#also woah it is now 2 am!! time flies. gonna go & try to fall asleep again goodnight everyone

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who up experiencing the horrors

[manateeinaustralia-blog]

I didn’t die in the Outback!

Lots of surviving to get to the thriving 

Hello! So the day before I left for this trip I had my third field trip and we went to the wildlife sanctuary to do our ropes course. It was really cool because we learned to clip ourselves into each part of the course so we were free to go on without guides and then we were up in the trees doing ziplines and rickety ass swing steps and stuff. The coolest part was a long zipline over the kangaroos and crocodiles in the park. 

Okay so Kelsey and I honestly had no idea what the itinerary for the Outback trip was because #fuckStudentFlights but we had the general info we needed. So Friday morning we were up at 3 am to go to the airport and take a 6 AM flight to Sydney then flew to Ayer’s Rock airport. We got off the plane in Ayer’s Rock and it was Africa hot. We found our tour group and got on the bus and everyone looked like death and I was like okay great start! (Found out later they had been driving for hours and were up at 4:30). We got to the Cultural Center and started to realize they aren’t kidding when they say the outback is the land of 10 billion flies. Back on the bus and we get to know our tour guide, Tahnee. She’s maybe 24 years old and Australian. She is so cool and fun and has been a tour guide for this company for a year and a half but wants to do something new so is just picking up and moving to Cambodia to tour guide. But we were her last tour and so she said “Guys I’m gonna change up the itinerary a little bit to make it as awesome as possible for you and me. Just trust me.” So I’m like okay Tahnee let’s go girl. We had 23 people in our bus and everyone was awesome. Two from Australia (including Tahnee’s best friend Mel who came for her last tour), some Swiss, Italian, German, Danish, British, Chinese, and Kelsey and me from the US. 

So our first hike on Friday was in the middle of the day and it was HOT. Also Kelsey and I had been up for a long time so it was rough. We hiked at Uluru, which is a sacred spot for the Aboriginal people. However, tourists always choose to climb it despite all the signs asking them not to. It is offensive to the Aboriginal people, destroys the rock, and ruins the surrounding ecosystem. It’s very steep and people were dying falling off so part of it has a chain people can hang onto even though they don’t want people climbing. But in an effort to get people to stop, the nearest help that will come get you is several hours away. But good news!! I just found out today that climbing will officially be banned at Uluru in two years! So then on our hike we saw the men’s and women’s caves and heard Aboriginal legends. Then Kelsey and I survived a sandstorm no biggie then this girl Julia just faints. And we were like ah shit here we go dehydration why you do this. She was okay but like honestly I was close to faking fainting so this hike would stop. Thanks for taking one for the team Julia! 

Then we drove to watch the sun set on Uluru from another spot and our tour group had bought booze before they picked us up from the airport so Tati and Flo (the most wonderful German couple ever) gave me some white wine. But since we hadn’t eaten in 7 hours and I was dehydrated I was like woah am I drunk? I kinda was.  

Sunset at Uluru

Then we went to our campsite and everyone ate chicken stirfry like animals cause we were ravenous then we set up our swags. So turns out a swag is not what I posted earlier. It’s basically a boxy sleeping bag with a little pad mattress inside and a sleeping bag goes into it and you zip yourself into it. Your head is exposed and Kelsey and I were like so if something comes out of the grass right there and kills us, we’re already zipped into our body bags so it will be convenient to get us out of here! Also the campsite over was having a rager and as I was trying to fall asleep on the ground, under the beautiful Milky Way galaxy, in the outback, preparing to get eaten by dingos, listening to Nelly’s ‘Hot in Herre’, I was just like “What is my life right now?” 

The next morning we were up at 3:45 AM for the sunrise but it was okay because Tahnee had her speaker on to wake us up and I woke up under the stars to ‘Here comes the sun’. Much better than my iphone alarm. We went to a spot where you can see Uluru and Kata Tjata (pronounced Kat-ah Jar-a) and I got some beautiful photos

Then we went to our hike at Kata Tjata and it was a lot better because we did it in the morning despite it being harder terrain. You had to really watch your footing and at one part it was basically an 80 degree incline wall you had to just run up and we all did it then turned around and saw a 70ish year old women take it like a champ and I was like oh cool same. But again the gain was worth the pain. 

After our hike, we lowkey were stranded on the road for like two hours cause we were waiting on someone to meet up with us and give us more fuel. We got some oranges and I was like SWEET MANNA FROM HEAVEN. 

Then we stopped at a pool and swam and ate lunch then were back on the road to go to our campsite cause it was about a 5 hour drive. On the way, Tahnee pulled over once for us to look at a salt lake: 

And another time to collect firewood. So she pulls over and again we are in bumfuck middle of the desert and she goes “Okay so we’re gonna grab some firewood. Here’s what you do if you see a snake and it looks like it’s gonna attack. (tells us). Okay let’s go.”

Kelsey and I looked at each other and just burst out laughing like okay what. But yeah we did it anyways cause ya know we needed firewood but this was my reaction to the snake warning 

That night we learned to make damper, which is Australian bread with no set recipe, learned a fun Australian song and dance, and then Tahnee told us about the next day’s hike. So she says it’s at King’s Canyon and we’re gonna get to the top of it for sunrise so we’re getting up at 3AM again and I’m like yeah old news. Then she said she can’t let us go if we don’t have at least 3 liters of water because people straight up die of dehydration and she can lose her job if a ranger sees we aren’t drinking enough. It’s about a 3.5 hour hike and the second half has no shade. Then she says we have to stay at least 2 meters from the edge of the canyon at all times because the rock is really weak and people die all the time because they fall into the canyon and help can’t come for like 12 hours. Finally, she says to get to the top of King’s canyon, we have to climb Heart Attack hill...there’s a defibrillator at the top. Wow thanks Tahnee!! So excited for tomorrow!!! But she really has to tell everyone those things because it can be really dangerous and she would feel awful if anything happened to us. That night I fell asleep under the most beautiful sky again, saw 2 shooting stars, and listened to her friend play acoustic guitar. 

The next morning, we climbed Heart Attack hill. In the dark. The rest of the hike seemed like a breeze even though it was rough terrain. But of course Tahnee was right, the view of sunrise at the top of King’s canyon was worth it. 

Gotta risk it to get the biscuit!

Inside the Garden of Eden (bottom of the Canyon)

When we were finished, it was only 8:30 AM and after some more driving, we arrived at our lunch spot where we saw more warning signs about snakes. Everywhere we went were warning signs about dehydration, dingos, snakes, bees coming out of faucets?, and other scary shit. Along the drive I saw some wild horses and then we went to a camel farm!! So the government pays people to kill camels but this guy brings them to his farm and they give people a one minute ride maybe once a week so they’re in a much better space. He also rehabilitates wild kangaroos that have been hit by cars then releases them back into the wild. Weirdly, this place sells camel burgers and I was like ummmmmm...guess I’ll just ignore that?

Camels are really tall!

With hiking and driving, we covered about 932 miles this weekend. That night we went to our hostels in Alice Springs. The tour was technically over, but Tahnee invited us out to dinner to say goodbye. I really liked everyone in my tour group and we all added each other on Facebook so I’m like haha let me stay at your houses when I visit please! Overall, the outback definitely kicked our asses but everything was so worth it. 10/10 would recommend. 

Signing off xoxo