Well I am finally moving on from Santiago and about to make my way to the bottom of the world (well nearly!!). All went well in Santiago. I managed to learn some spanish - although I´m hoping I will improve with practice. I finally managed to start communicating with the people I am staying with, but not because I spoke spanish to them. A Brazilian girl moved into the flat as she is also here to study spanish. She also just happens to know some English - yeah!! I was so happy to see her. So now whenever I have a problem I tell her and she goes off to translate to our host. It turns out Portuguese is pretty similar to Spanish and they can understand each other. We also went shopping and using her speaking skills I managed to buy myself a new pair of trainers in the right size - this would not have been possible if I had been on my own. Unfortunately she has a job back home in Brazil so cannot take time off to follow me around South America and be my translator - oh well!!
Other than that I have been out on a few nights, which have always been fun. The interesting bits have been when I wanted to get home. I always get a taxi, but the problem is trying to tell them where I live. I live on one of the main roads in Santiago - in fact it runs through about half of Santiago, so when I tell the taxi drive to take me to Avenida Providencia he is like which part. So I quickly found out that living above a stripjoint (it turns out the to be the most popular one in Santiago) is very useful. So now I just say take me to Passapoga and surprisingly enough all the taxi drivers know where that is!! So over the weekend, after a night out, I caught a taxi and said exactly that, and in reply the taxi driver asked (with a smile on his face) if I worked there!! I quickly said ´no no no no no no` and managed to tell him that I infact just lived in the apartments above - he wasn´t as impressed with that and his smile disapeared after that!! So I am pretty glad that I now know some spanish, as before whenever anyone used to speak to me I would just nod my head and say ´si` - this could have lead to a rather embarrasing situation!!
Anyway, I am off now to by a big, thick jacket as I still don´t own one and it is apparently very cold at the bottom of the world. Unfortunately I can´t drag the Brazilian girl with me as she is at spanish school this morning, so I am going to have to work this out myself - should be interesting!
Where I have been...
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Santiago, Chile
Monday 24th July was the longest day of my life!! It lasted 40 hours - and I was awake for 32 of those!! Before you think I have gone crazy, or somehow invented a way of making days longer, I will explain. New Zealand is 16 hours ahead of Chile, therefore the usual 24 hour day had an extra 16 hours added onto it. Which meant I arrived in Santiago (after a 12 hour flight) 4 hours before I left New Zealand!! I did not manage to sleep on the plane as it was a very bumpy flight and the flight attendants kept running around the plane every hour telling everyone to put back on their seatbelts, so there was little chance of getting any sleep! Needless to say, we arrived safe and sound, and I managed to get through customs with no problems. But the minute I stepped outside the airport I was jumped on by about 20 Chileans shouting taxi at me!! I had been told which company to go for so I found them, and then went to get some pesos from the ATM. I was then stalked by the guy who represented the taxi company I was going to get a lift into the city with. He was terrified someone else might lure me away and he would lose all of USD$9!!
Eventually I got to the hostel I was staying at, and was shown my room which turned out to be a shoebox!! It had a small single bed in it and just about enough room for me to squeeze my backpack next to it!! At this stage I was too tired to care and I still had 8 hours more to stay up before I could go to bed. I managed to occupy myself, as well as make some Irish friends who very kindly fed me dinner. They also fed me the following night as well as I was clearly too useless to venture out and find food for myself (I don´t speak spanish!!).
The next day I went to the Spanish Language School to enquire about Spanish lessons and a place to stay for the next 3 weeks. They were very kind and sent me off to visit a homestay. For those of you who don´t know, a homestay is where a family rent out a room in their house/flat. I met the lady, who I quickly found out spoke no English, and since I didn´t speak any spanish, everything became very interesting and confusing!! As I didn´t really understand what she was saying, I decided the best thing was to go back to the language school. I then got the lady there to call up the homestay lady and confirm everything - it worked a treat!!
