Uluru- Kings Canyon- Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)
Before you read this post , please have a look our previous post with the baby Kangaroos.
Esp Antes de visitar Uluru echa un vistazo al post anterior con los bebes canguros..
Uluru – aka Ayers Rock
Uluru is a good 450km hop from Alice Springs, so we decied to go on a 3day camping tour with a group from the hostel we were staying at – Annies Place, and we had a blast!
Español Uluru esta a 450 Km de Alice Springs asi que decidimos hacer un tour de tres dias con gente del hostal ..y nos lo pasamos genial.!!
On the way down our first stop was at a camel safari where we got to look at a few camels and take a brief ride, man when they start trotting it gets a bit sore as you hop up and down in the saddle, glad it was a brief camel ride, any longer and I thought I’d have to go to hospital with a hernia or some server bruising on my private parts!!!!
Esp Por el camino hicimos un safari de camellos , y pudimos montarnos y dar una vuelta , es posiblemente una de las experiencias mas incomodas , para chicos y para chicas..!!
Interesting facts about camels in Australia:
– The first camels to arrive in Australia came all the way from Tenerife, in the Canaries ca. 1880!!!
– Australia is the only place in where camels are found in the wild, after they abandoned use of camels in the desert with the invention of 4×4 vehicles they were set free and continue to breed in the wild, we almost crashed into a few wild camels crossing the road on our tour!
Esp Curiosidades sobre los camellos en Australia:
– Los primeros camellos que llegaron a Australia los trajeron de Tenerife 1880.
-Australia es el unico lugar del mundo donde quedan camellos salvajes, con la llegada de los coches les abandonaron y todavia te encuentras grupos de camellos en el horizonte.
Our second stop that afternoon was at Kings Canyon where we did a 6.5km hike along the rim of the canyon with some awesome views, including a really cool refreshing dip in the rock pool at the so called ‘Garden of Eden’!!!!!
Esp La segunda parada despues de los camellos fue Kings Canyon donde hicimos trecking durante 6.5 Km al borde la el Cañon con vistas increibles , incluido el bañito que nos dimos en una laguna llamada el ‘Jadin de Eden’..
Can you believe it rained, and quite a lot for the desert? Really beginning to think we are cursed to see rain wherever we go, after cursing the rain we get in Ireland, mmm, it seems nature is playing a not so funny trick on us! Why does it always rain on me…? La la la la la…
Esp Podeis creeros que nos llovio a cantaros en el desierto..Varios semanas atras bromeabamos con la posibilidad pero no nos lo podiamos creer.. bueno nos refresco el camino..
Can you see it, well camouflaged or what?
Esp Puedes verme, estoy bien camuflado!!
Next day we stopped for a 7km hike through Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) – apparently one giant rock quite a lot larger than Uluru, but mostly underground, which is why it appears to be several different rock formations but it is in fact just one giant rock! It’s also very sacred to the Aborigines, used to this day for initiation ceremonies for young boys when they become men and learn the skills required to become hunters and leaders.
Esp Al dia siguiente paramos para andar 7 Km al lo largo de Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) , una roca gigante , un conglomerado de rocas , es sagrada para los aborigenes , aqui los hombres hacen ceremonias para que los jovenes pasen a ser hombres, buenos cazadores y lideres en el futuro.
Close up of Uluru – our own advertisement on the bus window! Hehehe…
Esp Vista de Uluru y nuestra website escrita en la ventana del autobus, cada persona escribia lo que queria..
Uluru is one giant rock, apparently the largest monolith in the world, it’s 3km long and 8km deep, yet only 390 metres are actually above the earth. It’s the most sacred of sacred sites to the Aborigines, with about 9 different sites all over the rock used for sacred initation ceremonies some for men (4) some for women (5). So even though there is a path to climb to the top, they ask visitors not to climb out of respect to their traditions and religion – imagine it would be like climbing up St. Peters in Rome, don’t think the Pope would be too impressed! The climb has climbed many lives too, as it’s quite steep with people slipping and falling down or succumbing to the extreme heat – now they close the climb if there is rain or temperatures above 36’C forecast.
We were walking around the big red rock, 10Km during 2 hours after we saw the amaizing sunrise with rainbow included.
