At Tennant Creek we flipped a coin: Heads we turn left and go towards Alice Springs and Ayers Rock or tails we turn right and head up to Darwin. You see, we were running a bit short on time so we had to decide if we should head up to Darwin or not and the only way we could decide was to leave it up to chance. Courtney flipped and I waited patiently for the result: HEADS. We’re giving Darwin a swerve this time!
Eyes, ears, mouth and nose. No, I’m not reciting the age old nursery rhyme ‘Head and Shoulders;’ I’m describing the places where flies in the desert like to penetrate and although a good portion of our days in the Red Center were spent swatting flies we did see and do a few other things. We had the pleasure of seeing the world’s largest, redest, most touristy rock, Uluru and of course we made a few detours on the way to some other cool spots. In this blog we’ll try to explain a bit of the aboriginal history surrounding Uluru and we also learned quite a bit about modern times around Uluru so we’ll chat about that too…if there’s time. At Tennant Creek we flipped a coin: Heads we turn left and go towards Alice Springs and Ayers Rock or tails we turn right and head up to Darwin. You see, we were running a bit short on time so we had to decide if we should head up to Darwin or not and the only way we could decide was to leave it up to chance. Courtney flipped and I waited patiently for the result: HEADS. We’re giving Darwin a swerve this time! We spent the night free-camping in a rest area just north of a place called the Devils Marbles; an area with round boulders that balance on top of each other in seemingly impossible positions. No, the name has no aboriginal significance instead the aboriginals believe that the boulders are eggs laid by a serpent, which was on its way to Uluru. The name Devil’s Marbles comes from an early explorer in the region. We left the rest area before sunrise to see the Devil’s Marbles light up with sunrise. Alice Springs was a good stop for a shower and to stock up on food, petrol and internet. We spent a night on the outskirts of the city in the cheapest caravan park we could find, it also happened to be one of the nicest ones we stayed at! The next day we drove through the West and East MacDonald Ranges, the mountain range closet to Alice Springs. It's was very pretty with a few nice touristy spots to stop off along the way. One in particular was a beautiful swimming hole with cool water where we enjoyed a dip. We enjoyed how at the Alice Springs info centre they suggested we go to a place just around the corner which really was a 200 km drive away. That's the thing, in the outback the distances get very skewed and extremely long. You also only think of two things when in outback Australia, 1.shade and 2. water. After Alice Springs and the MacDonald Ranges we made our way to Uluru, which many of you older readers would remember as Ayers Rock and also a couple other places along the way called Kings Canyon and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). There isn’t a lot say about these areas other than that they were a sight for sore eyes in the desert. We did a few walks in the area and learned a bit about the aboriginal significance of the big red iconic rock. Certain details of the aboriginal legends surrounding Uluru are kept secret as a way for the current generation to preserve what has been passed down to them from their elders. Another 400km drive from Uluru led us to Kings Canyon, a spectacular canyon with walls 100 metres high and Kings Creek running in the valley below. Similar to Uluru there are parts that are sacred to aboriginals, one area was in the gorge and was designated as a man's sacred site. We were informed that aboriginals have designated male and female spots where their elders bring them to for dream time "story telling". These spots are still used today, therefore you are asked not to swim in the water, which was very hard not to do as it was HOT! All throughout the road trip we free camped, which meant we stayed in campgrounds, road side stops, rest areas etc. The camp area amenities ranged from having toilets, showers, running clean water to no water, toilets or showers. Each one was unique in it's own way and some were surprisingly scenic with extremely personable characters.
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