Adventures in Nannying: Sheesh

Even though I've been here a week, I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that I'm really here! As I write this all out, I'm not even in Alice Springs-- I'm quite literally in a car in the middle of absolutely nowhere, somewhere between Curtin Springs Station and Alice on the way home from Ayers Rock (Uluru). The shocking red of the dirt and green of the brush (crazy for it to be so green, but they've had a LOT of rain here lately) against the blue sky is just an incredible sight.

But to catch you up...

Yesterday we took a daytrip picnic to Ormiston Gorge, which was a little over an hour from our starting point. The mountain ranges in the distance were fun to watch, but other than that, there wasn't much to look at besides dirt and brush on the way.

As we went further and further out I was starting to wonder where we could possibly be picnic-ing at since the scenery wasn't really changing. But then all of a sudden we were surrounded by beautiful white gum trees and small creeks, and we pulled into the parking lot of a nature park.

After lunch, we put our things back in the car and took off down a trail. After just a few minutes, we came to a clearing and this:

Dianne, Sam, Jaiquen, Kellianne, and Milla headed down the trail

Just gorgeous

People were swimming, but it was too cold for me!

Almost everyone climbed around on the rocks and trees, and just basically enjoyed the gorgeous day and location.

Me and Jakey climbing around

The three of us got adventurous and climbed over to this cave

Milla had a blast in the water!

It was a great day! Sam and Kellianne were surprised neither of them had been there before and vowed to go back soon.

Awesome day!

******

Today, as I mentioned before, Sam, Sue, Jaiquen, and I took a daytrip out to Ayers Rock. We left this morning at 5:30 AM since its a 4 hour (give or take) drive one way.

On the way to the rock, we passed a few slower-moving cars, one of which was pulling a trailer with a few dirtbikes on it. When we stopped at the first of the only 2 gas stations ("petrol stations") between Alice and our destination, the same dirtbike-towing SUV we had passed earlier pulled up. A lady stepped out of the backseat and yelled, "Sue!! What the hell are you doing out here?!"

It ended up being an old good friend of Sue's (Sue lived here almost 10 years ago). That friend had since moved to Queensland and was only in the area for a random dirtbike event for her son, so it was like lightning in a bottle for them to pull into the same gas station in the middle of nowhere at the same time 10 years later. Crazy, huh? As we walked off, I told Sue "Only YOU would be in the middle of the Outback, barely anyone around, and still run into someone you know..."

We got to Ayer's Rock and went toward the climbing trail, debating if we wanted to climb or not. After my less-than-spectacular performance climbing Mt. Gillen a few days ago and my lack of sturdy shoes, I was thinking I probably shouldn't, and Sam wasn't acting too much like he wanted to either.

On the way to the base of the rock

To climb, or not to climb?

After taking a few pictures at the base, we looked up the rock a little ways, decided it didn't look so tough, and set off.

It's sideways, but we're on our way up!

We are tiny dots up there!

Yeah......So..... The first part WASN'T so tough. At the point where it starts getting pretty steep, there's a chain you can hold onto that will lead you 3/4 of the way up.

"Cake-walk..." I thought to myself, grabbing the chain.

(I really must make God laugh).

The chain was there for good reason, it seems, because it gets very steep there. And with my street shoes on, it was like trying to walk up a steep hill lined with buttered linoleum. I tried for a while, feet flailing wildly under me, but to add insult to injury, I was holding my water bottle in one hand, making it impossible to hold the chain with 2 hands and give it all I had. I briefly considered sliding my water bottle on down the incline to the bottom so that I could keep going... But knowing my luck pattern, it would have hit a rock, caught air, and smashed one of the Asian tourists in the face, and then where would I be? So instead, I turned around, faced the breathtaking view, and sat down where I was to marvel at my surroundings and contemplate my possible future as spokesperson for the safe climbing-shoes PSAs.

Jaiquen and Sam went quite a bit further up than I did, wearing proper shoes and having 2 hands for the chain. After a few minutes, they came back down, and we all went back to the bottom together. Jaiquen and I went down on our butts on some of the really steep parts, getting (in his words) "the worst wedgie evahhh!" The pictures of the incline don't give it justice, really.