The "Fun" Walk

After surviving a second night in the Outback with no dingo attacks, we packed up camp again and headed into King's Canyon for another hike. This time, the hike was about 6k in length, most of which was a pretty doable up and down rocks and such. However, the first 150m was a steep climb up rock steps that was affectionately nicknamed "Heart Attack Hill." Justine called this the "fun" walk. When I heard this, I thought I might have a heart attack at the thought of having to climb such things. Again, for all my Lancaster peeps, it reminded me of our "wee walk" with Graeme down to the mermaids! But, slowly and surely, I made my way up the mountain to the rim of the canyon where a gorgeous hike awaited.

One of the greatest things about Justine's guiding skills is her vast knowledge of the area. During the hike, she was able to tell us what parts of the canyon the aborginal people used for what. She was also able to talk about the surrounding plants and discuss how these were used as well. By the end of our hike (which took about 3 hours), we knew which plants were used to create different parts of a spear. It's amazing to think how resourceful the aboriginals were and makes you wonder why the European settlers took their intelligence for granted. Aaaahhh, history!

After the hike, we jumped back onto the bus, headed back to camp and had lunch before hitting the road. AJ, after proving his skills with the damper, was put on barbie duty, where he grilled up chicken. The rest of us began fighting with the dreaded Outback flies. We were lucky that they didn't come out until then, because for the short hour that they were around during our visit, it was almost torture to have them around. You were constantly swatting around your face and head to rid yourself of the pests. At one point, I made eye contact with AJ and he said, "I hate my life." Yup, that's how terrible they were.

So, we were all happy to jump back on the bus and drive away from the flies when it was time to leave. It was about a five hour trek back to Alice Springs, so we all settled in to our seats to read or sleep or do whatever else we needed to do to make the time pass. Like any good tour guide, Justine introduced us to a fun song about Australia that has hand gestures to it, so we asked for another round of "Home Among the Gum Trees," whose chorus sings:

Give me a home among the gum trees
with lots of plum trees.
A sheep or two
and a kangaroo.
A clothesline out the back.
A miranda out the front.
And an old rocking chair.

Anyone who needs to know the hand motions, please see me upon my return! ;-) As we sang our last round of "Gum Tree," Justine invited us to meet her out for dinner and drinks at Annie's Place (another hostel in Alice) around 8pm. So, once we were dropped off back at our hostel, we showered up and began our walk to the other hostel. About half of the tour participants came out to play, and play we did.

After dinner and a couple of beers, we all decided to continue our evening at Bojangles (which you might remember from one of our earlier blogs). The catch with Bo's is that they have a live stream to the internet so that folks around the world can logon and see what you're up to. They can also buy you drinks. So, we thought for a moment about who would care enough about us to watch us live on the internet, and the answer was easy: my mother! We picked up our mobile, gave her a rang, and with just a little information (going to a bar, can watch us online), my mom was able to stalk her way through the internet to watch us dance our bums off on the Bojangles dance floor. One of her first remarks when we called her the next day? "Tell AJ that the facial hair looks good on him, but it might be getting a bit too long now!" Such a mom! =)

In addition to my mother's online participation, we were joined by Jane, Rachel and Jema (from the UK), Dan (from Canada), Jen (from the US) and Krystine (from Germany). Justine was also there, but was on the other side of the bar for most of the night. Like you might expect, I was quick to take some self portraits, and I even got one of all of us!

After a fantastic last night in Alice, we headed back to our hostel and climbed into bed. We needed to leave for the airport on the 11:30 shuttle, and we still had a little souvenir shopping to do, so we had to drag ourselves out of bed early to get everything in. But before that, we just enjoyed a good night's rest outside of a swag!