Kings Canyon, NT, Australia

Kings Canyon – Otherwise known as the destination for or final trek of the tour. This time covering 6.4km… not as much as our previous treks, but this one was a lot tougher; more hills, more height and more sweat!!!

Kings Creek Station, NT, Australia

Kings Creek Station – Otherwise known as our final destination of our Groovy Grape trip. Here we slept in our swags for the final time… sad times!! I was in the company of many a creature… horses, dogs, lizards and camels to name a few! An amazing place :).

Journal Entry

29/11 – ‘4.45am wakeup call!! We got up way too early for my liking as we had a fairly lengthy journey to Kata Tjuta. We arrived just in time to watch the sunrise and take many photos. Me and Lesley… as usual we laughed ourselves to death over us taking photos – the photograph says it all!!

We then had yummy pancakes for breakfast looking over Kata Tjuta – amazing :).

After breaky, we then headed off to start our trek through Kata Tjuta. The walk is called Valley Of The Winds, at a total of 7.4km.

This walk was amazing. A lot more hilly than Uluru, but the views we got were well worth the climb. Took lots of photos again! And I laughed lots more with Lesley, this girl is infectious!! I made sure I drank plenty of water today; I didn’t want a repeat of yesterday! This however meant that by the middle of the walk, my bladder was near bursting point!! I’d much rather that though than go through another day of dehydration!!

After running to the toilets to release myself, we headed back to camp for a burger lunch in the sun. The heat was crazy by this point! And to think some people didn’t start their walk round Kata Tjuta till after lunch, it must have been unbearable!!

After we filled ourselves up it was time to tidy up camp and fill the bus ready to head off to our next destination. I took a few photos of camp, so I wouldn’t forget it… and of course the bus too!!

We drove just over three hours to get to Kings Creek Station, our final destination to rest our heads for the week! Unfortunately it would be our last night in our swags :(. After parking the bus at our camp, myself, Linda, Sabine and Jaqamine headed off to ride the camels!

15 minutes of riding the camels was ace fun!! Vicki and Mable were our two camels for today… almost like riding a horse… just a bit stranger I guess?!!

We headed back to camp where we got supper, pasta and garlic bread. As usual we all sat together, this time round the camp fire, chatting away. Myself and Lesley somehow managed to get it in our heads that sitting on our tiny wee stools in the Buddha position would be funny!!

After much chatting and laughing by the fire, we headed off to bed for the last time :(. Tonight was our last night in our swags, so we obviously took photos to remember the moment!!

Had an awesome sleep yet again ready for our last early start to our trip…”

Uluru Continued…

Journal Entry

28/11 – “Woke up at 5.20am this morning to watch the sunrise. Again, it looked awesome :). We headed back for camp to grab our breakfast before we headed off for Uluru to do our 10km walk around the base of the rock.

Uluru Resort, NT, Australia

Uluru Resort – Otherwise known as the infamous rock that will forever be related with Australia. The views on this part of land are amazing. Out of this world. No wonder the Aboriginals want to keep this part of land as sacred and untouched as possible. Visitors are given the chance to climb Uluru, but Aboriginals ask you not to, purely down to the fact that it’s their land and that’s the way it should stay.

Journal Entry : Part Two

27/11 – “It was now time to head for our campsite that would be home for the next two nights. Uluru Resort. We had a nice big area to lay our swags, and a long dining table for us to have our meals at. Most importantly… there were showers and flushable toilets!! All of us grabbed a much needed shower and chilled out for most of the afternoon while Rob was away collecting some food for supper.

Next up, we headed to the Uluru Cultural Centre where we learnt about the Aboriginals, and how they survived out in the heat with little food. With the food, like plants and seeds, it was really a case of; try it out… if you live… you can eat it! Simple!

We then discovered an unusual book called the Sorry Book, which contained a large number of letters received from people all over the world, who had taken a stone or rock from Uluru. According to Aboriginals, if you take a piece of Uluru, or a stone from the surrounding area, you will be brought bad luck! Going by these letters (the stones were returned with them), a lot of bad luck had come their way! Somehow a couple from Adelaide managed to get a 33kg rock back home – I wonder how much bad luck they got!!

We then headed back to camp, and got together some biscuits and cheese to take up to the lookout point to watch Uluru at sunset. We also took some wine too, to celebrate the occasion! The sunset was amazing… love sunsets :). Took lots of photos!! After some mingling around chatting with everyone, we headed back to camp where Rob had already started on the supper… Mexican wraps- yum!!

After a few more drinks tonight, we got chatting more with Lesley (Scottish quine!), Rachel, Adrian (British couple), Eric, and Sarah. We all sat round with our drinks and some Jubes (fruit pastel type sweets!!) and chatted the night away before  heading back to the lookout point where we’d be sleeping, ready to wake up and watch the sunrise at Uluru. Me and Lesley spent most of tonight giggling about the word ‘swag’!! using the word ‘swag’ in every sentence and calling each other swags!! We were a little boozy!!”

Part One

Stuart Highway Layby Continued…

Journal Entry : Part One

27/11 – “This morning we were rudely awaken by REALLY strong winds! At 4am, we ended up having to get out of our swags, tidy everything up into the bus and head off. So, so tired at this point. It didn’t help that the wind was picking up all the bright red sand, making us all have a very sexy hint of orange to our hair, clothes and faces!! Yum!

Clare & Melrose, SA, Australia

Clare & Melrose –  Otherwise known as the beginnings of my experience in the Outback! As I sat in the back of the mini bus driving along the roads with some tunes blaring out the speakers, I had an array of views to look at. Through Clare, we had masses upon masses of vineyards. South Australia is famous for its wine, and even holds the like of Jacobs Creek wine here… yum yum!! Melrose sat at the base of a beautiful mountain, and the very beginnings of the Flinders Ranges. Amazing.