On the Wednesday I moved into the homestay and also started my spanish lessons - this was my most exciting day so far!! It turned out that where I was now staying was actually above a strip-joint. Luckily I haven´t come across anything as it is underground and I am on the 8th floor of an apartment building. The people I am staying with also have a small boy who I think is about 4-5 years old. At first I thought he was cute, now I think he is just plain irritating!! He keeps coming into my room, throwing things around and taking things - grrrrr!! Plus its not like he goes to bed at 8pm like most kids, noooo, he stays up till gone midnight, so its not like you get any peace and quiet!! All in all though, the room is nice (and its a lot better than staying in a hostel), and I get breakfast and dinner, so I don´t have to cook - yeah!!
Other than attending the spanish school I haven´t really been doing much. Everytime I have a problem speaking to the lady I´m staying with, I make my way back to the school and get them to call her - its just brilliant!! I do have to mention that I am getting far too much attention. I have a 20 minute walk to the school everyday and people always stare, or try to talk to me, and its driving me crazy. All because I have blonde hair and I stick out like a sore thumb! I am seriously considering dying my hair or buying a wig!!
I have another week of spanish left, and then I have to fend for myself which should be really interesting!! I am really looking forward to leaving Santiago as its not that nice a place and there is not much to see. Also the pollution here is hurendous! Everyday I go out I get a massive headache and my eyes and throat burn - just wonderful!! The city is surrounded by snow-covered moutains, not that you would know most of the time because the smog hides that! Also the weather in general hasn´t been that great (I´m used to Australia!!). It was torrential rain the day I arrived and since then it has been cloudy and very cold - I have still yet to buy a jacket! I head south in just over a week and apparently it will get a lot colder - yeah!!
Eventually I got to the hostel I was staying at, and was shown my room which turned out to be a shoebox!! It had a small single bed in it and just about enough room for me to squeeze my backpack next to it!! At this stage I was too tired to care and I still had 8 hours more to stay up before I could go to bed. I managed to occupy myself, as well as make some Irish friends who very kindly fed me dinner. They also fed me the following night as well as I was clearly too useless to venture out and find food for myself (I don´t speak spanish!!).
The next day I went to the Spanish Language School to enquire about Spanish lessons and a place to stay for the next 3 weeks. They were very kind and sent me off to visit a homestay. For those of you who don´t know, a homestay is where a family rent out a room in their house/flat. I met the lady, who I quickly found out spoke no English, and since I didn´t speak any spanish, everything became very interesting and confusing!! As I didn´t really understand what she was saying, I decided the best thing was to go back to the language school. I then got the lady there to call up the homestay lady and confirm everything - it worked a treat!!
On the Wednesday I moved into the homestay and also started my spanish lessons - this was my most exciting day so far!! It turned out that where I was now staying was actually above a strip-joint. Luckily I haven´t come across anything as it is underground and I am on the 8th floor of an apartment building. The people I am staying with also have a small boy who I think is about 4-5 years old. At first I thought he was cute, now I think he is just plain irritating!! He keeps coming into my room, throwing things around and taking things - grrrrr!! Plus its not like he goes to bed at 8pm like most kids, noooo, he stays up till gone midnight, so its not like you get any peace and quiet!! All in all though, the room is nice (and its a lot better than staying in a hostel), and I get breakfast and dinner, so I don´t have to cook - yeah!!
Other than attending the spanish school I haven´t really been doing much. Everytime I have a problem speaking to the lady I´m staying with, I make my way back to the school and get them to call her - its just brilliant!! I do have to mention that I am getting far too much attention. I have a 20 minute walk to the school everyday and people always stare, or try to talk to me, and its driving me crazy. All because I have blonde hair and I stick out like a sore thumb! I am seriously considering dying my hair or buying a wig!!
I have another week of spanish left, and then I have to fend for myself which should be really interesting!! I am really looking forward to leaving Santiago as its not that nice a place and there is not much to see. Also the pollution here is hurendous! Everyday I go out I get a massive headache and my eyes and throat burn - just wonderful!! The city is surrounded by snow-covered moutains, not that you would know most of the time because the smog hides that! Also the weather in general hasn´t been that great (I´m used to Australia!!). It was torrential rain the day I arrived and since then it has been cloudy and very cold - I have still yet to buy a jacket! I head south in just over a week and apparently it will get a lot colder - yeah!!
