Wild Places and Open Spaces

We have been in the Outback for the last few days. It has been hot – very hot – with most days between 35-42 degrees Celcius. At times the flies have been unbearable…they apparently feel the need to try to get into any orifice they can, whether it be your ears, nose or mouth (oh, and don’t forget eyes as well..). Can imagine it is enough to drive some people insane!

The outback is a bit different than we expected. Much greener and hillier than we previously thought. Don’t get me wrong, it is very flat and scrubby in some parts, but we had expected it all to be this way. When people say there is nothing for miles and miles, they aren’t kidding. Other than the occassional cow, car and road train, there isn’t much. The “towns” are conveniently placed so that gas, accomodation and food are available every 150km-300km so it isn’t all that bad knowing that there is “help” if you need it. Mind you, most of the “towns” only consist of a gas station, motel and eatery all rolled into one, so the word “town” simply doesn’t describe the roadhouse it actually is.

When we crossed from Queensland into the Northern Territory we were greeted with ‘no speed limit’ signs – Jim took this as his licence to push the car to 160km/hr…mind you not for long as 120km/hr is pushing it for our little 1.6L engine. Thank goodness we have air conditioning – neither of us can imagine doing this trip without it. Speaking of the heat…many of you may have seen weather reports for Australia lately and they may seem to conflict with what we have been seeing. Well, Sydney has been much colder than normal, and actually had a record cold day just a few days ago. It actually snowed in Queensland a few days ago, which is virtually unheard of, and the south coast has been fairly cold as well we hear. But, Australia is a big country – just look at a map of where we have been the last few days – Alice Springs is virtually the centre of the continent which is very far from the city hubs where you may have been hearing weather reports from.

Alice Springs is a fairly big city in the heart of Australia – it services many places in the Outback, and is quite busy. People living in towns hundreds of miles away would come here to stock up on supplies. Many tours to Ayers Rock (Uluru) run out of here as it is only about 500km from town. Alice, as it is better know as, has its own airport too, and because it is so ‘out of the way’ many people fly in, go see Uluru, then fly out. We used Alice as a re-stocking venue – got supplies for the next couple of days, then moved on. However, not without seeing many Aboriginals, walking around aimlessly with booze in hand with a somewhat zombie-like look in their eyes. The situation is very sad – similar to our own native indians – their life was taken away from them and they find it difficult if not impossible to assimilate to Western culture. The government, like ours, has resorted to giving them money, but they have no use for $$ other than to drink their life away. Unfortunately because of this, their culture is being lost with each generation. (it must be noted though that some aboriginals are still practicing their culture, although they are far from the beaten track so many people don’t see this.) Most Australians it seems have little or no use for them and there is no love lost there at all. A very unfortunate situation that no one (even us with our indians) has an answer to.

The town of Yulara is just outside of where Uluru is located. The town itself is a “resort” and is only there to service the tourist industry. Many different types of lodging exist there, from camping (us) to rooms that cost in excess of $3000/night. We both nearly died when we were told it would cost us $50 ($25each) to get into Uluru National Park. But, we had driven literally thousands of kilometers to get there, so we angrily gave up our cash. Funny how not one traveller we met had mentioned this astronomical price! I am sure most people just give in like we did due to the circumstances. Anyways, we arrived just before sunset, so we drove to the ‘sunset viewing’ parking lot to take in the mighty Uluru. Quite an incredible sight – but more incredible to think of where we actually were on the map of Australia! The view quickly lost its allure, due to the sheer number of people that were encroaching on us – it was impossible to enjoy the beauty due to all the shutters flicking and busloads of people that continued to arrive. What was even more disturbing was thinking of all people multiplied by $25.00 each…where does all the money go? There are only 2 trails, 2 washrooms, 1 cultural centre and no visitor centre – we were floored that there was no visitor centre that explained the scientific geology of the area. Strange.

No, we did not climb Uluru. It is considered to be very offensive to the aboriginals of the area to climb the rock, so in the the park brochure, and around the park there are signs saying it is highly discouraged to do so. They even sell T-shirts in the shop stating “I did not climb Uluru out of respect”. However, the trail up it still remains open and people still climb up it on a daily basis. Hmmm…the $50.00 must still be worth it to the board of directors of the park (which includes aboriginal members)…funny what money does, isn’t it! (by the way, Uluru was officially given back to the aboriginals a few years ago, and the aboriginals are leasing it out to the government for 99 years…)

We discovered a hidden gem down the road about 36km from Uluru – The Olgas. Possibly it was just pure ignorance on our part not really knowing about them, but nobody seems to talk about them. Anyways, the Olgas are also part of the national park, and consist of many rock formations made of conglomerate rather than sandstone like Uluru. Much more rounded and shapely, and in our opinion more interesting (and a bit less crowded).

We saw our first and only dingo at the campground at Uluru around midnight. Hew was quietly wandering around as we were chatting in the cook shelter with another couple.

After seeing a couple of sunsets at Uluru, we decided to hit the road again – next stop, Coober Pedy.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.