10:38am Adelaide time
We have now been driving for about 3 and a half hours and we have about 5 more hours to go. We are also stopping for lunch at some point too. We are heading to Uluru and should be there in time for sunset. We will be there all day tomorrow as well and then we head out the next day which means we have 2 sunsets and 2 sunrises. We aren't allowed to climb Ayers Rock or Uluru because the aboriginal people don't like it and it is considered disrespectful. We do an 8k hike tomorrow so that should be fun. 3 more days on this tour. Then one evening and I head out to Sydney!
I don't know how JP does all this driving. It's literally just been one road and its mostly straight. On either side it is just Outback for miles and miles. Right now that consists of sometimes red soil and definitely a lot of trees/shrubs. We do turn left in an hour or two. Whoo! So exciting.
I realized last night there is one other 20 year old and then everyone else is like high 20s and older. I also realized today is my last malaria pill! 101 days done! Now I can get rid of the stupid container. Yey!
1:01pm Adelaide time
We stopped off for lunch when we crossed from southern Australia into the Northern Territory. Sandwiches again! There were an insane amount of flies around. Like millions. Just flying at your face and your food and your mouth and your ears. Ah god, it was horrible. We all looked like crazy people swatting them away all the time. You couldn't go anywhere and get away from them! Apparently the camp site we stay at is sprayed against them so hopefully there won't be as many because that would seriously be an unpleasant stay.
We still haven't made the left turn yet. And were only half way through all the driving.
JP said that this stuff was discovered in order to build a telegraph from Australia to Britain. Australia was originally a British colony and in order to do anything they would have to write a letter and send it to Britain and wait for a response which took a full year. So they built this telegraph system so it would be faster and one guy went off the path a little and discovered Uluru, Ayers Rock, and Kings Cross.
Australia's government is the same as Britains.
We actually had to turn the AC on just now because it was so hot on the bus.
2:18pm Adelaide time
We just made the left turn! Then we stopped for some gas and a bunch of people had ice cream. Exciting stuff.
Lasseter is the name of the road we just turned off on. He was a guy who claimed there was a ton of gold in Uluru. He got a bunch of people to donate money and go with him out there and then everyone realized he was crazy. He ended up dying of malnutrition because his body rejected the aboriginal food they were trying to feed him.
Forgot to mention we saw a dingoe earlier. It looked like a dog. Not too exciting.
7:07pm Adelaide time
We got to the camp site in Uluru around 5pm. People broke out alcohol an hour before we got to the camp site. I think JP is really not a fan of our group as a whole. He seemed grumpy earlier.
When we got here we unloaded everything and JP took off to go get food and gas and left us at the site. We got to go up to a lookout point that is maybe a 3 minute walk from the camp site. That is literally all we did today. Tomorrow we will get up at 5:30 or 6am to see sunrise.
There aren't too many people in the group that I connect to. It's good it's a short trip. Everyone is all about drinking which normally I'm on board for but as I mentioned its so expensive here! Plus, almost everyone has been here for a long time living here and the conversations are geared around that so it's hard to get involved. And since everyone has been living here they all have Internet and are always talking on the phone or texting friends and family. But, whatever. No big deal.
10:43pm Adelaide time
For dinner we had a massive feast. We had mashed potatoes, pear salad, noodle coleslaw, a piece of bread, and then we each had a piece of kangaroo, sausage, and a chicken kebab. JP is a good cook.
The rest of the evening we sat around the campfire playing games. I suggested many that we played on the last trip but no one seemed to want to play any of them because it required too much thinking... So we ended up playing a game where you had to say a famous persons name and go in a circle and the next name has to use the last name of the previously named person. If it was a name with the same first letter of both the first and last name then the circle reversed. It was fun.
I thought about singing a song but one of the other girls friends wanted her to sing and I didn't want to steal her thunder. Plus, people on this trip don't really seem to like the things I do or say. So... Yeah. Maybe another night.
At the moment I am in my sleeping bag, inside my swag, with a lot of clothes on by the camp fire. Time to head to bed. But, people are still talking a lot and I'm also not too tired yet. 3 more days of this tour... Early rise tomorrow!
I've always wanted to sleep out under the stars. I'm pretty pumped about this. The swag is actually pretty comfortable. The pad on the bottom is thick which makes sleeping on the ground nice. I am kinda surprised that I am not a little more freaked out by this. I feel like normally I would be but I really don't mind. Maybe it's because I'm not at home. Who knows. 2 more nights to sleep under the stars as well! I feel like I can't see the stars as well as I could last night.
My sleeping bag has 3 different ways it can be used and I can't totally figure out which way is the warmest. I'm not too cold but my feet are really cold. I even have my wool socks on. I looked up the sleeping bag on the Internet a while ago and I think it said that using the baffles face in was the warmest because it contains body heat whereas if the baffles are face out it lets cool air into the bag. But there is the side with the fleece blanket as well and I can't figure of if that should be on top or bottom. It doesn't seem to matter though. If I'm absolutely freezing I can always rent another sleeping bag for $20. I don't think I'll have to though, but well see!
There are warning signs all over the camp about wild dingoes. Hopefully we don't get any of those. I am sure I will check my boots in the morning as well to make sure nothing is in them. Also unsure if the fire will burn all night or not. We locked all our valuables in the bus. I considered sleeping with mine in my sleeping bag but decided against it. Hopefully that wasn't the wrong decision... My bag is just sitting out under the tent where the kitchen is too. JP said it would be fine so I'm trusting him.
No comments:
Post a Comment