Monday, July 23, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Return to New Zealand
I'm sorry I haven't written for a while, but I figured my last 3 weeks in Sydney would be very boring to write about. All I was really doing was catching up people, saying my goodbyes and doing last minute shopping and packing - not that exciting me thinks!! But I had a lovely time and I am very sad to be leaving Sydney and Australia where I had a fantastic year and met some brilliant people.
Although I did do a day trip to Canberra which was ok, not the most exciting place on the planet! But I did discover where all the kangaroos have gone! I have very rarely seen any kangaroos on the east and south coasts of Australia and now I know why - they are all hiding out in the ACT! So if anybody comes to visit Australia and all you want to do is see kangaroos then I suggest you go to Canberra, but don't stay too long as there is not a lot to do there!!
I am now back in New Zealand and it has been exactly as I expected - wet and cold!! I have been told it has been one of the worst winters they have had in a long time - just my luck!! I was lucky to stay with some family friends (The Rishworths) for my first 5 days in Auckland. They have been absolutely lovely and took me to their 'summer' house which is an hour north of Auckland. It is such a lovely place and they have their own beach - I am so jealous!! I then hired a car for 4 days and headed up into the Northland. When I visited NZ last year we only made it as far as Auckland, so this time I thought I would venture further! The first day it was torrential rain, so that made driving interesting, at some points I could just see beyond the bonnet! I got all the way up to the Bay of Islands which is definitely the highlight of the Northlands. I found myself a nice backpackers and settled in for the night. The next morning was glorious. I booked myself onto a boat trip around the Bay of Islands. It was so beautiful out there. We even came across two pods of dolphins who were only too happy to jump around in the water for us. The following day I did a lot of driving. I drove all the way up to Cape Regina which is the top of NZ. Surprisingly enough it was a lovely day and the scenery was amazing. I drove in a large circle and eventually made my way back to Wangarai (pronounced 'fangarai' - don't ask me why!). The next day I went back to Auckland, where that evening I met up with Kylie and Chris who I had met back in the UK when I worked for Morgan Stanley. We had a lovely evening and it was great catching up with people I knew.
I am now preparing to leave NZ and fly to Chile tomorrow. I am very excited about it, but a bit worried as well. I have yet to learn any spanish despite carrying around with me 3 spanish books for the last 18 months. I am hoping to do a spanish course once I arrive which I hope will make things easier!! Oh well we shall see how things go...
Although I did do a day trip to Canberra which was ok, not the most exciting place on the planet! But I did discover where all the kangaroos have gone! I have very rarely seen any kangaroos on the east and south coasts of Australia and now I know why - they are all hiding out in the ACT! So if anybody comes to visit Australia and all you want to do is see kangaroos then I suggest you go to Canberra, but don't stay too long as there is not a lot to do there!!
I am now back in New Zealand and it has been exactly as I expected - wet and cold!! I have been told it has been one of the worst winters they have had in a long time - just my luck!! I was lucky to stay with some family friends (The Rishworths) for my first 5 days in Auckland. They have been absolutely lovely and took me to their 'summer' house which is an hour north of Auckland. It is such a lovely place and they have their own beach - I am so jealous!! I then hired a car for 4 days and headed up into the Northland. When I visited NZ last year we only made it as far as Auckland, so this time I thought I would venture further! The first day it was torrential rain, so that made driving interesting, at some points I could just see beyond the bonnet! I got all the way up to the Bay of Islands which is definitely the highlight of the Northlands. I found myself a nice backpackers and settled in for the night. The next morning was glorious. I booked myself onto a boat trip around the Bay of Islands. It was so beautiful out there. We even came across two pods of dolphins who were only too happy to jump around in the water for us. The following day I did a lot of driving. I drove all the way up to Cape Regina which is the top of NZ. Surprisingly enough it was a lovely day and the scenery was amazing. I drove in a large circle and eventually made my way back to Wangarai (pronounced 'fangarai' - don't ask me why!). The next day I went back to Auckland, where that evening I met up with Kylie and Chris who I had met back in the UK when I worked for Morgan Stanley. We had a lovely evening and it was great catching up with people I knew.
