Saturday 7 December 2013

Kata Tjuta and Camp 2!

So we were up early to watch sunrise from camp over Uluru, then we had breakfast (I got there late and all the milk had been used up because certain people had had a whole bowl full of milk haha, standard), rolled up our swags and helped Chris and Luke pack everything away into the trailer. We then headed off on an hours drive to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) for today's trek.

It was a 7km trek on some pretty rough, uneven and steep terrain; apparently it was the hardest walk of the 3 we'd be doing across the weekend, but it was well worth it for some of the beautiful scenery! We started our hike around 7am as it was supposed to get pretty hot so Chris wanted us to do it before it got too late. It took us around 45mins to reach the first lookout point, where Chris gave us some background info on the area, the rocks etc, and we took many photos whilst chatting to people in the group along the way. Once we arrived at a huge gorge/lookout, which was the halfway point, we either had the option of going back, or continuing the full 7km walk. Obviously as we were here and only got to do it once everyone decided to plough ahead, even though it was starting to get very hot and we were all pretty tired by this point. Chris and Luke had brought along some cookies so we all had a few of these - we made sure we got a good stash before the cookie monsters devoured them. Then we made our way down the huge gorge while Chris and Luke turned back to wait for us in the car park.

It was tough...very tough! The first part was steep downhill on slippery rocks, the next part was flat but on rough rocky terrain, then it was uphill and downhill on rough terrain, then flat on rocky terrain and finally back to the first lookout point which was the steepest climb back to the car park! By the time I'd finished I felt like someone who'd just done the London Marathon in 30 degree heat at 10-11am! We made sure to keep our fluids up but it was hard when the local water tasted like chlorine! When we got back Chris and Luke were there waiting with fresh watermelon and cold water - woo!

We then freshened up at the toilets and it was time to begin a long journey to our 2nd camp over at Kings Canyon. It took us an hour to reach Curtain Springs where we had a BBQ lunch of sausages, cheese, salad and bread, Bex had cheese and spinach schnitzels. It was so unbelievably hot by then that we sought any shade we could. We then had a further 2hr journey to Kings Canyon. Around an hour into the journey, we stopped along the road for Chris to show us some Bush tucker grubs! We were all pretty tired and it was so so freaking hot, that after a bit of moaning and not really feeling up to it, we managed to get ourselves in the mood once Chris had fished out some huge white Witchity grubs from inside tree branches, and ate them while still alive!! We then found 3 more to 'BBQ' on a small fire, which a few people in the group tried. Then we collected some fire wood for our campfire tonight and took a few more outback road pictures before heading to camp.

Tonights camp was really nice, though the eating area was smaller. But I think a group before us had taken our spot so we had theirs. There was a swimming pool but we didn't get to camp until 6pm so there wasn't much time to use it. Instead we showered (me and Bex used the mens as the girls was so busy and they were all using hairdryers and putting on makeup - I mean, who does that when camping in the outback, where it was still around 25 degrees outside?!) We confused the men though, who kept coming in thinking they were in the girls showers haha. Then we all sat around chatting, drinking goon and listening to music before all helping out with dinner. By now the group had become closer and everyone was starting to bond, it was a lovely evening where everyone helped out (bar the german girls), chatted, laughed, told stories and just generally had an awesome night. Dinner was beef burritos - yum! It got to around 10pm when we all decided to hit the swags, so we set up camp under the stars again. We had a very early start tomorrow - 4am! So we tried to get a good 6 hours in, however no one really had a good nights sleep that night as I think we were over-tired and hot! Hey ho, plough through another day! 

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