From Leaving Cairns airport and the great views as we flew over the outback. We had arrived in Alice Springs. We didn’t really know much about it tbh, we hadn’t done out research we literally flew there as that was where our ‘Rock to Water’ tour started. Now it's not a location I’d go to just to go there if you get what I mean. There isn’t much to see there, However, we were staying at a great hostel. Jump Inn Alice.

We were staying in Alice springs for two nights, we probably could have done with just one. The hostel was newly renovated, Super clean rooms, the comfiest hostel bed that we slept on in a while. and a great bar area and incredible food. We luckily overheard that they were doing a taster evening but needed photos. That’s where I came in. I shot there entire menu and we got to eat any of the food we wanted and given a 150 dollar tab behind the bar, which we used for the second day’s food and drink. Winner winner.

Fast forward to the morning of the Groovy Grape ‘Rock to water’ tour. The long bus picked us up, with a trailer on the back for all the camping gear and our bags. Greeted by Dan the guide and given a glass pen to write out our name and draw out flag of our country on our window, as an icebreaker, group exercise. Quickly the whole bus was talking as we set off on the tour. Dan telling us about aboriginal stories with some of the rocks we were passing. Something along the lines of an evil wizard chasing some of the sisters.

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We pulled over on the side of the road, and all when to get some firewood. Dozens of burnt trees from the burning regeneration. One of the funnier moments Mark, Jack and I hanging off one branch to snap it to have me falling on my ass, taking the branch on my should giving it a small cut. Walking back over to Dan saying I should clean it out, as the tree is poisonous. Even the trees wanna kill you in Australia.

Our next stop after was a little shop to buy some alcohol. I wish I brought some beforehand. 30 dollars for 2 litres of goon as apposed to 10 dollars for 5 litres usually. And you could literally buy sand and shit in a bag.

Shortly after we finally arrived at Uluru. The big famous red rock which some people know as Ayer’s Rock. We had a walk around there fully without our guide to just take it in ourselves. It was pretty amazing. We then went to the learning centre to learn a little about it and watched a video.

We later went to the camping grounds, We started the communal cooking, grabbed a swag each and rolled them out. If you don’t know what a swag is, because I didn’t. It’s basically a thick sleeping bag with a thin mattress on the bottom. and that’s it, we slept under the stars in just that. it was awesome, I’ve never seen the stars so clear with my eyes. So being in a desert, you’d think it was hot, however, at night it dropped to -5, pretty cold considering we were used to like 36 degrees in Queensland for a while. I stupidly got out to go to the toilet at like 4 am, Walked over to a bush, and literally jumped out of my skin thinking it was a dingo, as there aren’t any fences. Luckily it was just a rabbit or hare of some sort. That wasn’t the stupid part, the stupid part was getting back into my now cold swag and trying to get back to sleep. Safely to say I wrapped up warmer the next night.

Right, so Day 2! We walked around Uluru again but taken to certain spots and learn about it in more depth from Dan. We had the option to climb it, but the more we learnt more about it, we found it it’s heavily disrespectful to the aboriginal people. Watering holes polluted due to visitors urinating on top and many more factors. So out of our whole tour group of 15 ish only two went climbing. See the photos below. After Uluru, we went back near our camp to a point of higher ground to watch the sunset to finish off an incredible day.

Day 3 we woke up early to watch sunrise Kata Tjuta. A famous rock formation that a lot of people say looks like Homer Simpson laying down. This is quite a very busy tourist spot, considering it was so early and a bit out the way, it was packed. The sunrise was so gradual and off in the distance you can also see Uluru.

The night stop was our first proper hike of the trip. Valley of the Winds. Luckily we didn’t do this during the summer as its nicknamed Valley of the Flies. The views were pretty cool, It reminded me of a TV show I used to watch as a kid ‘The Land Before Time’. I was just waiting for a dinosaur to pop out. On the hike, you see a lot of rock formations that resemble things. Like the famous Cheser Cat or The Elephant. See photos below to check them out. We finished off day 3 by heading to the famous spot where everyone takes a photo in front of Uluru in the distance. Check out Part 4 of my travel video to catch shots of the outback!.

More of the outback in the next blog!