I am now preparing to leave NZ and fly to Chile tomorrow. I am very excited about it, but a bit worried as well. I have yet to learn any spanish despite carrying around with me 3 spanish books for the last 18 months. I am hoping to do a spanish course once I arrive which I hope will make things easier!! Oh well we shall see how things go...
Saturday, June 23, 2007
The next part of my adventure!!
Well I am sure you are all exciting to hear about my next adventure, I can't wait to go anyway!! For those of you who don't know how this all came about I shall elaborate... While I was looking for a way to get back to the UK, I found that it was actually cheaper to buy another round the world trip and therefore visit the countries I wanted to see before I came home plus some more!! So I have spent the last couple of months planning where I wanted to go (it only took this long as I was trying to do it while travelling the west coast, and with time difference, my agent pouring hot water on his hands and another agent going on an extended holiday, it took a bit of a mission to book, but I finally got it done and picked up my tickets yesterday!!). So I bet you are all dying to find out where I am going now!!!!
I leave Sydney, Australia on July 12th 2007 and fly to Auckland, New Zealand. As I am sure many of you remember, I have already been to New Zealand, but it actually costs me no extra to stop here for a while and I figured why not. Now that I have thought about it, I can think of a few reasons as to why not... To start it will be the middle of their winter and therefore bl**dy cold!! But on the positive side I will hopefully be able to visit the very north of the north island which I didn't get to see the first time around (although, this is apparently a lot nicer to see during the summer, oh well!!), and of course more importantly I will be in an English speaking country when the lastest and final installment of Harry Potter comes out. I am of course relying on the fact that the book is being released the same time it is everywhere else in the world, but this is New Zealand and may not be the case - fingers crossed though!!
From New Zealand I will then fly to Santiago, Chile. I will then spend the next 4 1/2 months travelling around South America (if all goes to plan!). I will hopefully be going to Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. I will then fly from Brazil to Madrid, Spain and then onto the UK. I have to do a stop over in Madrid and therefore I felt that I might as well spend a week there and hopefully meet up with a few people I know there when I did my TEFL course. I will then fly back into London - again bad timing as it will be the middle of winter, but at least I will be at home for Christmas :-) Now some of you might be mistaken for thinking that since I am home then that would be the end of my trip - you would be wrong. I figured that one month would be enough before I felt the dia need to travel again. So in the middle of January I will fly to Barcelona and then onto Egypt where I will hopefully do some diving which I am really looking forward to. After a month away I will return to the UK again for my birthday. I figured you guys are really upset about missing my last 2 birthdays!!! So I shall be at home for this one! I will then take off again in March and head to India, then Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and China. I have given 4 months for this, but who knows. After that I am supposed to return to Sydney in the middle of July, but I am yet unsure as to what I will do. It's a year away so I figured I have a bit of time to think of something!!
If anyone is planning on doing some travel to any of these places, let me know and maybe we can meet up...
Wish me luck...
I leave Sydney, Australia on July 12th 2007 and fly to Auckland, New Zealand. As I am sure many of you remember, I have already been to New Zealand, but it actually costs me no extra to stop here for a while and I figured why not. Now that I have thought about it, I can think of a few reasons as to why not... To start it will be the middle of their winter and therefore bl**dy cold!! But on the positive side I will hopefully be able to visit the very north of the north island which I didn't get to see the first time around (although, this is apparently a lot nicer to see during the summer, oh well!!), and of course more importantly I will be in an English speaking country when the lastest and final installment of Harry Potter comes out. I am of course relying on the fact that the book is being released the same time it is everywhere else in the world, but this is New Zealand and may not be the case - fingers crossed though!!
From New Zealand I will then fly to Santiago, Chile. I will then spend the next 4 1/2 months travelling around South America (if all goes to plan!). I will hopefully be going to Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. I will then fly from Brazil to Madrid, Spain and then onto the UK. I have to do a stop over in Madrid and therefore I felt that I might as well spend a week there and hopefully meet up with a few people I know there when I did my TEFL course. I will then fly back into London - again bad timing as it will be the middle of winter, but at least I will be at home for Christmas :-) Now some of you might be mistaken for thinking that since I am home then that would be the end of my trip - you would be wrong. I figured that one month would be enough before I felt the dia need to travel again. So in the middle of January I will fly to Barcelona and then onto Egypt where I will hopefully do some diving which I am really looking forward to. After a month away I will return to the UK again for my birthday. I figured you guys are really upset about missing my last 2 birthdays!!! So I shall be at home for this one! I will then take off again in March and head to India, then Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and China. I have given 4 months for this, but who knows. After that I am supposed to return to Sydney in the middle of July, but I am yet unsure as to what I will do. It's a year away so I figured I have a bit of time to think of something!!
