Getting up at 5:00am proved to not be so bad, considering Alice Springs is one hour and 30 minutes behind Sydney time. Checked out, and grabbed some toast with jam and nutella in the hostel kitchen. Shigeru was supposed to be in my tour group, but was asked to delay his departure by a day as he had some extra travel days that another person did not. Alone again!
The 21 passenger bus was full. The ad for the tour clearly stated the bus was air conditioned, but sadly there was an issue with the air con. so we had to suffer without it for most of the trip. With the windows opened it wasn’t too bad, but desert winds can be pretty hot. Our first stop was a Camel ranch, where you could ride a camel for $5, or walk around and look at the domesticated dingo, or the emus and kangaroos in cages. There were no introductions on the bus, but meeting people was fairly easy. Kevin from Glasgow, Scotland was the first to offer his hand, and a hello. He’s been travelling with his girlfriend of seven years, Karen since September and they expect to be gone for about a year in total. There was a large Dutch contigent, with Carlijn and Emma (sisters who met up in Alice Springs); and Evelien and Else, who were travelling from Brisbane. One German, Kristina; two Alpean Frenchmen, Max and Jon; Barbara and Theresa from Innsbruck, Austria; Naoyuki from Japan; Mari from near Kobe, Japan; Amy, from Illinois, USA; Hannah from England; a Taiwanese couple whose English wasn’t outstanding, and whose names I never got. Another Asian couple; and another Japanese girl. Our tour guide was Australian born (near Melbourne), Glenn, and this was going to be his last tour – as his girlfriend was tired of all his days away from home.
The drive was mostly desert. A surprising amount of vegetation, although nothing looked too hearty. I scanned the scenery for wildlife, but only saw one wild camel for all my effort.
We made a few pit stops to use the toilet and fuel up, before reaching King’s Canyon. Our hike through the canyon was over 3 hours in 36 degree heat (but it’s a dry heat). I’m not really one to have my breath taken away, but there were some breathtaking views, none the less. Halfway through the hike we took a small detour to a small billabong, for swimming. The water appeared black, almost like oil, but our guide assured us there was nothing in it’s depths that would kill us (but it should be noted that he didn’t go in). We spent a half an hour swimming in one of the nicer areas I’ve ever swum before finishing our walk.
From King’s Canyon, we drove for an hour and a half or so to a gated off area (apparently a cattle ranch – but I only heard them, didn’t see them). This was our campground for the night. With Mt. Conner on the horizon, the men built a fire (not too difficult with such dry wood) while the womenfolk worked on dinner, which was Chili Con Camel (although we only found this out after the fact). The dinner was exceptionally good – although I’m not sure how much the camel meat factored into the flavour. We all slept in swags, which was an interesting experience – especially with our guide’s soothing “I make no guarantees, but chances are you’ll be safe from snakes and the like.” With no light pollution, the stars were amazing, and I spent a fair bit of time just staring up into the night sky. The quarter-moon sits quite low this side of the equator, so that was interesting to see as well.