Outback trip: Day 2

The early bird catches the worm, or so they say

We woke up at 4.30am today to catch Uluru at sunrise. We left the campsite at 5.30am (after a mad rush to finish breakfast, wash up, pack up and roll up our swags within an hour) for a viewing area near Uluru, which was more crowded (think coaches and lots of tourists with their own foldable chairs) than expected.

Sunrise came and went, with everybody poised with their cameras, all ready to take pictures of Uluru changing colours at sunrise. There were some sighs of disappointment as we failed to see any drastic change in the colour of the rock. The rock merely appeared to be slightly redder than usual and any changes that we saw were definitely less visually spectacular than those on postcards.

Uluru Cultural Centre

Before visiting the Red Center, we went to the Uluru Cultural Centre where we learnt about many Dreamtime legends, including the great battle which took place thousands of years ago between the two ancestral beings, Liru (poisonous snake) and Kuniya (python). We also found out more about the Yankunytjatjara and the Pitjantjatjara people, who are the traditional landowners of Uluru and Kata Tjuta (also known as the Olgas; see 29 Sep 05 entry). I was quite surprised to find a poster in the Cultural Centre requesting visitors to respect Aboriginal law and culture by not climbing Uluru, which is sacred to the Aboriginal people. Even more interesting is that I found two very different types of postcards in the Cultural Centre's souvenir shops, one which says "I climbed Uluru" and the other which has "I don't climb Uluru" printed on it (commercialism obviously coming into play here).

Next stop, the Red Center

Some facts about Uluru taken from a very informative postcard: "Found 350km south-west of Alice Springs, the world's largest monolith lies in stark contrast to its flat desert surrounds. Uluru is 343 metres high, 3.6km long, 2.4km wide, 8km in circumference and contrary to popular belief is not a single stone, but one of three surviving peaks of an ancient mountain range. Steeped in ancient Aboriginal mythology, Uluru means Meeting Place, sacred home to the many Dreamtime legends which are depicted in paintings and carvings around the rock. The colour of the rock appears to change continuously, with sunrise and sunset the best times to capture the most powerful reds and golds. Thought to be 600 million years old, visitors see just a small fraction of what must be under the surface, some geologists believing that the roots actually go down more than 6,000 metres."

As I really didn't want to show disrespect to the Aboriginal people, I just climbed a little way up the rock to see what it's like.

More pictures of Uluru.

A close-up shot of the side of the rock. It's made of sandstone.

Pretty desert flowers.

One of my favourite shots (shadows of J and Hello Kitty)

As there was still some time, I decided to do the base walk around Uluru on my own. The base walk is about 9.4km long. I started my walk at 10am and began to regret this decision 30 minutes into the walk. One, the weather was really hot and I didn't have a single drop of water on me. Two, I wasn't even really sure where I'm supposed to meet the guide. Anyway, I decided to continue since I still had time.

At 11.15am, I started to panic a little. I felt like I had been walking forever and there were no signs to tell me where I was and whether I had even made it past the halfway mark. I had passed a few people along the way, but felt too embarrassed to ask them how much further I had to go (I don't know why). By this time, I was really parched and it hurt to swallow. Fortunately, I found some mentos in my pocket, which helped to soothe my throat a little (obviously better than nothing).

After trudging along for some time, I began to wonder if I was lost and if I had somehow wandered off the main path. In desperation, I tried to call J (even though I had no idea where I was or where he was, or how he could help) but realised to my horror that there was no reception. That was when I kind of lost it. My imagination ran wild and I could almost see myself collapsing from thirst and huge search parties being formed to look for the stupid tourist who lost her way when all she needs to do is to ensure that the rock is always on her right by following the path around the perimeter of the rock.

I started running along the path, hoping that I could find someone to help me. That was when I saw it......

"It" turned out to be a perentie, which is Australia's largest lizard. My first thought was that it was a snake because I could only see its head and not its legs. You can imagine my relief when I realised that it was only a lizard (albeit a huge one). Unfortunately, my moment of relief was fleeting, as it hit me that the huge lizard was blocking my path.