We’ll spoil you now with lots of pictures of Uluru at sunset…
Esp Uluru es el monolito mas grande del mundo, es una roca echa del mismo material ( a diferencia de Kata Tjuta), tiene 3 Km de largo pero 8 Km de profundidad , 390 solo fuera de la superficie – como un iceberg-
Este es el lugar mas sagrado de toda Australia para los Aborigenes, tiene 9 lugares donde ellos realizan sus rituales (5 para mujeres y 4 para hombres). Hay un camino para subir , pero te piden que no lo hagas , es bastante duro subir y gente se ha muerto asi que te piden que no subamos. Asi que estuvimos andando alrededor 10Km durante 2 horas, despues de ver el amanezer con arcoiris incluido.
Here’s the gang who were on the tour, we had great craic, there were guys from all over the world, Ireland, Spain, UK, Germany, Iran, Finland, Slovenia, Italy, Canada, Sweden, South Africa, Japan, and of course the Aussie guide, Luke!
Esp Este es el grupo con el que hicimos el tour , estuvo genial, gente de todos los rincones del mundo: Uk, Alemania , Iran, Finlandia, Eslovenia, Italia, Canada, Suecia, Surafrica, Japon, España e Irlanda y por supuesto el guia de Australia , Luke.
We had dinner at Uluru at sunset, and also a lot of wine and beer, so the bus trip back to camp that might was a blast!!! We set up a camp fire and continued to chat and drink and gaze at the stars, and ward off all the flies and bugs too!
Esp Cenamos durante la puesta de sol con vinito y el viaje al campamento fue un cachondeo!! . Hicimos fuego y estuvimos hablando y viendo millones de estrellas en el cielo, y disfrutando de moscas, arañas y demas bichitos.
Next morning we got up at 4.30am it was still dark, but we had to make the effort if we wanted to see Uluru at sunrise, which is absolutely amazing, as the sun rises it goes from a dark red to bright crimson colour to a more gentle ocher brown colour the higher the sun rises. We were so blessed with a slight shower resulting in a double rainbow right over Uluru, not a lot of people get to see that, in the end we were greateful for the rain we got those days! Wierd eh?
Esp Nos levantamos al dia siguiente a las 4:30 para ver la Salida de sol en Uluru, fue increible , el color rojo tan fuerte nada mas salir el sol.. Pero lo mejor es que vimos el arcoiris sobre Uluru ..ves a veces la lluvia no esta tan mal..
Next is the great Barrier Reef, some companies rent digital underwater cameras so I am looking forward to get the best shots for you ..
La proxima es La Gran Barrera de Coral ,a veces alquilan camaras digitales de buceo , asi que intentaremos coger las mejores imagenes debajo del agua.
Hasta pronto!!!!
C ya soon..!
James & Quene
Hi James! Hi Cristina!
This is class 1G and IH at Tong Kwok Wah SS – Mr Finnerty’s class. We hope that you still remember us!?
Today is our first day back at school after the Chinese New Year. We are looking at your website now and want to give you some comments!
When will you get married?
Why do you have many money to travel?
Can you give us some money? (lucky money)
In the airport photo, why is the boy so scared? Haha
Where will you go next? Which country?
Do you like Australia?
When will you come back to Hong Kong?
We are sorry. Our English is so bad! We don’t know what to say! We’ll try harder!
It must be very hot in Australia!
Were you afraid of the big fish to eat you? Looks dangerous!
You look very happy under the waterfall!
Are you crazy? To catch snakes! Feeding crocodiles!
Were you not afraid that the crocodile would jump out of the water and eat you!
We like the shape of the crocodiles teeth! Scary!
The picture of the aboriginal women is very beautiful!
Will you take care of a baby kangaroo?
Are there any trees on Ayers Rock?
What was the first thing you did on the rock?
How old was the camel?
Sydney Harbour bridge is very beautiful!
Will you travel all the world? To America?
Will you go to space? Haha To Mars!
Please write soon! Bye
Plz come back and give me some money!
PS Sorry lads they are very cheeky!
Hi James! Hi Cristina!
Still living the life! I must say that I am very envious! The photos are fantastic!
I arrived back in HKong yesterday after the New Year holidays and started back at work today! Had a fantastic trip. Cancelled Singapore-Jakarta and instead met up – here in HK – with my Japanese friend Shoko and we travelled through southern China and all the way to Hanoi by train, bus and motorbike taxi. It was tough – particularly becasue it was the Chinese New Year and everywhere was jammed – but a fantastic experience!
Highlights were probably (let me see):
1) the train stations in China; have seen them before but jeesus they still freak me out!
