Red centre with daddy over

howdy!
so i have finally started travelling again and to start off the australian adventure i met up with none other than Daddy Over. all the way over from the UK via Singapore and HK Da arrived at alice springs airport a little less than 1 week ago. we hired a car and we were all set for our adventure to the red centre, uluru, kata tjuta, silent t for those that want to say it right, kings canon and alice springs. this was somewhere that da had never been and of course i hadn't either so it was perfect for both of us.

da petting a roo!

starting out we went to go and see the kangaroo sanctuary run by Brolga, which some of you who watch uk tv at the moment is otherwise know as kangaroo dundee. this slightly eccentric fellow who decided to start saving baby joeys, rear them himself and mother them right up to the point where they would be released into the wild or kept in his sanctuary for the rest of their days. this was a rather sweet tour and i certainly know a lot more about kangaroos now!!

holding baby rosie!

the next day was spent driving with not much to look at to yuluru - or the resort, the only resort where you can stay to visit uluru. this drive had 3 potential stopping points and on the way down we stopped at Curtain Springs a fully functioning homestead for a family who run a cattle ranch here and also look after mt Conner - a similar looking rock similar to uluru - but just a lot bigger. there was actually some really interesting info about the ranch and basically summed up that life was pretty tough, hard going and weather dependent. da and i both agreed that it seemed like rather hard work for little reward. never the less people had farmed on this land since the 40s and there seemed to be no stopping them now. so i think that outback life is something you become accustomed to or otherwise no sane person would live out there.

mt conner which we mistook for uluru!

moving on we did a range of things down in and around uluru. we went for 2 stunning sunsets at uluru and kata tjuta {the olgas} - we walked around uluru- some parts are really fascinating because you are so close to the rock itself. however the stories from the indigenous people tended to be a bit same same after a while which was a shame and the sacred parts did not allow photography but didn't really explain why. but we did a very good walk around kata tjuta - called valley of the winds walk which was good because you got right up in between the rocks and it was actually windy which helped because it was around 28/30 degrees!!

uluru at sunset

da and i at uluru - matching with blue shirts, hats and sunglasses on lanyards!!

kata tjuta (the olgas)

sunset at kata tjuta

i also managed to convince da that it would be a great idea if we drove 3 hrs to kings canon for the valley rim walk. and thank god it was good!! at first was a steep climb up and then you get to walk all around the rim of this amazing canon. it shows you parts where the rock has the ridges from being at the sea bed and the sheer cliff edges and even a small oasis. visually stunning and i thoroughly enjoyed clambering around the rocks. overall in our relatively short trip we have seen a large range of things despite being in the middle of nowhere. to name a few - rather high proportion of 4x4 cars towing or carrying boats - unsure what they were for or where these lakes might be as we were nowhere near the sea! an impressive range of rock formations from uluru itself to kata tjuta - both formed by compression of sane dunes over time but created 2 completely different rocks and the ever impressive kings canon and its sheer drops, steep climbs and stunning 360 views.

kings canon - rim walk

uluru close up 

still got one more day tomorrow to fill with excitements of alice springs. so i am looking forward to that and having read Bill Brysons book about Australia i am looking forward to the telegraph museum, flying doctors museum and any other museum i can fit in! just love information!! feel like we have done our outdoor adventure part and now its time to learn a bit more about what it was like to live in alice springs and how this little town came to be. to also learn a bit more about the aboriginal people i have bought this book called 'the original australians: story of the aboriginal people' by Josephine Flood- which despite being only 1 chapter in is excellent read. so there will be little nuggets of information from that occurring soon as i share all that i have learnt about these mysterious people. because i didn't seem to have learnt much while down at uluru apart from a lot of rocks were sacred and it is highly frowned upon to climb up uluru or Ayers Rock despite it looking so tempting!

anyway here are some pics from the trip and the rest are on facebook for everyone to see. not sure where my next stop is going to be but will be in better contact with everyone via blog/facebook pictures from now on because i am now back on the tourist backpacker trail. so keep tuned in for more pics and stories.
all from now.
j xxxx

last few days in sydney...!

HI All

Not quite sure where I last left off because I didn’t upload the latest blog post because I wanted to add photos into it and then it all just got very complicated and I never did anything about it! However, with exactly 1 week left in Sydney I thought I would write a little piece about my last few months here.

In a word – these last few months have been busy.  I started working at Rainford Street Social restaurant which took up my weekends, nights and social life and the rest of my time was spent sleeping, eating and going to yoga!  The good thing out of all this work is that I have saved up enough money to go travelling which is great and I cannot wait to get out of the office, out of the suit and into shorts and t-shirts and to have a lie in!!  

Rainford street social

As well as working very hard I have also had a chance to enjoy my last few months here and been going to a few little cultural events.  I got tickets to go and listen to Joel Satore who is a National Geographic photographer/journalist and he talked about his amazing work all over the world.  Part of the reason I wanted to go and listen to him was because it was being held in the Opera House but it was actually a really interesting event and some of his stories were unreal.  One story in particular stuck with me.  In an attempt to get a good photo he and some locals constructed a lookout tower in the jungle so that Joel could stay up there for 8, yes 8 days to get photo he needed!! I think that shows how much dedication is needed to this profession.  

Other things I have been up to is going to the theatre.  I actually miss the theatre/musicals.  If you don’t have the option for it you miss it.  However I did manage to get tickets to go and see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – by Tom Stoppard which was outstanding.  It is a fantastic play and I just sat and enjoyed every minute of it.  Because I studied both Hamlet and Arcadia at school I was geeked out by this play.  I LOVED it! And I got the ticket for $20 which was fantastic.

theatre ticket

I have also been bonding with my housemates....we went out partying on a Thursday to a massive club called the Ivy –which is meant to be super cool because it has a rooftop bar/pool area. It was such a fun night and all the girls were on top form but boy it did hurt on Friday!

girls from the house - bellevue girls :) 

So 1 week to go....until the next adventure. Literally cannot wait to move on..  Sydney has been great and it is such an easy place to live and the longer you live here the more you become intertwined with other people – especially English/Irish.  Everyone knows everyone else it seems!  But reception work is dull and boring.  Everyone wants me to become a consultant and work for Hays – and restaurant want me to stay as well and keep saying they want to sponsor me....just so in demand at the moment!!  But I’m not ready to settle yet.  So off I go.

hays girls - having last friday drinks before i leave

famous messina ice cream place