Alice Springs is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. So, being in the middle of nowhere Australia, it's pretty expensive to get to--as we discovered. The morning we flew back to Melbourne from Tassie we caught an overnight bus from Melbourne to Adelaide (for pretty cheap). We had been hoping to do our travels through the outback via relocation deals, as there were several sites offering relocation camper vans, but unfortunately we missed the one for the dates we need from Adelaide to Alice Springs, someone snagged it before we could check the internet during our day in Melbourne, so we had to go with Plan B instead. And Plan B was $500 worth of bus tickets on Greyhound for the 18-hour trip to Alice Springs. Ouch.
So the morning we arrived in Adelaide we had about 12 hours to kill at the bus terminal before we caught our subsequent overnight bus to Alice Springs. The bus depot was actually pretty okay--we found a spot on the end with some benches near a power outlet so we could watch movies on our computer, and since Adelaide is a major city we could get internet with our Pocket WiFi to sort out some more travel things. They also had a free shower at the bus depot which I once again took advantage of so I wouldn't have to go 48 hours without a shower. I have a 6th sense for places with showers apparently.
So we waited around the bus depot all day before boarding our Greyhound coach that night, which wasn't very crowded which meant I could lay down flat across two empty seats. We missed most of the scenery that night since it was dark, though at our 4 a.m. stop in Coober Peedy (which we had hoped to explore for a day on our own--most of the town--being in the middle of a desert--is underground) I couldn't help but take note of how WARM it was outside for the middle of the night in the desert.
We finally arrived in Alice Springs around 1 p.m. that afternoon and checked into our hostel. It was HOT. Really, really hot. Our walk to the grocery store, about 10 minutes down the street, was a sweaty, sweltering affair. We had been dreaming about the warm weather while we were shivering in our car in Cradle Mountain but this was just ridiculously HOT. Luckily our room at the hostel had air conditioning, which meant we at least got a decent night's sleep. Well, except for the snorer who of course occupied our room as well because apparently it's impossible for John and I to stay in a dorm room in Australia without one. It's like a plague. But the guy chose the top bunk above mine so both nights whenever he started to snore I would shake the bed a bit to jar him so we would stop. If I don't sleep, YOU don't sleep dude. But yes, two days in Alice Springs to plan the rest of our Oz travels was much needed--and we scored some relocation deals to get us to Darwin and Broome! Success!
But after two days of doing nothing and trying to stay cool, we picked up our Mini Camper and headed into the Tanami Desert toward Uluru! This was our first experience driving in the Outback and indeed, there really is nothing. Just dirt, and shrubs and road and cloudless blue sky. Our first stop was an area called Kings Canyon, located about 3 hours north of Uluru, and still just as remote. The walk there was around the rim of the canyon, which we began early in the day as the first part was a rather steep ascent up to the top of the rim. Luckily we had some wind to cool us down.
As we walked around the rim you definitely got the feel like you were stepping back in time. But it was still beautiful in it's remote, rugged, red and really really dusty way.
However we also passed by some rocks closer to the top that supported the notion that hundreds of millions of years ago there was a large inland lake in the area. Ripples in the rock that occur through water movement were preserved and evident.
That night we camped at a free campsite at a roadhouse about 80 Km away from Uluru. It was a great place to stop as they petrol and a small general store, and the campsite even had toilets and showers. The nights in Alice Springs were surprisingly cool given the immense heat during the day, but with no clouds in the sky and being relatively early in the wet season, the heat escapes rapidly as the sun goes down--making sleeping in a car that much more comfortable for us! The next day it was an early start to the heart of the Red Centre--Uluru.
Our venture to Alice Springs and into the Northern Territory in general very much introduced or exposed us to Aboriginals and the culture--which had been quite lacking on the East Coast. Part of the reason why I wanted to venture into the outback was to gain deeper insight and understanding into the culture. Our first morning at Uluru we went along the ranger-guided walk around one section of the rock and we introduced to some aspects of this culture. We knew the issues that existed just based on conversations with Australians and reading, but the ranger, who lived in the park within an indigenous community and worked in youth education, provided even greater insight.
Aboriginals have been living in Australia for at least 50,000 years--possibly more. The culture that they have created and passed down has been surviving for an insanely long time and it's a fascinating and humbling way of looking at the world. Each tribe is different and there were so many--they each have their own language, their own land, their own stories of creation ("dreaming" stories). Australia is big, and for a huge chunk of it there is pretty much nothing--but for them it's everything. Aboriginal culture is centered around the land, their land, and their ancestors who created it and passed down the knowledge of how to live in it. They made up stories and songs that were passed down through generations, teaching each other how to live in this vast and remote continent. How to find water, how to find food, how to make use and meaning of the world around you. Walking along the path the ranger pointed out several trees and shrubs that were used for food and other purposes, while to most of us it just looked like useless vegetation--but they learned how to make use of it--medicinal, practical, for food, or otherwise.
