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