My Trip to NT

My friends and I had an absolutely fantastic time in the Northern Territory. We spent the first two days in one of NT's largest cities, Alice Springs (pop 28,200), roaming the outdoor Todd Mall, looking at aboriginal artwork in the local galleries, and hanging out at the hostel bar.

Our 2nd day in Alice was spent at the famous Camel Cup. This is one of Alice Springs premier yearly events and was entertaining to say the least. There were races for kids on camel-headed broomsticks, a best-dressed competition and of course the seven camel races. Not all of them were quick off the mark, or even down the track, which made it funny to watch.

On day 3 (Sunday) we picked up our 6-sleeper Apollo campervan and headed south to 'the big rock' aka Uluru or Ayers Rock. We didn't climb Uluru as one, it was closed, and two, the aboriginals believe the rock is sacred ground and ask that tourists don't climb it. As an alternative we did the base walk which is 9.4kms .

We saw the sunrise and sunset twice over Uluru and watched the colours change from black to red. It was a beautiful site to behold.

After three nights at the Ayers Rock campsite (which cost us $79/night as it's the only one!) we headed west to Kata Tjutu aka The Olgas. The Olgas consist of 37 round rock formations in the middle of the desert. We hiked half of the loop walk which was stunning and watched the sun set that evening.

On the road we paid unbelievable prices for diesel. We thought it was bad at $2.27/Litre until it went up to $2.31 then to $2.53 - ouch! There's not much you can say or do when you reach the only gas station for a few hundred kms!

Kings Canyon was our next stop and was more amazing than the last. We did a 3-hour hike around the park checking out the rocks, canyons and vegetation and stopping to take hundreds of photos along the way.

Thursday we dropped a fellow companion off in Alice Springs as she decided to head off to meet some friends elsewhere and continued on our way to the East MacDonnell Ranges. We found a campsite and stayed for two nights doing a few short walks during the day and resting and relaxing by the campfire during the night.

I traveled with some amazing friends on this trip and considering we spent 10 days together we got along fabulously; I haven't laughed so hard in ages!