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.