Days 64 - 66: The Red Center, Australia (March 12 - 14, 2011)

You won't be able to tell from these photos, but I was pretty disappointed with my tour to the "Red Center" of Australia.  (That's the part in the middle, where the soil is really red and there is sparse greenery.)  I'll get the complaints out of the way, then write about the beautiful scenery and the brief moments of fun.

The tour was disappointing for two reasons:  Physical conditions and mediocre tour guide.  The physical conditions were really bad for about 80% of the trip.  Mostly this was due to flies, which were everywhere.  And I mean everywhere, being a constant bother; in the eyes, mouth, nose, ears.  And in the food, ugh!  We had a couple of strenuous hikes in the heat.  The hikes would have been challenging on their own, being about 3 hours long and up and down rocky and hilly terrain, but constantly having to shoo flies away from our faces (and I mean constantly), just took all of our energy and all of the fun out of it.  These flies don't bite, but given a choice, I would prefer the occassional bites of the tse-tse fly to these constant pests.  At least the tse-tse fly leaves you alone after it bites.  It doesn't try to fly down your throat every time you talk.  By about halfway into our tour, I let down my hair and covered my face with it to keep the flies off (hell, it worked).  Some of my fellow tourists resorted to disguising themselves as terrorists to keep the flies away:

And our tour guide could have been better.  He knew a lot about the land and its inhabitants, but he wasn't good at paying attention to the needs of the group.  He didn't once ask if we were having a good time or had any questions or if the pace was OK.  I mean, no basic courtesy.  Like, on our second night of camping he kept us up by drinking and being rowdy with a fellow tour guide from the campsite next door (talk about perpetuating a stereotype lol!).  It was raining and we were stuck sleeping in a pavillion (and therefore couldn't find a quiet isolated spot), so his antics infuriated a large number of our group, especially since we'd all been up since 5am for two days straight, and had a 4:45 wake-up the next morning.  Me, I wasn't sleepy but I wanted to sleep just to escape the boredome, and grew irritated on behalf of the group.  And myself.  Also, there wasn't enough food, which I'm sure added to my irritation, but fortunately I brought lots of snacks.

Everyone in their "swags."  Except our tour guide.

We visited three main sites on our tour:  King's Canyon, Kata Tjuta and Uluru (aka Ayer's Rock).  King's Canyon had the most vigorous hike.  I liked the challenge of being active like that, but as noted above, my pleasure with the walk and the scenery was greatly diminished by the freakin' flies.

Fortunately, there were no flies at the swimming hole where we went for a swim.  (Sorry, no bikini pics today!)

The best part of the first day -- of any day of the tour, really -- was camping in the middle of nowhere under the stars.  We stopped to collect firewood from the bush, then went to the middle of some enourmous cattle ranch (it's something like 1 million acres), built the fire, cooked dinner, then unrolled our sleeping sacks and fell asleep watching the Milky Way. 

I wound up giving a mini astronomy lecture about what the Milky Way is, how to find planets, why some stars are red and some are blue, etc.  I hadn't intended to do that, but when I was the only one who recognized the constellation the Southern Cross, I explained I used to assistant teach astronomy classes, then everyone had questions for me.  Astronomy is funny; everyone is fascinated by it, but most people don't know anything about it.  Since that was the first time in 22 years I'd gotten to see the Milky Way, I was really happy.  Also, the flies go away when it gets dark, so we weren't harrassed all night long.  What a relief!  It was the best few hours of the tour, for me at any rate.

The second day we toured Kata Tjuta, which is this series of 36 giant rocks that were formed tens of millions of years ago when a giant lake slowly emptied.  It created Kata Tjuta in one direction and Uluru in the other direction.  Once again, the flies completely negated the pleasure I would have felt at the hike and the scenery.  But you can enjoy the photos without the annoyance of the flies.

In the Valley of the Winds.

We ended the day at Uluru, learning a bit about its place in the mythology of the Aboriginies and seeing a bit of Aboriginal art.  There are some places around the rock that people are not allowed to photograph, and only Aboriginies who have been initiated can approach.  So some of the rock's coolest features can't be caught on film.  But some others can.

Some aboriginal cave paintings.

The top of Uluru lost in the clouds.

Anyone else thinking of "Little Shop of Horrors"?

Uluru is one giant rock, and it has rotated sideways since it formed (you can see the layers of sediment now run up and down instead of sideways).  Scientists know that there is more rock under the surface than on top.  For some reason this gives me the creeps: the idea that a rock as big as Uluru has rolled around over time, and that most of it is buried.  It makes me feel the same way that thinking about the bottom of icebergs or the bottom of the sea makes me feel:  a little scared about what might be down there.

The classic shot of Uluru.

Our second night's camping was not nice.  We did get to shower and use real toilets, unlike the first night, but I hardly cared because it was bright and loud and rainy and crowded and there were other tour groups there.  Ugh.  The only fun moment came when one of the girls discovered a baby mouse in her sleeping sack.  It must have been rolled up there all day but it was alive.  I took it to our guide who took it to a dry spot outside.  I was afraid to pick it up, but less afraid than the other girls nearby, so I picked it up, and once I did, it was very nice holding the baby mouse.

At least the mouse made me smile.

Our final day started with watching the sunrise over Uluru.  That was a total bust as it was cloudy and rainy.  We then did a base walk around the rock.  It's all one piece of rock, although over the millions of years, parts have eroded.  And it just juts out straight out of the ground, like in that wide angle shot above.

When the weather is good (ie, not windy or raining or too hot) people are allowed to climb Uluru but the Aborigines who own the land ask that people don't climb it.  Because it was raining, no one in our group could have climbed anyway.  I wouldn't have, out of respect for the people who own the land.  It seems a weird position to take: legally, people are allowed to climb but are discouraged from climbing?  Seems like a pretty morally ambigious position.

Our last stop was at a camel, um... farm?  I guess camels are a useful animal in the desert.  They're not indiginous to Australia.  So I'm not sure why there is a camel farm, but for the low price of $6, we could go for a ride.  Since one of my readers requested that I ride a camel in Egypt, and I refused to do so, I decided to do it here.  For the record, the ride was only about two minutes long, but today it hurts to sit down.  It was pretty fun, but much bumpier than riding a horse.  Especially when the camel runs.

So that was my tour.  I skipped the after-tour dinner at the bar owned by the tour company.  I suspect most people did.  I didn't sense a lot of enthusiasm for going out when everyone got dropped off at their hotels last night.