Lucy immediately checked on me: 你昨天进去了吗, 怎么样睡得着吗? I replied the very unfortunate night that I couldn’t even closed my eyes for longer than one hour. She commented: 你太紧张了，没关系的. Na ja, this is what you’ve got when you illegaly stayed #Constantly self-conscious.
Okay, so what did we do on Day 3? Welcome to our 3L Water Bottle Day! We tackled the 5-hour Kings Canyon Rim Walk.
How many liters did I actually finish? Barely 1.5L, haha! I think the 3L requirement is meant for the groups that start their walk around 10:00 AM or later, when the heat gets dangerous. We, on the other hand, started our hike at the exact same time as the day before 05:20 AM and finished by 10:00 AM-ish.
The absolute hardest part of this hike is the infamous “Heart Attack Hill” stairs. The steps are made entirely out of natural stones, so they are definitely not DIN-normed! 😉
Once you get past that, the pathway was pretty flat #Very walkable. Passing rock formation after rock formation, hit lookout after lookout, simply amazing!
Reaching the Garden of Eden means your hike is 75% complete! We got 20 minutes to take it all in before we had to keep moving toward the exit.
Most people ended their tour here, I would have done the exact same thing had our flight schedule cooperated. We had to stay one more day because flights to Adelaide don’t operate every day.
After the hike, there wasn’t much to do besides packing up, heading back to our very first campsite. “Ate” our last sunset in Northen Territory of Australia.
Matthew hast left earlier, which meant Dom got a cabin all to himself. I was definitely going to slip inside! still wanted to wait until Ryan was completely out of sight, until Lucy cut in: „He is dead tired, just go now“ I ended up falling asleep inside my swag for about 30 minutes before finally making my move to Dom’s cabin.
Day 4
No more waking up at 4:30 AM, for our last day, it was 7:30 AM! Heaven! After breakfast, we were dropped off at the cultural center, where we hung out, had lunch with Lucy and Phoebe until it was time to catch the shuttle bus to the Ayers Rock Airport. I also said goodbye to the Polish couple Monika and…. husband 😉
Thank you so much, Alice Springs + Uluru! What an absolute once-in-a-lifetime experience. Having never camped before, I’m thrilled my first time was in the heart of the Australian wilderness. I’m also so proud that my Wombat powered through it all!
I am so grateful:
- to be guided by Ryan ~ good luck at your new Job
- to have met Lucy & her family ~ I completely agree with you that “sometimes the most unforgettable trip is the worst one.” I certainly won’t forget this one! Don’t get me wrong, not that this trip was the “worst” it was just very different from what I’m used to. I was also so entertained by your “almost divorced Philippine trip” or “almost lost your daughter in Budapest trip”, though I’m hoping none of that will happen to me! “Knock on wood
- to have met my small sister Phoebe ~ thank you for your 月饼
- to have met Monika with her Bali’s vision ~ perhaps we see us there next year
This adventure was so much more fun, felt so much lighter and will forever be embroidered in my memory because of you all. Whenever you travel to Europe, please contact us! Hope to see you again, perhaps when we visit Australia next time. All the best, take care <3
Phoebe’s next flight to Sydney ended up being delayed until the following day, so she had to stay at the airport hotel. For us, our connection was still technically „possible“. I was told to check with the ground crew in Melbourne the moment we landed. We almost didn’t make our flight from Melbourne to Adelaide, but all that sprinting through the airport wasn’t in vain.
Good evening Adelaide!
Link for our Tour:
Uluru Tour with Kata Tjuta & Kings Canyon (Swag) | Adventure Tours Australia
Quote from Lucy: If you want to go camping in Uluru, this is perhaps the only option. Look at that, we have two doctors family, even they were on the same ‘crappy’ tour as us haha! #This woman is gold!