Camel Riding at Uluru

Mon., Oct. 28 - We were up early Monday morning, ready to get on to our next Australian adventure. At 5:15 a.m. in the hotel room, I decided to turn on the television to see if by chance there would be an Australian channel that would possibly give some football scores, since at this time back home the early Sunday afternoon football games were in full swing. Well, to my surprise, I didn't find football scores; instead I found an actual football game being shown live. And to my delight, it happened to be the Saints game. So I got to watch 15 minutes of the New Orleans Saints game before departing - another one of the many things I can do in Australia, but can't do in Pittsburgh. We headed to the Darwin airport for an early flight to Alice Springs. The town of Alice Springs sits pretty much in the middle of Australia, and is in fact known, along with the surrounding areas, as the "Red Centre". This part of Australia is desert, very hot and very dry. Our time spent in Alice Springs on Monday just consisted of a layover at the airport. We had a 4 hour layover, which thanks to our travel partners Tom and Tricia, who have racked up the miles with Qantas and have privileges in the Qantas lounge, we spent a relaxing time using the free wi-fi (which is how I got caught up on my last blog), and enjoying the complimentary food and drinks. Continuing our journey, we flew from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock. Ayers Rock is still in the Northern Territory, located in the very southwest corner of the territory, not far from the border with the state of Western Australia. The town of Ayers Rock is best known for its massive, monolithic, gelogical feature - a big red rock - that sits smack dab in the middle of the country. The rock itself is also known as Ayers Rock (in addition to the town), but generally goes by the aboriginal name of Uluru. It is perhaps (along with the Sydney opera house) one of Australia's most famous icons. We got our first glimpse of Uluru from the air as we flew in.

At the Ayers Rock airport, we rented a car and drove to the Desert Gardens Hotel, where we had a view of "the rock" from our hotel room.

Later that evening Tom, Tricia, Joe, and I headed out for a camel-riding adventure. After climbing aboard our camels - Tom and Tricia sitting atop "Spinifex", affectionately known as "Spinnie", and Joe and I aboard "Chester" - we rode off into the sunset (okay, corny) for a "sunset viewing" of Uluru. The most precarious part of the camel ride was getting on and off the camel. The camels were lying on the ground when we got on. Then they got up by rising on their hind legs first, and then they stood completely up by getting their front legs up. So when their hind legs are up, and their front legs are still down, the riders are tilted forward. We were told to sit back in our seats as far as we can to counter this effect. Fortunately, none of us ended up face down in the red Australian dirt. When we got to the sunset viewing area, we paused to watch the awesome effects of the sunset on Uluru, how the rock changed colors and how the shadows crept across the rock as the sun set. It was a truly spectacular sight! After the camel ride, the hosts provided us with generous complimentary snacks and drinks, including beer and wine. Yet another fantastic Australian adventure!