If anyone is planning on doing some travel to any of these places, let me know and maybe we can meet up...
Wish me luck...
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Sydney to Krambach
Well I arrived in Sydney safe and sound. It was weird being back, although kind of like coming home, as to be honest, this is the first time in 17months that I have gone back to somewhere I have spent a considerable amount of time in. Anyway, as always, I was greeted in the same way I always am when I come back to Sydney...... with rain!! And lots of it! As some of you might know, Australia is going through one of the worst droughts in history, and it just so chooses to start recovering the day I get back to the East Coast! Don't get me wrong, I am really happy it is raining here as I know they need it, but can't it rain somewhere else in Australia (anywhere but where I am!!) I come from a country that rains, I know what it looks like, I don't need to see it anymore!!
I only had one day in Sydney before I headed north up the coast. In that day I rushed around the city trying to sort everything out and looking more and more like a drowned rat in the process. I might add that I don't own an umbrella, rain jacket or in fact any jacket (far too bulky to pack!). But I did manage to sort out my next round the world trip which is very exciting. When I have time I will let you all know where I will be traveling to for the next year or so. I so can't wait :-)
I then caught a bus up to Nabiac which is a small town (or village by UK standards) 4 hours north of Sydney, where I will once again be spending time on a cattle farm. I was picked up by Keith and driven to his farm (some 2000 acres) in Krambach. Surprisingly enough it was still raining, so for the first few days we didn't do much as we couldn't get out as there was so much water. Although on my first night I was taken to another little village called Wingham by Ross (who works on the farm) along with David (another British person helping on the farm who is very strange indeed!) to do some dancing. I'm sure all of you have heard and seen on TV these people who get together and go to the local town hall one evening a week and do some dancing and that most of these people tend to be retired. Well guess what - that is exactly where I went!! I have to say it was a very interesting night and I did get to try out lots of dancing although my waltz was a little to be desired!! Other than that I have just been driving a tractor and building a cattle yard. Yes, I am now an excellent tractor driver, I can move the fork lift and everything!! I have also built wooden fences (which hopefully the bulls won't break out of now!!) I have to say that the finished result does look petty impressive!!
I am now heading back to Sydney where I will spend my final 3 weeks saying goodbye to everyone and hopefully doing everything that I haven't managed to do yet - we shall see. I know some of you will be glad to hear that it is snowing in parts of Australia at the moment. The weather is absolutely terrible, although in the space of 2 weeks, Sydney went from a desperate state of terrible drought to better than it has been in 40 years or so!! I just hope the sun comes out for my last couple of weeks - keep your fingers crossed!!
I only had one day in Sydney before I headed north up the coast. In that day I rushed around the city trying to sort everything out and looking more and more like a drowned rat in the process. I might add that I don't own an umbrella, rain jacket or in fact any jacket (far too bulky to pack!). But I did manage to sort out my next round the world trip which is very exciting. When I have time I will let you all know where I will be traveling to for the next year or so. I so can't wait :-)
I then caught a bus up to Nabiac which is a small town (or village by UK standards) 4 hours north of Sydney, where I will once again be spending time on a cattle farm. I was picked up by Keith and driven to his farm (some 2000 acres) in Krambach. Surprisingly enough it was still raining, so for the first few days we didn't do much as we couldn't get out as there was so much water. Although on my first night I was taken to another little village called Wingham by Ross (who works on the farm) along with David (another British person helping on the farm who is very strange indeed!) to do some dancing. I'm sure all of you have heard and seen on TV these people who get together and go to the local town hall one evening a week and do some dancing and that most of these people tend to be retired. Well guess what - that is exactly where I went!! I have to say it was a very interesting night and I did get to try out lots of dancing although my waltz was a little to be desired!! Other than that I have just been driving a tractor and building a cattle yard. Yes, I am now an excellent tractor driver, I can move the fork lift and everything!! I have also built wooden fences (which hopefully the bulls won't break out of now!!) I have to say that the finished result does look petty impressive!!
