Outback Adventures Part #2

Hey Everyone,

We left in the morning from Hawker to do our hike in Flinders Range. The day started off beautifully, but unfortunately, we got hit with heavy rain halfway up the mountain. Soaking wet and cold, we took quick pictures at the top and hurried down. We than began our drive to Quorn, the second town in Flinders Range we planned on camping. Unfortunately, because of the rain, we scrapped that idea and decided to stay in a hostel in Port Augusta, a nearby town. This hostel called itself the Flinders Hotel, and actually turned out to be quite a bit nicer than any hostel I had stayed in whether in Europe or Australia. The next morning was an especially long drive through the outback to the opal capital of the world, Coober Pedy. On the way, we stopped at a Salt Lake that definitely reminded me of the Dead Sea. When we arrived in Coober Peddy, we found out that there was an aboriginal reservation right near by. This was my first time in Australia coming into contact with indigenous Australians. Coober Pedy is a fascinating town because it has a sizable population living underground. In fact, the hostel we stayed at was underground. We also visited an underground Orthodox church that was very interesting. I also met a very friendly Belgian student who was doing a documentary for his university on the underground homes in Coober Pedy. He took a group of us up to the highest point in the town and pointed out where the Aboriginal reservation was located. The next morning we took a tour of an opal mine and of a luxurious underground home. The mine was very interesting, there was a small piece of opal in the rock with a sign next to it indicating that it was worth about 40,000 dollars. The home was beautiful and had a wine cellar and a pool. The woman who had originally owned it had it built when she first moved to Coober Peddy back in the 1970's. We than made our way even deeper in to the outback towards Uluru (the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock). The southern outback is incredibly flat with lots of brown shrubs and bushes. It stretches on for miles and miles west until you hit the mines of Western Australia. There were also stretches of highway where there was no one living within 400 miles of where we were. Over the horizon, a large landmass appeared. It was red and flat and seemed to be perfectly symmetrical. We got excited thinking that it was Uluru, but it turned out that we made the same mistake that thousands of other tourists make, it was Mt. Cook. When I read in the tour guide that Mt. Cook is three times the size of Uluru, I began to feel that I would be underwhelmed. However this was not to be the case. We arrived at the campsite for Uluru in the afternoon and immediately set up our tents. Since this is a popular tourist destination, there is a lot of space to camp as well as three hotels and a few restaurants. We than set out to seen sunset at Uluru, which is around a half hour from the tourist center. It was truly a special experience. Rising up from the Outback, Uluru looks like something from outer space. It is composed completely out of red sandstone, and is literally an "island mountain," the last remnant of a mountain range that eroded over time. We returned to our accommodations, and I decided that it was time for a shower. Lucky for me, the public showers were infested with insects. I saw centipedes, crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, and a green praying mantis as I showered that night. That night we all slept in our 13 person tent, yes, we had a 13 person tent. The next day was the longest hiking day. First we woke up at 5 in the morning to watch the sun rise on Uluru. It started out beautifully, but than unfortunately, the clouds came out and it was a little bit of a bummer. We then all made our way to Kata Tjuta, or The Olgas, the other special rock formation in this area of the outback. The Olgas are a series of large, bald, domed rock outcroppings located about a half hour drive from Uluru. The hike was an easy 3 hour loop through The Olga's. The only two things that made it unpleasant were the flies and the heat. After recuperating at the Aboriginal Heritage Center, we began our late afternoon hike around Uluru. This hike was very enjoyable because it allowed us to see exactly what Uluru looks like up close. It is completely red and steeply sloped. There were however certain rock walls that had long cracks in them which I assume had been caused by water over time. Later that night, a few friends and I were upset to discover that the gas jerrycan in our trunk had leaked. While my bag had been closed, one of my friends got gasoline all over their clothes. The rest of the night was spent scrubbing the trunk and airing it out. The next day was our last drive, from Uluru to Alice Springs. On the way, we stopped to help some Aboriginals whose car had broken down. Their tire had to be changed, and they didn't have a jack. We then stopped at King's Canyon, a beautiful canyon with lots of native wildlife. The hike was very tiring, but was made very special when we found the trail down to the waterhole in the center of the canyon. It was one of the best moments of the whole trip, swimming in that water for that hour and a half or so. We made it into Alice Springs very late at night, around 11:30, and had to wake up the hostel owners to get in. The next day was rainy, but I took part of the day to walk around Alice Springs. Frankly, it was depressing. There were a lot of poor Aboriginals begging on the street. We were in a art store looking for authentic aboriginal artwork and didgeridoos when a poor Aboriginal woman walked in trying to sell a piece of artwork. The shopkeeper basically threw the woman out of her store in a very aggressive fashion. It was very uncomfortable. It felt like a larger Coober Pedy, but with none of the charm. And now, 3 cool stories out of Australia. Carl Williams, one of the Australia's most notorious gangsters, was murdered in Australia's most secure prison. Since it took prison guards 25 minutes to find him, there is widespread speculation that corrupt policemen might have been behind his murder. Australia recently passed their version of universal health care. Public hospitals will now be funded out of Canberra instead of by the individual state governments. In sports, the Melbourne Storm, a national rugby league team, were stripped of their championships in 2007 and 2009 because they cheated the salary cap. They basically hid the fact that they were spending an extra 2 million a year on their players. Australians are calling it the biggest sports scandal in the nation's history. More to come...