We came to a cave in which there was aboriginal art painted on the rock. For them their artwork is just as important and the areas in which they paint are just as sacred. It's their scripture, their bible. There are stories about how the land was formed and what it means. They have special ceremonies in which they initiate the boys into the tribe and impart them with important knowledge about their ancestors, though it's a learning process that continues throughout their whole lives with the elders being the wisest and having the most knowledge of sacred aboriginal law and stories. It's a culture that promotes responsibility, for everyone in the tribe has responsibilities that are theirs to look after and they all have people they must care for. Its's a culture about respecting your past and respecting the land in which you live.
Now thrust that into modern day 21st century Australia. It doesn't quite fit, does it. From the beginning of European settlement, Aboriginals have been systematically disadvantaged and their culture demoted and muddled and much has been lost, mostly now relegated to dot paintings, didgerdioos, and the commonplace usage of the pejorative "Abbos". When English settlers starting pushing Aboriginals off their land and establishing cattle stations, many Aboriginals entered a life of indentured labor, performing extremely harsh manual labor in exchange for some clothing and food--no pay. This persisted up until the 60s and 70s when Aboriginals began to demand for more rights, but even up until then the government was performing studies to prove that aboriginals were not homo sapiens sapiens, but a branch off and hence a different (and ultimately inferior) race.
The historical tribe of the area around Uluru is the Anangu people. They do not climb the rock--only rarely have important men in the group made the climb. But to try and close it to visitors would just piss everyone off and they are afraid it would decrease tourism to the region so they keep it open during certain times of the year and simply ask people not to climb. But, of course they do--up to 1,000 people a day during school holidays the ranger told us. One of his main jobs is to keep the park clean and free of rubbish. And always, after school holidays, part of his job is to climb the rock and clean up all the toilet paper from the top that people leave behind, among other rubbish.
It's rather despicable, isn't it? This is not just a rock to them, for them it's sacred, it's their scripture. To them it's the same as someone climbing the top of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican and taking a piss off the top--and leaving their toilet paper there. Yet the current general attitude towards Aboriginals and their culture seems to be an intentional choice of disrespect. This dismissal has poisoned the culture within as well.
Modern day interferences like iPhones and television and other issues like alcohol and substance abuse have had a devastating effect on the continuation of culture. For aboriginals, you are only given the important knowledge when you are deemed capable of receiving it and taking on that responsibility, and it's only passed down in person from those who still retain those stories. That number of people continues to dwindle and even the ranger spoke of a fear that as the oldest generation dies, the current one, with all their modern day struggles, will never receive that important knowledge and the culture will eventually die off.
It was an enlightening, if not entirely uplifting walk, but it was still fascinating to learn a little bit about these stories and these people who nowadays tend to stick to themselves in their remote, nomadic communities. After all, they still learn their native and regional languages first and many of them don't speak English very well. After their treatment at the hands of the European settlers and even the Australian government up to modern day--you can't really blame them for sticking to themselves.
After our morning interpretive walk, John and I headed off to the other rock formation in the park while, just as spectacular, doesn't get as much publicity--Kata Tjuta or "many heads." Also called the Olgas. It was a series of 36 dome-shaped rocks jutting out across the plain and the Valley of the Winds walk is considered one of the best in the park.
It was this walk that John and I did in the morning, and indeed in was very scenic in that "wow Australia is a really big desert and really old" kind of way. It was a three hour walk including some rough areas and there was a group of French kids in front of us, most of whom were wearing flip-flops or sandals, the girls had on dressed, and none of them were carrying water. I'm surprised they even made it as this was 85-90* weather with almost no shade. John and I were prepared with our hiking boots and camelbacks.
After the Olgas it was time to head back to Uluru to make the base walk around the rock. We waited until the hottest part of the day because the walk was entirely flat, but it was still a good 3 1/2 hours to circumnavigate the whole thing. We thought it would be easy and physically speaking, it was. However, psychologically, walking three and a half hours in the red center sun was quite another battle. It's cloudless, hot, and unrelenting. There were only a few patches of shade around the whole thing, so whenever we encountered any it was like a god send. I can't imagine what it would have been like for the Aboriginals to traverse such a harsh and unforgiving land. The desperation for shade, rest, and water makes you much less inclined to take such basic pleasures for granted. But we made it, sore legs and slightly sunburnt, but satisfied that we were able to explore Uluru to the fullest. And it rally was an interesting rock. As you turned a corner each new facade presented a landscape and view entirely unique. The way the color and shape changed as you walked around really made the trip worth it.
So, after walking around the red center for a distance of about 25 km over a period of two days, we were ready to take a break, and so were our shoes that were now covered in the red sand of the Tanami Desert.
We headed to a nice lookout point to watch the sun go down over Uluru and it really was a spectacular sight.
We drove back along the desert highway to our free roadhouse camping for the night, being careful not to hit the many kangaroos and cows that like to hangout along the highway at night. It was a beautiful evening and as we were sleeping in a small car transformed into a camper, we were able to enjoy the cooling temperatures and thousands of stars that spread across the outback sky.
The theme of the trip was the phrase that John kept repeating the whole time, "Now THIS is what Australia is supposed to look like!"
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