2) getting stuck in Guangzhou on the way to Hanoi and spending New Years Day in a shoppers paradise with the biggest crowd of poeple I have ever seen, and just a sea of red (mainly Chinese flags and lanterns) and neverending, ear-smashing fireworks! 3) Halong Bay (relaxing)
4) traffic in Hanoi; it’s probably worse in Saigon from what I remember but this time we actually decided to join the madness and rent a motorcycle. Wasn’t as dangerous as I thought it would be! Managed to have a lot of fun in fact!
5) a number of mock-arguments with Vietnamese and Chinese – mainly taxi-drivers! Some things don’t change wherever you go! Basically was me pretending to be (really) angry at the service being dished out and refusing to cough up the readies! Worked every time! Though I do not advise this tactic as I had to engage in some physical banter and to-and-fro (loud and aggressive) shouting on one occasion to get what I wanted! But right was on my side! Yeah….
Anyway ladz. Will leave it there except to say that I have asked each group from 1G and 1H to post a message about the Lunar New Year before the end of the week!
Take care – Larry
Hi!James and Christina.Happy New Year!We are the Class 1G and 1H at Tong Kwok Wah SS—-Mr.Finnerty’s class.We tell you something about the chinese festival—-Chinese New Year!
We had chinese New Year holiday.We did different things to celebrate this festival.We visited our relatives and friends.We went some places in Hong Kong.But someone went to other country.We can saw fireworks and lion dances.It’s beautiful and excited!!!But make everybody happy,it is can get luckey money in this festival.When we saw our relatives or friends,we also said ‘ Kung hei fat choi ‘.
This is the chinese words ~~ [ 恭 喜 發 財 ]
In the holidays,we also did our homeworks.We had a plan about our homework.
We enjoyed this holidays.We had a happy holidays.
In Hong Kong,the New Year festive lively!
How did you feel in the Chinese New Year of the Australia?
In the Australia,they will celebrate this festival??
Please write back soon.
Rose,Annie,Mark,Alex
Hi!James and Cristna,Happy New Year!I am Alan,Mr Finnerty’s English class.
I had a long holiday from twenty 26th,January to 6th,February.On the holiday,I did a lot of things.On 27th(The day before Eve)all the chinese cleans their home,my family too.On28th(The Eve of Lunar New Year),in the night my family ate dinner with grandparents,we ate some meats,fish & vegetables,it’s very rich! After the dinner.My grandma gave me some ricecake, it was made by herself.I like eating them in the breadfast.On 29th (Lunar new year’s day),we wnt to flower market to buy narcissus.On30th (the second day of Lunar new year),we went to Tsim Sha Tsui saw fireworks,it was very beautiful.From the third day of Lunar new year to the fifth day of Lunar new year,we went to visit parents and friends.Although I had a wonderful holiday,I had a lot of homework to do!
Hi, this is Quene’s sister, hope you are fine…
Amazing the mountain or the rock or the temple…
Love for all,
Hi All,
Of course we remember you ..we had always in our minds when we see something nice.. even when we were toasting at the sunset in Uluru, we were thinking in everybody we know .. and hoping everybody was there to see the red rock.
Is going to take us sometime to answer all the questions …!! but we are happy to see that you are reading us and also you english is improving , so one day you will be the ones who are travelling and showing us beautiful places..
if we don’t have time now , don’t worry we will answer every single one of them 🙂
Class 1G and 1H answers:
1.We don’t know yet..
2.we were saving for years , putting money away every month..
after few years we thought we have enought to travel..
but Australia is very expensive..so I hope we can make it to Brasil..;)
3. What airport photo.
4. Next country is New Zealand.. and they say is even more beutiful than Australia
5. We really like Australia, is so big country with so different thigs to do here.
6. We will finish this trip in October 06, so after we save money again we can
comeback to Hong Kong and visit you again..
Second group:
1. It is hot and is also humid, but we are lucky or unlucky (it depends)
because is raining a lot.
2. We were very afraid of the crocodiles, lots of people are eaten by them
when swiming on the lakes, you must always respect the symbols especially
when it says that are crocodriles around.
3. The waterfalls were amaizing, but sometimes we were afraid in case
a hungry croco was around
4. Those snakes were not dangerous and the guide was right beside, just in case.
5. One of the times a big croco was near the entrance of the boat, and it was quiet
and looking at us, probably calculating when to jump, it was very scary for me (Cristina)
6. here you can find they teeth in Jewllery
7. The aboriginal woman was very nice and friendly, is the oldest culture in the world
so we should respect them more..