I am now heading back to Sydney where I will spend my final 3 weeks saying goodbye to everyone and hopefully doing everything that I haven't managed to do yet - we shall see. I know some of you will be glad to hear that it is snowing in parts of Australia at the moment. The weather is absolutely terrible, although in the space of 2 weeks, Sydney went from a desperate state of terrible drought to better than it has been in 40 years or so!! I just hope the sun comes out for my last couple of weeks - keep your fingers crossed!!
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Darwin to Alice Springs to Ayers Rock
What a week I've had!! It all started early one morning in Darwin. Kelly and I had to get up at 4.30am to pack and check-out of our hostel in time to catch our tour bus down to Alice Springs. Well I have to say we did a pretty good job considering we didn't go to bed till late and I only got 2 hours sleep!! So as you can probably guess I was in a brilliant mood to start off with!! We sat around waiting and waiting (this seems to be fast becoming one of my favourite past-times!!), eventually the bus turned up (it turned out the driver couldn't find the hostel - I don't know how he missed it, its on the only main road in Darwin with a bit YHA sign outside it!!). To top it off the tour guide (Luke) was far too chirpy and happy for that time of the morning! So we just chucked our bags into the trailer, found some empty seats and tried to ignore him and get some rest!! This proved easier said than done. To start off with I had a middle-aged Icelandic guy sitting opposite me who insisted on staring at me - this became rather spooky after a while. I kept whispering to Kelly that he was freaking me out and eventually he got the message because after 5 hours he eventually changed seats - thank god!! On our first day we headed to Katherine Gorge which was pretty! As it was a very hot day Kelly and I opted out of climbing a huge rock to see over the gorge and did a boat ride down the gorges instead. We got to see a fresh water crocodile (they apparently don't eat people, but I wasn't about to test that theory!!), a turtle and rocks! There isn't much to see between Darwin and Alice Springs, just some rocks which they call the Devil's Marbles and a pub! We eventually managed to make it to Alice Springs unscathed - that is without hitting any wild kangaroos, cows or camels! We went out that night in Alice - a final farewell to our group. I did send a text out to some of you as I was in this pub/club place that broadcasted live over the net. So the lucky few who were close to a computer at the time got to see me drinking and 'dancing' -I hope you enjoyed it!
The next morning we were off on our trip to Ayers Rock. This time we didn't have such a good group. There was a dutch couple where the guy was just rude, and then 3 Asians who's English wasn't that good so the conversations were mostly one way. Luckily we were saved by our tour guide - Will (aw yeah!!) who was in fact English but had been in Australia for 6 years and was therefore mostly Aussie!! At least he looked like it, dressed up like Steve Urwin, wearing a cowboy hat and using so much Aussie slang that Kelly and I spent most of the time taking the piss out of him!! Anyway he made the trip as he was pretty much the only one we could have a decent conversation with. Although, he was a huge liar!! On our first night he told us that there were no tents and therefore we had to sleep outside with a swag and a sleeping bag. For those of you who don't know a swag is like a canvas bag with pretty much a piece of foam as a mattress inside. I might add it's not very comfortable (therefore I requested I slept with two!) and not very warm. I know most of you might be mistaken in thinking that Australia is a hot country and this would especially be the case in the middle of the desert! Well you would be wrong. For a start it is winter here right now and in the outback it gets very very cold - it was 2 degrees Celsius when we were there at night. I had 2 swags, 2 sleeping bags and 7 layers of clothes on just so that I felt slightly warm sleeping outside. We also had to contend with the fact that there were wild creatures about - i.e. dingoes, snakes, spiders and any other nasty creatures. This did not make sleeping on the first night very easy!! Luckily for us we were not bothered by any of these, but Will did get a thrill out of telling us that not so long ago he had a snake at his camp site and also that a dingo bit him on his foot while he was sleeping - Oh how I felt so much better about the whole thing!! Anyway, going back to the story - when we woke up the following morning we found that there were in fact tents that we could have slept in - so thanks Will!! Although I have to say that despite being tricked into sleeping outside I did enjoy the experience - but I think I would prefer to camp during the spring when it is slightly warmer!