What ensued was a fairly comical situation (definitely on hindsight), in which both human and reptile just froze and stared at each other warily. That was when I decided to take a photo of it, since there wasn't really anything else to do.

After the photo, I felt braver and decided to approach the lizard in a bid to scare it away. Thankfully, it quickly crawled away after giving me a look of alarm. That was when I noticed the "present" it had left behind, a huge pile of shit that was fortunately odourless (of course I could have been subconsciously holding my breath).

After that encounter, I continued walking and finally met a Caucasian couple, who told me that I'm nearing the end point. I continued walking and suddenly Superfit appeared. I was so glad to see her until she told me that I need to backtrack because the meeting point is about 20 minutes back down the path I came from. Argh!!!

Back to the campsite

After that very exhausting walk, I was tremendously glad to be able to go back to the campsite to rest. But today is really not my day. As night fell, the temperature began to drop drastically. I felt so cold that I just couldn't sleep. My swag was cold to the touch and I felt like I was trapped in a refrigerator. I was not the only one who felt that way. All of us were were unable to sleep the entire night, except for Hello Kitty, who was probably all warm and snug in her sleeping bag. I shivered in my swag until 1am and even tried to lull myself to sleep by playing games on my handphone when I just couldn't take it anymore. I got up to put on more clothes, which didn't help at all. Poor J was worse off than me. He thought I was sound asleep and didn't dare to take his clothes from the bagpack for fear of waking me.

I continued to shiver in my swag until 4am when I just couldn't take it anymore and decided to seek refuge in the toilet, which turned out to be so nice and warm. Superfit got up shortly after and commented that she had heared someone snoring quite loudly during the night. We agreed that it must be J. But J later protested that it couldn't have been him because he didn't catch a wink of sleep all night. Don't tell me it was Hello Kitty...?!

Outback trip: Day 1

Flight to Alice Springs

We woke up today at 5.30am (so this is what sunrise looks like) to go to the airport for our Qantas flight to Alice Springs. J's plan was to take a leisurely walk to the Skybus terminal at Spencer Street Station and catch the 7am service to the airport. Unfortunately, the walk turned out to be less leisurely than expected (our bags were heavy and some parts were uphill), we missed the 7am service and had to take the one 15 mins after. Scenes from the Amazing Race come to mind as I lit into J: "I told you 1/2 hr wouldn't be enough, but no, you wouldn't listen to me!!!", "why don't you ever listen to me and just take the tram???", "we're going to be late, it's all your fault!!!" (well, you get the drift).

Anyway, I calmed down considerably after we boarded the 7.15am bus and even dozed off for a while. Hello Kitty and Superfit were already waiting for us when we arrived at the airport at 7.40am. We walked over to the check-in counter where Superfit proceeded to check in with her student card, leaving the rest of us looking mildly stupid with thick and heavy (relatively speaking) passports in our hands.

As J is a minimalist type of guy when it comes to packing, we only had a bagpack and a daypack between us, which we didn't intend to check in. After we left the check-in counter, J realised that his Swiss knife is in his bagpack. As expected, the Swiss knife was detected by the x-ray machine and it was either check it in in one of our bags or throw it away (not an option). So in the end, J had to pay A$11 (because it's "additional baggage". Yes, it's not just you, we didn't understand either) just to check it in.

The flight to Alice Springs was fairly uneventful (which come to think of it, we should be thankful for). Breakfast was Kellogs "Just Right" cereal with milk, which was really tasty. When we were nearing Alice Springs, I saw what looked like huge white lakes. We later found out that those were actually salt lakes. The flight also became more turbulent after we entered the Northern Territory. I found myself wondering if it was the wind because we were not passing through any clouds at all.

After landing at Alice Springs Airport, the first thing that greeted us was flies. There were so many of them that at one point in time, Hello Kitty's head was actually surrounded by a cloud of flies. To make matters worse, the flies here, probably half-crazed from the dryness of the Northern Territory, are constantly trying to land on your eyes, your nostrils, your lips, basically any part of you that can offer some moisture, no matter how little it might be.

