Flies everywhere!

Hi everyone! Sorry it has taken me awhile to update! The title of this post is telling, as there are flies EVERYWHERE in the Outback. Walking down the street, in restaurants, everywhere! Paula and I bought some fly spray and you could see several people with fly nets on.

Our dinner on Friday night was soooo nice! There were about 30 people there to send us off. The director and his family came and he gave us a big hug good-bye!

We arrived in Alice Springs on Saturday after a nice flight from Melbourne. I didn't get too much sleep the night before as we got back pretty late from our dinner and I have to finish packing! :) We knew immediately that we were getting ready to be in a totally different part of Australia once we got on the plane. About half of the passengers were Aboriginal and were traveling with their babies from Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital, where their babies had received treatment. It was pretty sad because we could tell that these babies were pretty sick!

Alice Springs is right smack in the middle of Australia and is the jumping point for traveling to the Kata Tjutas and Uluru (Ayres Rock). It is about 300 miles from Alice Springs to reach Uluru. The Outback is much, much drier than the rest of Australia and there is dust and red dirt everywhere. It makes for some beautiful, desolate looking pictures! On Saturday, we explored the town center, had some lunch, and came back to the hostel to relax.

That evening, I tried camel lasagna! Our hostel has wonderful $5 dinners and I decided to brave the camel. It tastes a lot like chicken, but is a little sweeter. You would be surprised how many camels there are in the Outback. There are over 1 million and many of them are ferrel.

Sunday morning we left at 6am for our two days trip to the Kata Tjutas and Uluru. I have to say that even though it is easy, I am pretty tired of eating oatmeal for breakfast! :) I keep telling myself that my cholesterol will be better after eating it every day!

We picked up several groups of people along our way and made our first stop at a camel farm. These camels did not look too excited to have someone on their back, but Paula and I decided to do a camel ride! :) Our camel, Rocky, was pretty nice, but when he got up, we had to lean sharply backwards to prevent falling off! The camel guide thought it would be fun to have the camel run for a bit, so Paula and I had a hysterical, bumpy camel ride. I just have to say that I don't think I could use a camel as long-distance transport. They are pretty stubborn. This other camel, Maya, got up while we were riding and got in big trouble from the trainer! :)

We had a very fun group with three couples from Australia, one from France, Germany, the Netherlands, England, and us from the US. Once we arrived to the Uluru area, we set up camp and made lunch. I have to say that it is funny to watch as each group of people fixed their lunch. There were slices of meat, bread, and condiments. Paula and I made sandwiches, the Australians ate the bread and meat separately and put beets on everything, and most of the Europeans put full salads on their bread and ate the meat separately. The tour we were on was very fun as we made our own food and slept in tents under the stars.

Our first stop was the Kata Tjutas, which is Aboriginal for 36 heads. When I upload my pictures, you will see that it looks like the rock formation has many heads. In 1986, the Kata Tjutas and Uluru were returned back to the Aboriginal people as the entire area has religious meaning for them. It had been under control of the Australian government for many years before it was returned to them. The Anangu are the Aboriginal tribe in the area of Uluru and the Kata Tjutas.

That evening, we had a feast of steak and Polish sausages. Miguel and Wal, two of the Australian retirees on our tour, took the task of barbequing our dinner and we got everything else fixed.

After dinner, we headed to Uluru (Ayres Rock) for the sunset. It was beautiful to watch as Uluru changed color as the sun went down behind the clouds. After sunset and a snack, we headed back to camp and got ready for the next day. It was quite a challenge to find anything in the dark, but luckily I had brought a torch (flashlight) with me. I have never seen a night sky as beautiful as that night. There were absolutely no lights and the stars looked brighter than I have ever seen.

The next morning we were up at 5am and headed for the sunrise over Uluru at 6am. We chose to do the 8km hike around the base of Uluru. It was kind of sad because you can actually climb Uluru, but the Anangu people prefer you not to. In their culture, the Mala (a mole that is the basis for their initial creation story) first climbed Uluru and brought the Aboriginals to the area. Unfortunately, many tourists still climb the rock, despite the wishes of the Aboriginal people.

Walking around Uluru was beautiful. It rains about once a year in the area and when it does, water is absorbed by the sandstone and cracks and honeycomb shapes are formed in the rock. As the sunrise hit the rock, it changed from a violet color to a deep rust red. In many of the caves used by the Aboriginal people, there are drawings telling their history.

After our walk, which took about 2-3 hours, we went to the Aboriginal Culture Center and listened to stories by an Aboriginal tour guide. It is also superstition that if anyone takes a rock or some sand from Uluru, they will have bad luck. There was a huge scrapbook of letters from all over the world of people who had returned what they had taken from the area, due to bad luck that had experienced.

We returned to camp for lunch and met another bus to take us back to Alice Springs as the rest of our group was continuing on for 5 days. We slept most of the way back as we were pretty tired from the walk and the 5am waking time.

Last night we decided to do a load of laundry to get some of the red dust out of our clothes and ate a feast of camel burritos, which was delicious!

This morning, we are heading to the Royal Flying Doctor's Museum (the service that connects medical service to everyone in the Outback) and then fly out to Cairns (beach and rainforest!) this afternoon. I hope you all are well and I will write again soon!