Wednesday, 31st January 2018
Today, the last day of the first month of the year and we are travelling to Alice Springs as we are joining a safari to Uluru. We left The Franklin Hotel by 7.30 and it was only a 20 minute drive to the airport – no traffic! We parked our rental car on the long parking area and while leaving our heavy luggage in the booth, we made our way to the departure terminal with two rucksacks – we’ve learnt to travel light!!
Our flight to Alice Springs left on time – it’s so easy boarding when flying domestic and here in Australia, you are allowed to carry water bottles on board domestic flights! Well we are getting handier with checking in our own luggage, printing tags and sending our luggage off – it really saves time and you don’t have to queue up!
When we got to Alice Springs, we spent the rest of the day around town and our taxi took us straight to the Diplomat Motel where we are to be picked up early tomorrow morning – 6am – to join our Uluru tour. I’ve been reading up about this majestic and holy rock on the plane – and I guess no matter what you read about it, it will be a personal experience feeling the immensity, grandeur and colour changes of Uluru.
Well we made it to Alice Springs and the last part of the flight was very interesting – we flew over red earth – incredible – the open red spaces that seem to stretch on forever tell the story of the exploration and development of Australia’s pioneering spirit and unique identity – this is the Australian Outback!
When we descended the steps, we were met with really warm weather – and the sun was shining – it was so good to feel the warmth and the rays on our bodies! Our luggage was delivered real quick so we took a taxi into town – a 15 minute ride and the driver told us that where the mountains had a gap, that’s were we would be driving through to Alice Springs. This is really the outback – the Red Centre!!
After we had checked in, we changed back to shorts and T-shirt as it was too warm to wear long trousers. We took a map of the town with us and started wandering around and actually we had worked up quite an appetite so decided to stop at one of the cafe’s for a salad.
What’s remarkable is that we are in Aboriginal country and this is actually their home – for more than 60,000 years! Since 1976, the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 was the first attempt by an Australian government to legally recognise the Aboriginal system of land ownership and put into law the concept of inalienable freehold title. Till then, the Aboriginals were dictated to by missionaries and miners and pushed into controlled settlements. My first impression of the Aboriginals here in Alice Springs is that they have somehow been left behind with regard to the social standards that are enjoyed by the Aussies. However, I just learnt this evening that that Aboriginals that are living here are being paid royalties to perform cultural activities around Ayer’s Rock to attract more tourists. Here below a photo I took whilst waiting for lunch and I captured some of the young Aboriginal girls who actually looked quite smart!
After lunch, we went for a walk around town to capture the heritage trail, however we had to give this up as we had a heavy downpour. One minute the sun is out and the next the clouds came rolling in – a monsoon ! Back at the motel we had time to catch up on our social media, however at one point Gerry fell asleep so i decided to continue the heritage walk on my own as the rains had stopped and the sun was shining again!
This is all for tonight, we had a quick Pizza and salad with a good glass of wine and now back in our room where we got our gear sorted out. Tomorrow at 6 am we will be picked up to go on our Safari to Uluru. This means we will be without any WIFI for 3 days……..
Goodnight all!!!
