Marc & Nora ROUND THE WORLD 2005/2006 - Join us!

After 5 months in Australia it was time to visit the red centre....the "Big Red Beating Heart of Australia" to quote Steve Irwin. We booked ourselves onto a 3 1/2 day tour of Kings Canyon, Ayers Rock (Uluru) and the Olgas (Kata Tjuta). We really enjoyed ourselves and met some funny people onboard the tour bus inluding some mad middle aged Italian women called Donnatella who didn't speak a word of English...really not a single word! But that didn't stop her as she would just continue to talk in Italian to you. Most people lost their patience with her after about 5 minutes but not Nora. Nora became the official translator for Donnatella even though after 3 days she would still get her name wrong (Nara, Laura etc). "Donnatella Disastro" became the phrase of the trip!

As for the rock, well it is really big (9km around the base) and really red (lots of iron content) and really rocky! Amazing to think though that it really is just a single piece of solid rock unlike a mountain which is made up from many smaller rocks. We got to see two sunsets and 1 sunrise over the rock and I believe all were cloudy...the luck of Marc & Nora strikes again. Still we got the compulsory photos of the big red rock. We walked around the base of the rock (9km) however we weren't allowed to climb it as it was closed for cultural reasons (I think this is always the case these days as the rightful owners, the aborigines, don't really like you climbing their sacred route anyway)

We slept in tents for two nights then on the final night we built up the courage to sleep in swags which are just like heavy duty outdoor sleeping bags with holes at the top and bottom just so the snakes and venomous spiders don't get trapped inside!!!!

We met some very interesting and funny people - amongst others a couple from the french part of switzerland, nicole and bertrand. my god, wot a funny pair! Nicole is NOT into camping and outdoor stuff at all and when she arrived at the bush camp and saw her 'new home' for the next 3 nights her face turned white immediately!

It was in fact Bertrand's dream to do this tour and brave Nicole joined him even though this may was her biggest nightmare! But i m sure that meanwhile she can smile about the whole experience as the deal between them two was that he gets his ayers rock adventure tour and nicole gets 2 days shopping in hong kong on their way back to europe.

ouch! i can almost guarantee that bertrand will have to dig deep into his pockets to compensate nicole for her nightmare trip (hongkongs shops dont close but stay open all night! - double ouch bertrand!)

then there were some Germans - 2 really nice girls and some very strange blokes (one has been living in melbourne for a year to write his thesis and he couldnt stop talking about how much he hates australia and how much he hates his ROSTBRATWURST...)

We trekked into the middle of the Olgas range and also around the rim of Kings Canyon which was fantastic. We even climbed down into the canyon to go swimming in an ice cold water hole.

On the way back to Alice Springs we stopped off at a road house which was home to the imfamous Dinky the singing Dingo (search in Google and you'll be surprised just how famous he is). In order for Dinky to demonstrate his singing talents somebody need sto play the piano. Upstepped Nora to take on the challenge and within seconds Nora's horrific playing had the dingo screaming before he jumped up onto the keyboard to help Nora out with her playing. Pretty funny!

we also had a stroll through rainbow valley and could see the fantastic colour combinations of the outback - red, green, blue and pink

on our return we all went for a barbie (last one in australia) and explored alice spring's nightlife! WOW! that is quite interesting! we entered a bar and the women in there looked pretty weird - for 4 hours or so we wondered whether they were actually men in women clothing or ugly women after a sexual transformation...

a night we all wont forget - i was so impressed by the looks of some of these menwomen that i had to take a photo. have a look yourself! wot is that?

All in all it was a perfect end to our Australian adventure and gave us a long lasting impression of a fantastic continent that will last for years after we finish this trip...Next stop Auckland, New Zealand (Via sydney)