So the reason we were going through this crazy camping was to see Ayers Rock (Uluru) which we did. We walked around it - it took us 2 1/2 hours - its pretty big! We also got to see King's Canyon and the Olgas. It was all amazing and beautiful and I must have about 300 photos now of red rocks sticking out of the ground - during sunrise, daytime and sunset! Once our 3 1/2 days was over Will kindly drove us back to Alice Springs (some 5 hours away!). The following day Kelly and I parted ways. She was off on a 3-day trip to Cairns (I wouldn't mention the fact to her that you can fly there in little over an hour for the same price!). I spent the day in Alice Springs which I slightly regretted as there is absolutely nothing to do there. I know I was warned but I thought that the place could at least occupy somebody for a day - I was wrong. I did manage to find the baby kangaroo rescue center where I got to hold a baby kangaroo called Uluru who was only 6 months old. He was very cute and more importantly very warm (Its still cold!!). It was then time for me to leave the outback and head back to civilisation.
The next morning we were off on our trip to Ayers Rock. This time we didn't have such a good group. There was a dutch couple where the guy was just rude, and then 3 Asians who's English wasn't that good so the conversations were mostly one way. Luckily we were saved by our tour guide - Will (aw yeah!!) who was in fact English but had been in Australia for 6 years and was therefore mostly Aussie!! At least he looked like it, dressed up like Steve Urwin, wearing a cowboy hat and using so much Aussie slang that Kelly and I spent most of the time taking the piss out of him!! Anyway he made the trip as he was pretty much the only one we could have a decent conversation with. Although, he was a huge liar!! On our first night he told us that there were no tents and therefore we had to sleep outside with a swag and a sleeping bag. For those of you who don't know a swag is like a canvas bag with pretty much a piece of foam as a mattress inside. I might add it's not very comfortable (therefore I requested I slept with two!) and not very warm. I know most of you might be mistaken in thinking that Australia is a hot country and this would especially be the case in the middle of the desert! Well you would be wrong. For a start it is winter here right now and in the outback it gets very very cold - it was 2 degrees Celsius when we were there at night. I had 2 swags, 2 sleeping bags and 7 layers of clothes on just so that I felt slightly warm sleeping outside. We also had to contend with the fact that there were wild creatures about - i.e. dingoes, snakes, spiders and any other nasty creatures. This did not make sleeping on the first night very easy!! Luckily for us we were not bothered by any of these, but Will did get a thrill out of telling us that not so long ago he had a snake at his camp site and also that a dingo bit him on his foot while he was sleeping - Oh how I felt so much better about the whole thing!! Anyway, going back to the story - when we woke up the following morning we found that there were in fact tents that we could have slept in - so thanks Will!! Although I have to say that despite being tricked into sleeping outside I did enjoy the experience - but I think I would prefer to camp during the spring when it is slightly warmer!
So the reason we were going through this crazy camping was to see Ayers Rock (Uluru) which we did. We walked around it - it took us 2 1/2 hours - its pretty big! We also got to see King's Canyon and the Olgas. It was all amazing and beautiful and I must have about 300 photos now of red rocks sticking out of the ground - during sunrise, daytime and sunset! Once our 3 1/2 days was over Will kindly drove us back to Alice Springs (some 5 hours away!). The following day Kelly and I parted ways. She was off on a 3-day trip to Cairns (I wouldn't mention the fact to her that you can fly there in little over an hour for the same price!). I spent the day in Alice Springs which I slightly regretted as there is absolutely nothing to do there. I know I was warned but I thought that the place could at least occupy somebody for a day - I was wrong. I did manage to find the baby kangaroo rescue center where I got to hold a baby kangaroo called Uluru who was only 6 months old. He was very cute and more importantly very warm (Its still cold!!). It was then time for me to leave the outback and head back to civilisation.
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