Feb 2011 the Red Centre

When Chris and some Danish friends decided to go to the Red Centre, I grabbed at the opportunity to go with them, I flew Bris-Syd-Alice and they flew Adelaide-Alice, they had been to Kangaroo Island, and that's now on my 'bucket' list. what was amazing was a clear view from my window seat of how much rain had fallen on the country below, I wanted them to see it as we all flew back to Sydney but no chance, it was cloudy and no visibility.
We landed in Alice and Reg met us,We had our own coach and tour guide, lucky I hadn't gone AAT - Australian Arthritic Tours, or APT - Australian Pensioner Tours. we had some time in Alice, and then headed out towards Kings Canyon with two stops at waterholes along the way. I even took the plunge in this water to swim across the water to hug one of the ancient gum trees. It was interesting to see everything green, the road flooded in places, how high the water had been up the tree trunks before we got there and wildflowers everywhere. Too many photos to put on the blog allowance.
























I haven't got a photo of Kings Canyon as I had forgotten to bring my camera that morning, but I can prove I climbed the 384 steps to the top and walked around the ridge and back to base. We saw where they filmed parts of 'Priscilla' as we walked through a gap at the top of Kings Canyon, and saw a sign with the history of the Red Centre, where some 'crackpots' have erased the time that Aboriginal people have been in Australia because it doesn't fit in with their story of creation and two large waterfalls. We had camped in tents in the middle of nowhere, went to an Aboriginal School were our kids and the kids from Denmark and the Dads played footie with the school kids, We journeyed on past Table Top mountain and the salt lake, (with lots of water) and arrived at Uluru. Lucky we had a more solid cabin as that night it poured and we had to walk through water to get to our breakfast hut, Seeing the Olgas with rain pouring on them was something different

















Next morning when we got up early for our walk in the Olgas, I managed to see this amazing waterfall. I marvelled how the rocks making up the Olgas and Uluru is like a cake mix of red flour and red currents, (pebbles and larger stones)





In the afternoon some of us went for a Helicopter ride across the Olgas and Uluru, Oskar was in the front seat of our helicopter and Carlo scored the front seat in the other one, we were lucky enough to see some camels from the air, and later while the Danish friends and me went to view the sunset over Uluru, (not a good one as there was too much cloud) Chris Alex and the boys went for a camel ride, I did marvel at the number of tourists with AAT and APT who went to view the sunset on the rock and had their back turned to the view while they scoffed wine and savouries.
Next morning it was up before sunrise to start our walk around the rock, and we saw rain falling over Uluru, but that made a completely different colour range from the normal sunrise. I loved how the rock has markings, such as this 'frog'








We made it around to the waterhole and then I got a surprise birthday party, which will start my next blog.