8. I wish we could keep one of the Kangaroos..
but we cannot travel with them, we can’t enter in New Zealand with any
fruit, animal or plant , they are very strict.
9. There are trees on Ayers Rock, we should put some photos!! they are so nice.!
10. The first thing we did was jump out the bus and take a pic, and admire the big rock
11. We don’t know how old was the camel , we forgot to ask him ;).. But around 6-7 years
12.Sydney Harbour was very impresive.. especially during New years eve with the big heart pumping
13. We will love to travel all the world , but we will need several lifes to know every single place
14. Space… mmmm gives few more years .. 🙂
Ok.. we have to go now , we going to a class they are going to show us the fish we are going to see for the next 3 days . so we will answer the rest of the questions after we comeback.
All the best !!!! C ya soon
hey sorry havent been in touch,
so thats your brave face really shittin’ it face?holdin the snakes?Heavy?good luck to you sleepin in jungle esp with the dingos-scary!!And eating kangaroos and then going to rescue centre?feel guilty?taste nice?god i could picture james screamin and wavin arms at leeches and all like in brisbane at that flyin cockcoach?funny!
Hey so when did you pop the big question james???HeeeHeee!
Did bus driver not throw ye off bus for scriblin all over windows???
N hey mel-Whats the crack?Workin hard?is there band called red stripes too??say hi to all
slan .xxx
Hi
I am very happy in Chinese New Year! Because I can do many funny things in Chinese New Year , like flower mark , watch fireworks…… Before Chinese New Year we also hare to clean our home. And we hare eat some thing to celebrate Chinese New Year , We grandparent will make a rice cake give us to eat It is very yummy
Finally the most important in Chinese New Year is luck money. If someone they are marry already they will give some luck money to the children. I can give a thousand luck money ever year.
Hi !How are you?We are team alexander.Will you come Hong Kong again?
In last about ten day , I had a Chinese New Year . I am happy in this Chinese New Year . I got many money because I got many red parket .
I can buy many things what I like . I bought a new box to keep my money .
The box is beautiful . I was happy when I see this box . I always stay at home . I always play computer games and MSN with my friend Tom .
Tom is my good friend . He also study at my school . I go out my a few .
I go my grandma home and eat many yummy food . I have see your photos . I think Australia is good place for travel . I like kangaroo . They are very fun .
Please come back and give me some money !
Please write soon .
man it looks deadly cant wait to go fantastic
wats this about popping the question wat a place to do it
if not you blew it as you can see i really read these- not -just look t the photos
up to eyes in work jan say hi to all at home
let me know your plans for rest of trip- sue wants to do perth in april
niamh gettin married on whitsunday islands next year this time
the mad niamh that lives wit me is goin home in march for 1 mth so thats sad she needs to renew her visa
a lot of them going home booo
well got to run say hi
enjoy urself
Hi,James and cristina.We are Mr finnety class students.We like the Chinese New Year. We have ten day holidays form this festivel. Welike Chinese New Year because we can have many holidays,we can eat many candles and many delicious food. I willhave many lucky money and red packet. We will go to our grandmother’s home to visit her. We will go to the flower market too.
Hi !How are you?We are team alexander.Will you come Hong Kong again?
In last about ten day , I had a Chinese New Year . I am happy in this Chinese New Year . I got many money because I got many red parket .
I can buy many things what I like . I bought a new box to keep my money .
The box is beautiful . I was happy when I see this box . I always stay at home . I always play computer games and MSN with my friend Tom .
Tom is my good friend . He also study at my school . I go out my a few .
I go my grandma home and eat many yummy food . I have see your photos . I think Australia is good place for travel . I like kangaroo . They are very fun .
Please come back and give me some money !
Please write soon .
Hi !How are you?We are team alexander.Will you come Hong Kong again?
In last about ten day , I had a Chinese New Year . I am happy in this Chinese New Year . I got many money because I got many red parket .
I can buy many things what I like . I bought a new box to keep my money .
The box is beautiful . I was happy when I see this box . I always stay at home . I always play computer games and MSN with my friend Tom .
Tom is my good friend . He also study at my school . I go out my a few .
I go my grandma home and eat many yummy food . I have see your photos . I think Australia is good place for travel . I like kangaroo . They are very fun .
Please come back and give me some money !
Please write soon .
Thanks for the response to the students’ questions.
