The Long Vacation: Adelaide, Alice Springs and Uluru

The last few days have been a whirlwind. First Adelaide then Alice Springs then Uluru. We boarded the train to Adelaide from Melbourne at 8 AM. Very comfortable, seating like first class airlines, not all that fast but a good look at farm country and backyards. Like American trains. We were met at the station at 6 PM by Graham and Jill Ottens, yet another ATC connection.

Again, very fine folks. They're an inviting, cultured couple, secure and accomplished, happy to share their home and all too often overlooked city. They live in an upscale, genteel neighborhood that wouldn't be out of place just off any college campus in the US. Again, a smart and comfortable home. Graham is a retired teacher, principal, administrator and on-going cricket enthusiast. We watched a quick game on the telly (special format, not the multi-day test style) and with his help I actually started to sort of understand what cricket players do. Jill specialized in infant and child care while raising a family of four. They have been enjoying their retirement with travel in Britain, France and the US. In a tour-de-force of hospitality they served us a a full course lamb dinner.

Sunday, they sacrificed attendance at their Lutheran church to give us a tour of Adelaide and the surrounding countryside. This is the Barossa Valley, wine country, has been since 1851, when a fellow named Seppetsfield started planting vines. Some vines have been there so long they no longer need to be supported, having grown trunks like a tree. Fine wine too. We had a bottle of a dry red at Maggie Beers' with a gourmet lunch featuring duck, pheasant and chicken pate. Then a true piece of the Australian bizarre, a tree used as the dwelling of a Silesian pioneer , J.F.Herbig and his family ,eventually numbering 16 children. Then a very pleasant surprise, the Holden antique car museum. There was an admission charge but I asked if there were a discount for GM employees. "Why yes, Holden employees and their guests get free admission. Isn't GM their parent company? Just go on in." Wow, saved 48 bucks! A big museum with several hundred cars , a very extensive motorcycle collection and a special emphasis on alternative fuels. They had the oldest Australian car(?), a steamer built in 1899 and run recently in the London to Brighton antique car run.

Out to dinner with Graham and Jill and an evening watching "The Promise" a fast paced drama about Palestinians and Israelis and the British caught inbetween and the injustices of the land grab. The weather deteriorated with rain during our stay. Of course our next stop would be at Alice Springs so we'd be sure to experience the brutal Australian summer there. Right?

It did start out that way. A quick plane trip Monday morning and a bus ride to the hostel. A cheap dorm room, mixed sexes, bunk beds. Fortunately, there was a sort of alcove with unclaimed bunks. Turned out it was only for the night. Liz booked a tour, "Have more fun ... on EMU Run. Not cheap at $350 each, but it met the core mission of seeing what's unique in Australia. We exchanged $100 in accomodations and the price of meals for 3 days for a tour to a hot dry group of rocks. Not as if we'd have another chance at it. Chill out a while and dinner at Bojangles. If you're ever in Alice Springs, be sure to go to Bojangles! Damnedest old West style decor I've ever seen (Want to see it? www. bossaloon.com . They have several internet cameras going. You can even buy a friend a drink online.) One exotic mixed grill dinner. Kangaroo (delicious), crocodile meat balls (just okay), camel (also delicious), buffalo (indistinguishable from tough beef), mashed potatoes, salad. Enough for two for $30. No tax or tip of course.

The big day, Uluru. Up at 4:30 for a 5:45 pickup. Warm even at that hour. A 500 kilometer bus ride through an arid, forbidding scrub covered landscape. Could have been worse. Our guide informed us that Australia has had a two year long wet cycle and everything was much greener than it would have been. About our guide. Dan is a true Australian. Lots of personality, a bit rough-hewn, direct, long blond hair, tremendous endurance and unfailing good humor. He's about to leave the guide job for film school and has a couple of documentaries and feature films already scripted. Finally, into the park. Uluru rises out of the flat plain 3,000 feet, 3 miles or so long by about a mile and a half wide. Impressive. We got there just in time for lunch and then had a good hike halfway around the rock - we all opted out of the entire 11 km walk - it was very warm indeed. Dan enhanced the hike with many historic, geological and natural history lectures. Indeed, throughout the bus rides and hikes he had stories about the early explorers (google Stuart, Burke and Wills - too much to relate here but any to any Australian these are household names, like Lewis and Clark), what's edible and not, how the aborigines survived here. Uluru is fascinating in detail. What at first looks like a featureless smooth rock is in fact riddled with grottos, caves, creases sheltering pools, everything an aborigine would need to make life a little more comfortable. By now it was getting towards dark. Time to get to the sunset viewing area for the obligatory photo session. Many pro photographers have done much better than I did but one must try. As night fell, the cloud cover got heavier. Lightning flashed in the distance. Hmm, this looked familiar. The bus went through rain on the way to the campsite. We all pitched in for a chicken stirfry dinner, unloaded the swags (pretty neat canvas sleeves with a pad underneath, enclosing a sleeping bag and pillow) in various sheltered areas (dinner enclosure, laundry room, anything with a roof). Once again the weather was unseasonably cool and wet.

Up at sparrowfart (4 AM), breakfast, then off for sunrise pictures. Foiled by clouds, no glorious colors on the rock. Kata Tjuta looked pretty, though. At 25 or so kilometers it was our next stop. A sister formation of Uluru, it's the other end of a sort of bent chunk of sandstone that is exposed at either end. Enough of that, computer time is running too short to go into a full description. Anyway, it looks a lot different with lots of rock domes instead of just the one big one. The hike through was a lot rougher than the day before too. Not that it wasn't interesting. Somewhere in the middle the rain came down, accompanied by some majestic thunder and lightning. Immediate waterfalls. A visitor to this site has about a 4 in a thousand chance on seeing it in the rain. Apparently our presence had bettered those odds. Just too cool! Of course we got soaked to the skin but well worth it. I can't include the video but will be delighted to show it when we get home. Very rare footage. Finished the hike about noon, did lunch again, drove to a campsite near King's Canyon, had time for a swim. Barbecued kangaroo steak for dinner. Slept under the stars, exhausted.

Up early again for King's Canyon. Much older than the other two site and much rougher country. Also one heck of a climb just to get started. a couple of hundred yards up a 60 degree slope, fortunately with footholds cut into most areas. Much more and more varied vegetation, including cycads, which are otherwise found mostly in the tropics and are the oldest type of large plant on earth. This valley houses the only members of the species found in Australia (I think I got that right, check me on that). In the very center of the valley is the Garden of Eden (that's the name I heard). Lush ancient vegetation. A pretty pool at the end of the stream running down the middle. Blue sky. Swimming. Very cold water. Lots of tired tourists. A walk out longer and a bit easier than going in. Absolutely astounding and confusing geology. Chunks of sandstone on the ground you can break like a soda cracker. Don't go near the edge of the frequent cliffs. For certain the whole thing could give under your weight. Better hurry to see this one. In a few hundred thousand years (an eyeblink, geologically speaking) the whole thing will crumble into a sandhill.

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