After collecting our bags and leaving the restricted area, we decided to have lunch. As the only eatery in the airport is located in the restricted area, we had to produce our boarding pass and walk through the metal detector gate again just to get a meal. The selection was fairly decent. J went for the meal of the day, fish 'n' chips with salad for A$7, and I opted for a croissant which cost A$6.

A journey of a thousand miles...

The agency we signed up with, Wayward Bus, picked us up around 12.40pm. V, our lady guide-cum-driver, who had moved from Melbourne to Alice Springs two months ago, seemed really nice. Our group was made up of twenty people, including the four of us. There were only two other Asians, both females, one from Korea and the other from Japan. The rest of the group was made up of Europeans. As we were the last group to be picked up, there were only single seats left on the bus. All of us sat in a single seat by ourselves except for J who ended up sitting next to a French girl (a nifty bit of manoeuvring here by me. J was too slow and stared at me in stunned disbelief as I took the last single seat and left him to sit beside the French girl).

Thus begins our 5-hour drive to the Red Center, also known as Uluru or Ayers Rock. A few flies had followed us onto the bus, one of which proceeded to entertain me with his seemingly tireless routine of flying to the top of the window and then freefalling in a backstroke-like manner all the way to the bottom.

An interesting tidbit: I was reading Bill Bryson's "Down Under" and he related the story of a rather unlucky Australian explorer Ernest Giles. Giles had stumbled upon the great red rock now known as Uluru during one of his expeditions and had rushed to Adelaide to report his find. Unfortunately, he was told that a man named William Christie Gosse had chanced upon the rock a few days ahead of him and had already named it Ayers Rock in honour of the South Australia governor. Poor Giles ended his days working as a clerk in the gold fields of Coolgardie. In Bryson's words, "today he is almost entirely forgotten".

We stopped at a couple of roadhouses along the way for toilet breaks and light refreshments. The sun was scorching and there were flies everywhere, so it wasn't as pleasant as we would have liked it to be. We reached our destination around 6pm and were brought to a viewing area to watch the changing colours of Uluru under the rays of the setting sun. I'm sorry to report that my first impression of Uluru turned out to be rather anticlimatic. Firstly, we were too far away from the rock to really appreciate its majesticness and secondly, the colour changes were not as dramatic and the rock less red than the postcards have led us to believe. The sky was really beautiful though.

Lovely sunset

Yulara campsite

Being a very indoors type of person, the Yulara campsite has the honour of being the very first campsite in my life (not counting that one experience in secondary school. I repeat, contrary to what my seniors said, a basketball court is NOT a proper campsite). After checking out the campsite, I came back marvelling over the fact that there is hot water, until J told me quite matter-of-factly that hot water is a pretty standard feature in most campsites nowadays.

After that embarrassing show of ignorance (which made me decide to keep my mouth shut from now on on any matters concerning the great outdoors), I attempted to change the subject by asking about our sleeping arrangements. J suggested sleeping in swags (what is that?!) instead of tents so that we can admire the stars. Remembering my new policy, I smiled brightly and agreed.

After we got the swags (which looked like a bigger, dirtier and less warm version of a sleeping bag to me), we tried to clean them a bit because they were covered in sand. Hello Kitty was the smart one because she had brought a sleeping bag, which she put in the swag (much cosier and much cleaner). I was a little iffy about the dirt at first but thought I shouldn't complain since it's camping after all. But I got used to it more quickly than I expected.

Anyway, we started laying out the swags and unpacking our stuff. It was getting dark and there was very little light at the campsite, so I could hardly see what I was doing. After we were done, Hello Kitty, Superfit and I took our stuff and went to the toilet together. There was a really long queue in front of the shower cubicles. While I was queuing, I realised that I had forgotten to bring my towel and had to go back to the campsite to get it. By then, it was really dark and for those of you who don't know me, my sense of direction is really really poor. Many a time I 've confused friends (HY in particular) and J by pointing in the opposition direction of our planned destination. Anyhow, I gritted my teeth and tried to retrace our steps. And as expected, I got lost. I wandered around in the dark for a while, then managed to find my way back to the toilet. Hello Kitty and Superfit looked at me incredulously when I said I couldn't find my way back. Sob! Can you blame them?

