Alice springs, the rock tour and Coober Pedy

Alice springs, the rock tour and coober pedy
In the previous two tours we heard a lot of negative stories about Alice springs, especially about the native people living there. All these stories that include rapings, beatings, muggings and killings were confirmed by our tour guide and it is a fact that the most part of all unwanted incidents occur by the aboriginal people in Alice springs even though it is a city that has about 29000 inhabitants out of 23 million Australians. Due to all these stories Brendan and I were quite cautious and a bit scared. During our first our we already saw a argument between an aboriginal lady and a shuttle bus driver and two aboriginal people warned us not to walk trough the city when it is dark.
When you are there you can feel he tension between the white fellas and aboriginals, as there is such an awful lot of racism.
However on our way to the restaurant (Bojingles is a must to see in Alice spings) we met some very nice aboriginal girls that wanted us to tells us about a dreaming that she was experiencing and making (a dreaming is a painting that is considered to come from something divine/nature force). Somehow I was very prejudged and were holding my wallet in case it was a robbery. However I got away with a god bless you for being kind to them and respecting them.
After this I was so mad about myself that I can be influenced so badly by other people and I decided not to mind those stories and follow my own instincts. The next day I greeted every aboriginal in a respectful manner a d found out that they don't are that bad after all and I was proud of myself that I found my flaw and try to better it.

However the most interesting things of my week were off course the tour and Coober Pedy.
On Wednesday morning we were picked up from my hostel at 6 am and started the drive to Uluru, the biggest rock in the world (like an iceberg only the tip is visible the rest of the 60 km is located in the earths crust).
When we arrived it was overcast and about 28 degrees Celsius instead of the forecasted 45+. It was the perfect day for a walk around Uluru. Truth be told the rock up close is quite boring and it was a disappointment. It was a 10.6 km walk around it answered were not allowed to climb it even though it was the perfect weather for it (I was quite pissed about that, even though climbing the rock is for aboriginal people like pooping in a Saint Peters for Catholics).
After the base walk we went to see the sun set and Uluru was supposed to get all kind of red shadings, but due to the overcast this was not the case.
On day two we went to see Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). The weather was the same as yesterday and the wind made it even quite chilly. Kata Tjuta is the rock formation 48 km away from Uluru and in my opinion so much more beautiful that I don't get the fuzz about Uluru.
We were going to walk the valley of the winds which was amazing.
We saw some euros (a kind of kangaroo/wallaby) and some other animals. Brendan and I also came across Oktay (the guy I made the lightning pictures with) and Jasmin and some other people from our previous tours. The walk was amazing with some beautiful views of the outback.
The next day we went to kings canyon, which is a canyon with palm trees in the middle of the outback. The walk we did started with the notorious "heart attack hill" and again we were happy that the weather was cool, the last week (when it wasn't even 40 degrees) 3 people had to be transported by helicopter from that place because it is so exhausting (Imagine us doing this in the predicted 45 degrees).
The rest of the walk was not that hard and I really enjoyed the views and especially the one of "the garden of Eden".
the last thing on the tour that I have done is some camel riding. In the beginning it feels quite weird but you can use the same techniques as horse riding for not crushing your ball when it is galloping (luckily I got some experience from horse riding in Canada, Estonia and Slovenia).

During the days in the outback we did not experience any of the high temperatures and on every picture that I made you can see a lot of green trees and shrubbery. It actually was a total mind blow as I expected red sand and rocks and not much more. We also got rain a couple of times which does not really make sense in a desert.

On Saturday we went to Coober Pedy, the driest place in Australia.
We slept in a dorm 6.5 m below ground and somehow no dorm room had a door or walls, thus it was quite easy to spot the girls in their female dorm next door.
Though it was about 40 degrees outside our dorms were between 15-20 degrees. I actually were cold during the night.
The next morning we went up to see a proper sunrise (as the ones with the tour didn't work out because the clouds). We set our alarm to 4:30 to be there in time however the sun didn't rise before 6:30 so we were playing carcassone and ticket to ride to keep ourselves busy in a almost dead town. However the sunrise was worth waiting for.
Afterwards we went looking for some opals and we found quite a few, unfortunately they are not worth more than a dollar or so.
During the day we walked through the town a bit and just before we had to catch the greyhound Brendan and I shared a 45 cm pizza with emu and kangaroo meat and it was delicious. So when in Coober Pedy do go to John's pizza place to get one (he also got prizes for best Australian pizzas).
When we left Coober Pedy (the driest place of the second driest country) it was raining quite badly. Some people actually were quite soaked. Due to all the rain and clouds we experienced I can't really say I've experienced the outback, cause somehow the "bad" weather followed us across the country making my outback experience bearable.

Up next is Adelaide where Brendan and I will rent a car to drive the great ocean road to Melbourne where I will depart to New Zealand.