We arrived in Alice Springs in the early
evening and decided since we didn’t want to wrestle with our make-shift window
at the back of the truck to get all of our camping gear out we decided to find
a hostel for the night. I picked a place at random out of our guidebook and I
was pretty nervous about it because I usually use websites with guest comments
before picking a hostel but I think I chose well anyway. The owners of the
hostel are super friendly and the place just has a good vibe.
Once we had checked in and settled into our
room we headed out for dinner. Jesse was craving crocodile so we headed to a
restaurant that allegedly sold crocodile steaks, unfortunately that was a piece
of misinformation but I'm glad we ended up there. The restaurant was called
Overlanders Steakhouse and if it hasn’t been featured on Man Vs. Food yet then
it should be with their 2kg ‘t-rex’ steak. It was a pretty unique restaurant. The menus were printed
daily and contained an interesting fact from this day in history and the
following days weather forecast for several major cities around the country.
The décor was rustic with a lot of farming tools mounted on the wall and music
by John Williamson (Australia’s version of Stompin’ Tom) echoed through the
dining room. Jesse had a pretty run-of-the-mill meal with sausages made of
crocodile, emu, kangaroo, and camel. I on the other hand was very adventurous
and had spaghetti bolognese.
The next day our first order of business
was to try to get the car fixed. We headed into ARB and I was very excited to
learn they actually had the part we needed in stock and only slightly
disappointed when they told us we would have to wait until Saturday to get it
in the shop. Since this meant we were going to have some time to kill we ended
up having a lazy day. We did some window-shopping around town, grabbed a bite
to eat, and then headed to the cinema to watch Captain Phillips. Most of the
evening was spent relaxing at the hostel, something we desperately needed to do
after the dramas over the past few days.
Since we are still on an adventure we
decided not to let the wait to get the car fixed keep us stagnant so the
following morning we made the trip to Uluru or Ayers Rock. Visiting this giant
rock has been on my list of things to do since I arrived in Australia and since
our original plan was to follow the coast around the country I didn’t think I
was going to be able to tick that box so I was pretty stoked about this
opportunity.
We spent four or five hours on the road before arriving
at the site full of historical and cultural significance for aboriginals. There
are many hikes around Uluru and another nearby rock formation known as ‘The
Olgas’ but the park puts restrictions on hikes when the temperature is above 36
degrees and since it was a scorching 41 degrees when we arrived we had limited
options. Surprisingly the 10.6km walk around the walk was still open but not
recommended in the heat so we decided to drive around instead. The sunrises and
sunsets at Uluru are supposed to be magical as they make the rock glow red so I
was looking forward to the show when we perched ourselves atop a hill along
with about a hundred other tourists. Unfortunately the sky was quite cloudy and
we didn’t get the display we were hoping for but it was still a pretty
magnificent image in its natural state.
The previous night we went through the
hassle of untying and untaping everything at the back of the truck to fish out
our camping gear so we could stay at a free campground down the highway from
Uluru. We didn’t think to grab the hammer until after we had resecured
everything so getting the tent pegs into the ground was a challenge but we
managed to get the tent up without much hassle.
This morning we headed back to the rock to
do one of the hikes. Jesse wanted to make it back to Alice Springs in time to
check out a didgeridoo workshop so we opted for one of the shorter hikes. We
made our way from the car park to the watering hole where a spirit is said to
still live today, stopping along the way to read a few of the many legends of
how the rock came to be. I think the walk would be better during the wet season
when waterfalls are trickling over the edges of the monster rock but it was
still incredible, we even saw some cave paintings from many, many years ago.
After our hike we climbed back in the car
and made our way back to Alice Springs. We were a few minutes late for the
didgeridoo workshop and probably still could have joined in but Jesse said he
was too hungry to care so we grabbed some lunch before heading into town to
pick up a few souvenirs.
We had originally planned on camping
tonight but when we finished up in town it looked like a storm was going to
blow into town and our tent has seen better days so I suggested we stay at a
hostel instead. So far it hasn’t rained a single drop and no longer looks like
it’s going to but there isn’t much I can do about that now. I'm just happy to
have a comfy bed to sleep in for the night.
Tomorrow morning we are taking the truck in
to get fixed (hopefully it will only take an hour or two) and then the plan is
to make our way to South Australia. I’m hoping to make it to a town called
Coober Pedy, a small town known for opal mining that also has underground
campsites. You better believe we will be staying at one of those campsites just
to try to mix things up a little and keep life interesting.
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