Anyway, Superfit described the route to me again (which was basically once you exit the toilet, turn right and go straight till you see the campsite) and I left the toilet feeling like a bloody loser. I managed to find the campsite this time but only after wandering into a few campsites occupied by other groups. Sob!!

After that fiasco, I showered and went back to the campsite (on my own I might add and without losing my way GWAHAHAHA!!!). We decided to turn in early because we have to wake up at 4.30am the next day in order to catch Uluru at sunrise. One of our campmates, who's a very easygoing and friendly guy, had built a campfire. The entire sky was filled with stars. I've never seen so many stars in my life before and fell asleep feeling very happy. Just before I went to bed, I was sitting on my swag and grinning idiotically out of sheer excitement about the trip and camping outdoors. J leaned over and gave me a pat on the head when he saw me grinning.

Yay!!

Spring break is here!

Lovely rainbow

Lovely rainbow opposite our apartment.

Fusion - Teriyaki steak

Phonology assignment

I don't often blog about my school life, which is hardly surprising. It's bad enough to be slogging over readings and assignments all the time and I don't really need to spend my blogging time on them as well. But desperate situations call for desperate measures and I desperately need to whine about a phonology assignment I've been working on.

Today was spent entirely on preparing for the presentation on Thursday. It's a very short article, only 4-5 pages, but the problem is that the researcher, Helen Fraser, tries to address many complex issues in such limited space. This would of course mean that there was insufficient elaboration. For someone like me who has no background knowledge whatsoever on the topic (cognitive/communicative approach to ESL pronunciation teaching), it's really torturous. I ended up having to read some of Fraser's other articles. One was an epic work of at least 100 pages (which is about thrice the length of our usual readings). I didn't know how to react when my lecturer passed it to me and said, "this will be helpful" (although the first thing I did was to check the number of pages). The researcher had also published a CD-ROM on the topic, so I was really ploughing my way through her stuff. Just call me a Fraser expert now!

Careless me

I melted a plate today. No no, it's not a scientific experiment to test the melting point of plastic, just plain carelessness. It's a wonder that I haven't blown up our kitchen yet.

I was cleaning the dinner plates and had placed some wet plastic plates next to a boiling pot of water on the stove (This action was carried out because of pure idioticness, pls do not try this at home! Or anywhere else for that matter).

In case anyone is wondering, no, I did not put the wet plates next to the boiling pot in an attempt to dry them faster. I just wasn't thinking.

Anyway, after a while, J detected a very strange smell, which can only be described as being fish-like in nature. A bit of poking around brought us to the dustbin which was full of the remains of the fish we had had for dinner. Thinking we had located the source, I went to empty the bin.

After emptying the bin, I came back to an apartment which was even smellier than before (which is really saying something). It didn't help that J was standing in the doorway, brandishing what looked like one of our plates, except that it now has a blackened edge and was giving off a foul smell. Luckily, we still have more plates, but you can imagine how small I felt for the rest of the evening.

Calla lilies

I bought Calla lilies today. This is the second (and possibly the last, depending on how long they last) time I've bought Calla lilies. The first was in Singapore, where the florist assured me that the lilies will be able to last for at least a week. Ironically, one of the lilies bent over the next day and they were all dry and withered by the third day. Since the weather here is much cooler, I have higher hopes for the mortality of this bunch.

Big breakfast

I prepared a big breakfast today consisting of bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs with cheese and fried potatoes. There was also fruit juice and a salad made of lettuce, sweet corn and apple. J was very amused when he saw me slaving over the big breakfast because he knew how I was fantasising about it the night before.

Scary...

Pengi freaked me out this morning when I woke up. The moment I opened my eyes, I saw 6 "fingers" right next to my face! Thankfully, it turned out to be Pengi's feet...