End of the Red Centre Trip

3rd
killer day!
We were up at 5am this morning, for another early breakfast and shower before cracking on with the day at 6am. We drove off to King's Canyon, where we embarked on a 6km walk starting with an ascent names Heartattack Hill, and it wasn't impossible to see why, I'd have loved to have bounded my way up it like it wasn't even a task, but my legs and body told me early on, just walk up at a steady/moderatly quick pace. By the time we finally got to the top I was definately breathing just a touch heavy! But, I was the first to the top and felt rather proud of myself :) Once I'd caught my breath, the views were awesome, as we continued to walk around the top of the walls round the canyon and throguh the 'Garden of Eden' which looked abit naff and somewhat of a letdown given the name, there were thousands fo bloody flies too, but our fly nets were coming into play beautifully. THen it was on the bus and off to Kata-Tjuta (Carter Jootah) via the Cultural Centre at Uluru (aka Ayres Rock) the walk at Kata-Tjuta was the first half of the Valley of the Winds walk, which our tour guide Aly told us was the best bit so we weren't missing anything. Infact, it turns out we were gaining, as our time keeping had been rater impeccable so far and we'd been fairly quick so we got to do the valley walk as normanlly there is only time for the not so impressive gorge walk, so go us! Aly informed us it would be a 2 hour walk, and we had 1:45 to do it in, so we went for it, not everyone made it, as there were some silly steep parts in it, and general meandering, but for those of us that made it, the view was pretty awesome, the rocks opened up to a grand vew of the valley and country ahead, with it's vegtation, it was a pretty special moment. Rob an I both made it, had a bit of a look, cooled off a bit, fought the flies and had a drink, and headed back, we'd had a fairly cool chat with Aly and that had made the trek easier, we tanked it back too, and did the whole walk in 1:15. Which meant we got back to the bus intime to drive back to the rock for sunset and a glass of champagne. Turns out sunset was cloudy and we didn't see much, but we got the plonk, and some of our group met one of the writers for the Doctor Who tv show, which was pretty cool. (I can't remember if it was a Bill or Steve.) Then back to camp (a different one) for dinner and sleep.
As a side note, there was plenty of thinking time on the bus, and as i heard a random selection of music from the radio and my mp3 I got to thinking...When you travel, there's alot of the same questions when you meet new people, The where have you been? and where are you going questions to name the most obvious... but it was making me think about how lucky i've been in the past and some of the holidays I've had in the past, and with the music in my ears, what music reminds me of which holiday, Moby (Play) had just presented itself through the magic of the "Random Album" button. (Yes that is possibly the single most greatest butotn in the world on an mp3 player ever.) Play always reminds me of the time I was in Toronto and Niagara, a totally top holiday, with their whole city under the city subway system, and getting to see the Leafs Vs Devils NHL game at the time was awesome, and something ticked off my life's to do list. (#32 see a real NHL game.) The track Southside especially reminds me of the coach trip from Toronto to Niagara, I must've had that track on constant play (which with a tape player was quite an achievement!) I was also reminded that whenever I hear Red Plastic Bag, I think back to being in Barbados, a place I definately intend to go back to, Taking Back Sunday (Tell All Your Friends) now reminds me of lying on Bondi, and now Sublime (Sublime) will always remind me of a) this trip and b) the person that introduced me to the band's music.

4th
Today was the last day of our trip, starting with my legs being rather bitten, an incident I feel rather aggreaved about but that's for my personal log rather than here. Today we went to Sunrise at Ayres Rock, then proceeded to walk the 9.3km walk all around the base of the thing. (Climbing up it is incredibly offensive to the Aborginal people's (-who own the land) beliefs and quite often seems to incur bad luck.) It was a bit of a trek, and Becky, Gavin and I all needed a wee as we got around halfway through, Sadly for Gavin he was too under thte thumb to be allowed to go behind a bush, if she couldn't. I on the other hand, was far too british and polite to do such a thing! we got some kick ass pictures, from the bits that weren't deemd 'Sacred sites' and we were therefore allowed to photograph. (The aboriginal people seemed to have deemed most of the bits you'd want to take pictures of as sacred rather convienently.) Then we cracked on with the 5 1/2 hour bus ride back to Alice Springs and Haven again. Where we slept rather well. Well, I did.