Outback Campout

21 Feb - 28 Feb
Alice Springs & Outback Campout (Uluru/Ayers Rock)

One the the major icons of Australia is Uluru (the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock). There are many tour companies and different types of experiences you can buy. After discussing with a couple travel agents and a guy i met up in Cairns, I decided to to the long Outback trip of 5-days. Most of the others are day trips, 2-day, or 3-day. I am so glad i chose the longer trip and chose the tour company that was recommended because it was utterly excellent.

Most people fly into Alice Springs which is about in the center of the Australian continent, in the state of Northern Territory. Keep in mind that it is the middle of summer and we were camping in the desert. Actually, it is a semi-arid desert. There was a lot more green there than i expected. It is quite different from the American West.

I stayed in Alice Springs 2 days before and 1 day after the camp trip with Wayoutback. I got picked up outside my hostel at 6:25 am (I was the last of 9) and we hit the road towards Uluru. The desert is amazing. The sand is so [iron oxide] red. So basically, our group did the typical tourist attactions for the first two days of Uluru and Kata Tjuta which are relatively close to one another. The last 3 days we saw other rock formations and water holes that a lot of people do not get to see. Some of the places cannot even be reached without a 4x4 vehicle.

So basically, we looked at large masses of red rocks, walked for hours, sweated are butts off, drank lots of water, sweated more, contantly shooed black flies away, looked an more rocks, then set up camp usually near some place to swim for the night. We slept in what they call a swag. It is a canvas bag each that zips up on either side and has a body-size cushion inside. We slept under the stars for 4 nights. It was great. The first night i was really drunk; the second night i had nightmares are poisonous snakes, the third night i woke up in the starlight thinking there was a snake at the foot of my sway; and the forth night, i slept well with the aid of a few beers and a couple cups of wine. For three of the nights, we were in decent walking distance of a toilet and shower.

On the forth night, i made s'mores for everyone. No one had heard of them as i was the only American so i thought it would be a good experience. They weren't real s'mores because i could not find grahm crackers or Hershey's bars but i made do. Everyone seemed to like them but i didn't think they really tasted like s'mores. Oh well, i was a good time anyhow.

On the fifth day, one of my group buds, Jin, and I went in a helicopter ride. It was AWESOME!!!

Here are some highlight pictures from the Outback. I took so many photos, though. I was getting dubbed as the "Japanese tourist".