Enjoy the diving in the Great BArrier Reef, let me know how it compares to Thailand. And I really look forward to seeing the photos!
Cuando volvais no me voy a atrever a llevarios de paseo , porque os va a parecer todo pequeño, no feo , porque por aqui hay muchas cosas bonitas , pero menos monumental.
Decias en vuestro speach que volveis en Octubre , Como pasa el tiempo
Besos de los sanfernandinos
Hi everyone!
To you guys in Group Ellen, they do celebrate the Chinese New Year here in Australia, in the bigger cities there are many Chinese people, so they put on shows. However we didn’t get to see many celebrations as we were too busy hiking out in Kakadu, not many Chinese people in the wetlands of the Northern Territory!
It looks like you all had a great time over the New Year!
Janis, do you know if there were any celebrations in Ireland for the CHinese New Year, I remember last year we went to the Chinese festival in Smithfield in Dublin, that was fun, lots of nice Chinese food and stalls selling Chinese decorations and dragon dances too.
It was fun camping out, lots of creepy crawlies, but that’s normal. I think in a big group it’s better as there’s more safety in numbers!
Larry,
Sounds like your trip down south to Vietnam was great!
We just got back from our 3 day diving trip in the Great Barrier Reef – just working on a new post for that – will be up here soon!
Take care,
James & Quene!
We just got back from our diving
Hi All,
Sorry for the delay , we haven’t been eaten by a shark despite we saw lots of them , we actually tried to post the pics of the Great Barrier Reef the other day, but when you choose a bad ciber cafe, you can waste time, money and patience..
So we will create the post now , so you can enjoy the pics soon .. Underwater photography is not that easy as it looks in the postcards.. they probably use red lenses so they don’t appeard all blue… and good macros .. we tried all best . rent the camera per day was 40$ .. we thought it will take better pictures..
Another thing , we just rent the campervan ..and is going to be our home for the next 4 weeks .. we have been driving 350km of the 2000 Kms left to Sydney.
Hola a tod@s ,
No nos a comido ningun tiburon a pesar que vimos un monton de ellos en La Gran Barrera de Coral . intentamos publicar las fotos pero no elegimos un buen ciber cafe asi que ademas de perder el tiempo , dinero y paciencia , no pudimos publicar nada.
Asi que ahorita nos ponemos a subir fotos , por cierto hacer fotos debajo del agua no es tan facil como parece en las postales, los fotografos profesionales deben utilizar lentes rojas para que no salgan tan azules y buenos macros .. nosotros pagamos 40$ al dia y la verdad es que esperabamos cosas mas espectaculares..
Pero bueno hay estan con toda nuestra mejor intencion.
Hasta ahora!!!
One more thing , some posts dissapeard , the website put them in a moderation link (Not sure why….??? ) and they were deleted… but do not worry , we read them all… I hope this don’t happend again .
Sorry I meant comments…!
OK, seem to have fixed that problem with the comments!
Sorry if there are any missing, if so, go ahead and write your comment again!!!
Mel,
those guys in Hong Kong kept asking us when are we getting married, every time they got a chance to ask a question, that was the one! Bummer about Niamh, hopefully we get to see her before she goes, we should be back in Sydney about 6th March. Plan now is basically down along the east coast to Sydney, and that’s it! Think Nadine was planning to do Perth, ask her, maybe she can give Sue a few tips.
Larry & Class,
great that the students are posting comments, it’s cool that they are practising their English in a new way, the internet is amazing! Wish I had that type of classroom activity when I was in school! Keep up the great work!!!
As for diving, the barrier reef was amazing, just wait til we get the post done. I’d say it was better than Thailand for diving, but Thailand was on a much smaller scale just 8 people on the boat copmpared with 32 here, and that was a small boat by Cairns’ standards – some boats can take much more, can get a bit crowded down there…
Los San Fernandinos,
Anda ya! Seguro que tu conoces mil veces mejor Espana, asi que tambien nos estamos esperando una vueltecilla por alli cuando volvemos! Y hay cosas en Espana que son igual de monumentales, p.ej. La Virgen de la Hoz, pero menos conocidos, y eso casi mejor, para que no hay tours pa todos los lados y muchos turistas…
Soon we’ll have a cool post of the Great Barrier Reef!
L8r!
J&C
Hi guys – great to hear you had a good time. it brings back a lot of memories – i was a tour guide there for years in the 90’s and have still contact with many of my ex passengers. take care