18-24 year old occupants were rockin' 3) there was a street lamp outside of my window 4) it was 100 degrees and 99% humidity.

In any case, the way to the airport was completely clear with street signs guiding my way. And noone else was on the road.. Why would they be? Well that isnt entirely true. There were several semi trains out on the road as they aren't allowed on the roads in cities during the day. The semi trains are like our semi trucks but with 3 and 4 trailers. It is quite an arresting sight.

From there, it was smooth sailing. I arrived in Alice Springs, stepped out of the plane and into an oven. Now, I was glad because it was a dry heat. But it was incredibly hot. It was naked Africa hot. It was fry an egg on the sidewalk hot. It was approaching the surface of the sun hot. It is the sort of place that you literally do as little as possible during the day. So, in keeping with that, I went to see a movie and didn't reemerge from the cool of the theater until evening.
Above: Uluru in the evening sun.

Left: The red sand near Uluru.

Below: The Olgas, beautiful and bizarre mounds.

Journal Continued:
Day 1-- Drive to Uluru -- Despite the fact that Alice Springs is the staging area for all of these outback adventures... it is still about 5 hours driving time away from the sights. So I jump on the bus at 6am and 5 hours later me and the others tumble out of the air conditioned bus into a camp that is broiling in the sun... expected to be active, set up camp, prepare lunch, etc. I instantly lost my appetite... stripped away by the intense heat. We had a time table to keep to though... set up camp, eat lunch, and head off to Uluru to watch the sunset. About 30 minutes before sunset we headed to Uluru. It was amazing. I would look at it, high in the horizon from a distance and think that we were quite close... and still we would be very far away. Then we would drive further and still we would be far away. No words can even begin to describe how odd a site it is.

Journal Continued:
As we watched the sunset, we were told the Aboriginal creation story -- a little hard to believe if you ask me, but whatever. Anyway, two creation children were playing in a mud puddle and started to build a mud mound. They kept on working on the mud mound until it was big enough to climb on. They climbed on it and made it even bigger, then slid off the side leaving finger marks as they slid down. Now, having walked around the red rock... 8km around... it is very hard to believe that that much mud could come out of the tiny little mud puddle that sit at the base on one side. But I guess it is possible. We walked around watching the rock turn from a rich orange to a deep red and the sun fell below the horizon.
Journal Continued:
You know, a picture wouldn't even give you hint of how amazing Uluru is. Before, I was thinking... how interesting can it be... it is just a rock. The strangeness of it rising out of the flat desert plain is what is most amazing. Plus the color of the rock and the surrounding dusty sand. I hear that there is a great deal of Iron in the dirt around there, so everything has this beautiful reddish color.. making everything feel that much hotter .. in fact the earth looks as though it is on fire. And with the heat, if feels like it is on fire.

Day 2: Uluru and Olgas.
Sleep didn't last long. We were woken up at 3:30am to eat breakfast and rush off to Uluru (Ayre's rock) to walk around the base. It was a really nice walk -- we did it as a group and just enjoyed walking around it as the sun came up -- bringing out the intense color of the exterior of the rock. From there, we drove to the Olgas. the Olgas is a set of mound shaped rocks... or worn down mountains. We hiked into the valley created in the center of the Olgas... by the time we started that hike, 9am, it was already really hot. By 11, when the hike was finished, we it was like a sauna. Despite the cool rock formations and amazing views, I was eager to jump into the air con bus and get out of the sun.
Journal Continued:
Day 3 -- Kings Canyon and Back-- The Kings Canyon hike was actually very cool -- another rock formation in the middle of nowhere-- it rises out of the plains and then you have all these mound formations and you walk along there and suddenly there is a deep canyon in the middle that goes even below the level of the plain. There is a sheer drop in the center and the side of the sandstone rock is smoothe. It was a beautiful place and even though I missed the sunrise, the morning sun was cool and the sky was clear. It was a beautiful experience. We finished the hike around 9 and went back to the camp and sat around the pool. I was lathered in sunscreen and still I got a little pinky on my belly. The sun is soooo strong in OZ.

Of course, if you drive there, you gotta drive back. So that was the latter part of the day.
Above: A rock formation in Kings Canyon.

Right: A Kangaroo, checking out the wandering tourists.

Below: The sheer cliff that surprises you as you walk along, dropping hundreds of feet to the bottom.
Journal Continued:
Day 3 -- Kings Canyon and Back-- The Kings Canyon hike was actually very cool -- another rock formation in the middle of nowhere-- it rises out of the plains and then you have all these mound formations and you walk along there and suddenly there is a deep canyon in the middle that goes even below the level of the plain. There is a sheer drop in the center and the side of the sandstone rock is smoothe. It was a beautiful place and even though I missed the sunrise, the morning sun was cool and the sky was clear. It was a beautiful experience. We finished the hike around 9 and went back to the camp and sat around the pool. I was lathered in sunscreen and still I got a little pinky on my belly. The sun is soooo strong in OZ.

Of course, if you drive there, you gotta drive back. So that was the latter part of the day.
Right: Kings Canyon with the sheer cliffs and eroded mounds.

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