Before going, I had one question in mind: would I be able to find a Chinese restaurant there?
And I also had this pre-conception of red desert sands. But that's all about to change.
DAY 1
Went to Tullamarine airport at around 4AM and we're off. We stopped at Sydney for about 20 short minutes then continued flying to Yulara. Arrived at Connellan airport and we took our stuff, put them into our rented car and we're off to the Olgas (Kata Tjuta). It was hot. Like when it's summer in Melbourne.
That's the pic I took when we were driving to our hotel to eat and gather some info. Everything's a blur except for that Ayers Rock a.k.a Uluru.
We also went to the Valley of the Winds and had quite a long walk up there. My first and most fatal mistake for this trip, I had canvas shoes on, which is a no no for trekking sort of activities.
It was quite tiring having to walk into the Valley of the Wind and then went back out again. And the sun didn't make the walk any easier.
The photo above is what Kata Tjuta is supposed to look like. We went back to the Olgas' sunset lookout point to take a series of sunset shots. Apparently it wasn't as we expected (the sun setting behind the Olgas). It was actually a place to view a sunset. So this is what we got instead.
Went back to our lodging to eat and rest afterwards.
By the end of day one, I've come to realise that there were tons of Japanese tourists there. So many that they had Japanese written on most of the signs at the tourist attractions.
I've also come to realise that the essentials were pretty expensive here. Food was expensive, petrol was expensive and water was so damn expensive.
And there was no electricity poles in sight. Everything could be powered by generators but I'm not sure either.
So far, no Chinese restaurant in sight. And flies were a pain in the ass.
DAY 2
Uluru is the next destination. Went to the sunrise lookout spot. Again, it turned out to be an actual sunrise viewing place. So again, took some photos and some action shots as well.
This probably means that if you're with your boyfriend/girlfriend, you can't go more than 20 km per hour. Or could also mean beware of couples going 20 km per hour, they could sweep you off your feet.
After that we went to Uluru's base where we took some photos then tried to climb up. I chickened out probably one third of the way (laziness + converse shoes made it easier to do) and just sat there waiting for the others to come down. While waiting for them to come down, I put the camera on one of the rocks leaning there and just pressed the shutter and this is how it turned out.
Pretty scary huh? And here's Chris after he came back down from (almost) the top. And that's my reflection on his sunnies. He tried to look cool here but he's actually running out of breath haha. Just kidding.
And here's everybody (me not included) after we climbed down from that rock. See where their fingers point? That's where we climbed back down from. Well, I sort of only went back down from one third of that height.
Then off to the cultural centre. Learned a few pronounciation thingies. And check out that language. I can't remember what it's called.
Then headed back to the hotel. Had lunch, bought a flynet!!! And had a bit of a rest, then off to the Uluru sunrise point to shoot the sunset silhouette.
Still no Chinese restaurant in sight.
DAY 3
Early morning we went back to Uluru's sunset lookout point to get yet more shots of the sunrise (yep, the sunrise and sunset viewing points worked out differently for us since we're not actually trying to photograph the sun. We wanted to have Uluru in front of the sun so that we can get a silhouette. This is why we went to sunrise viewing points to get the sunset shots and vice versa).
Quickly after that, off to the Kings Canyon which was a 3-hour drive one way. Got there, fed the car and had lunch.
We saw this sign and I though well, maybe we should just do the 30 minute walk. But then we decided to do the Kings Canyon walk since we were pretty much eager to see what the Garden of Eden was like at this time. Little that I know that this was to be the start of my quite miserable experience for the next 3-4 hours that day.
Started the walk. It was supposedly for people of medium to high level of fitness, which I am none of the mentioned. And so this thing came before us.
The walk started with a half kilometer climb to the top (the first few steps pictured above, and that's not the very top I tell you). Again my Converse shoes made this climb harder than it should. And the fact that I didn't have anymore hands (left for the tripod and right for the camera) also made me had to be extra careful when looking for rocks to step on.
And what made the walk even harder for me was that the fact that I only brought a mere 500ml water bottle with me. And I think by two thirds of the whole walk, I ran out of water (it went quite hot at the end because of the sun). Should've brought myself a 1.5 litre water bottle with me, and that's probably just enough. The thing is we didn't want to burden ourselves by carrying more things (I decided to leave my camera bag in the car and brough my 50mm lens with 2x converter on my left jeans pocket, extra battery and remote on my left shirt pocket, lens caps on my right shirt pocket). And I had my water bottle on my friend's backpack which is probably a lot lighter than mine.
And this is what the Kings Canyon looked like from the top. It is pretty high I can tell you that.
We were supposed to go to the Garden of Eden, which in photos looked really marvelous. A small lake with a waterfall. But by that point in time, we decided not to go there since it would be another 600m walk times two cos we had to go back to where we were at that time. And apparently, there was no waterfall at the moment since it's draught time. And we didn't have any water left by that point in time.
And after walking for about 3-4km, I just couldn't walk slowly under the hot sun anymore so I decided to walk a bit faster and left the others not too far behind and didn't even bother taking photos anymore. What I was looking for was these signs (well actually I still took some photos otherwise I wouldn't be able to show these pics here).
So I kept walking and walking. And then I saw this sign.
Hallelujah!!! Bells were ringing, confetti flying, people cheering, champagne popping and all that shit. Almost couldn't believe my eyes. That really lifted my spirit. It looked like an oasis in a desert but apparently it wasn't, so 1 more km I went. And after reaching the carpark everything felt in order again.
So went back to the petrol station, fed the car, fed US with water, lots of water and went back to Yulara. Again dinner and rest.
And by the end of the third day, no Chinese restaurants found in Yulara. And that, ladies and gentleman, answered my question I had before the whole trip ever happened.
DAY 4
Took some photos on the way to the airport and flew to Sydney.
Arrived at Sydney at 5PM and went to the Harbour Bridge. Shot some more photos.
It felt quite different having seen narrow roads and no traffic lights for a few days where in Sydney, roads are pretty wide and there were tons of traffic lights. And by this point in time, we were craving for Asian food, I mean three consecutive days with only burgers, pizzas and chips, that's too much man. So after we had dinner at Super Meal, it was all good. Chinese food never tasted better. And that Flavour Enhancer 621 a.k.a MSG, man I tell you, it's the best. Pictured below is what's called Pipis with chilli and XO sauce.
Didn't have time to meet up with my Sydney friends because of the restraint of time.
And so that's Sydney and by midnight, we were already back in Melbourne and it was time to unpack and unwind.
Overall it was a fun trip, saw quite a lot of things. Learned quite a lot of things and took a lot of photos.
Will I go back there again? Definitely, cos there's still a lot of grounds we didn't cover (Kakadu National Park, West MacDonnell Range etc etc). But probably not in a short while.
PS: Some of these photos are already live at my Flickr. May want to check them out.
