Let the Outback adventures begin - The Rock Tour, Kings Canyon, Uluru, Saltsea Day 1 / 06.01.2019

After arriving in Alice Springs yesterday afternoon and feeling a bit lost, I was warmly welcomed at the most beautiful hostel ever - Alice's Secret Travellers Inn - and immediately met a super nice girl named Liza from Slovenia. I explored the city with her, from the river, which is actually non-existent because it's dried up, to the shopping center, as we both needed to get a few things for our tours starting tomorrow. Unfortunately, we booked different tours, but it was still great to have found someone on my first day alone.
I also visited The Rock Tours office for check-in and a safety briefing.
The sudden heat was a bit overwhelming and the Aboriginal people begging for money on the streets were a little unsettling and unfriendly, so once I had everything prepared for an early start the next day, I fell tired into my bed.

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The next morning, I stood sleepily but ready at 5:30 AM at the hostel gate and waited for my pickup. I could leave my heavy backpacker backpack at the hostel, so I only had my smaller backpack and my bag, as well as a sleeping bag and pillow. Another nice guy, Leo, 28, from Melbourne, got on the bus with me, and luckily the bus was still quite empty, so we could choose good seats.
I got a cool spot up front next to a very nice and talkative Dutch girl named Bernadette, but we called her Bee. There were already two other guys sitting up front, one of whom I later got to know as Henrik, 18, from Germany, and the other was a slightly older Swiss guy named Michel - at this point, it was still a mystery what their nationalities were since they didn't speak much yet.
At the next stop, 16 Koreans joined us, making it quite crowded, and then another girl my age got on, who we all felt sorry for because she had no choice but to sit all the way in the back between the Koreans, who, as we found out, didn't speak much English either.

Once we were all together (21 people) and it was getting light, our tour guide and driver introduced himself as Ewel and briefly explained the itinerary for this tour. Then we set off on the first 2 and a half hour drive through the Outback to Yulara, a small town in the middle of nowhere, where we had a breakfast break at a rest stop and emu farm. Of course, I had to check out the emus, and slowly I got to know the others as well: Marie was also 18 and came from Germany, I chatted with Leo and Bee for a while, and everyone was very nice.
Then we got back on the bus, this time heading to our first real stop: Kings Canyon. On the way there, we saw some beautiful wild horses standing in the endless plains, each with different colors, and one sandy-colored horse reminded me a bit of Spirit.

Arriving at Kings Canyon, we were first instructed on drinking water and emergencies: due to the heat (we would reach 39°C today), we had to have at least 3 liters of water with us and drink one liter per hour. In addition, we would have mostly no cellphone reception in the Outback, which is why there were emergency stations everywhere.
Then the small rim walk hike to the canyon began. It felt like endless stone stairs leading upwards, and my mouth dried out from the hot air and exertion - I understood why those 3 liters of water were so important.
But when you turned around, you had an incredible view of endless flat land surrounded by mountains and hundreds of green trees - Ewel told us that it was so green here right now because we were in the rainy season (which we could hardly believe because it was hot and there wasn't a dark cloud in sight). But what was noticeable and also indicated rain were the road signs warning of flooded roads, and there were even measuring poles that were up to 2 meters high - so when it rained, it really rained.
Otherwise, we were surrounded by many rock walls, and when we arrived at the big rock fissure, the canyon, we were all sweaty but also a little wiser, as Ewel told us a lot about the free-roaming camels here and the indigenous people.
I was fascinated by the height and massiveness of the rock walls, and Kings Canyon was once again one of those special places where you realize how small you and all your problems are compared to the world.
Kings Canyon was formed under the pressure of the sea, which could be seen in some places, as the rock slabs had wave-like patterns.

After taking a few photos - including one of a pretty cool and proud lizard - and now also including Henrik in our group, we bravely made our way back, being careful where we stepped.

Our next stop was Uluru, which Leo had already spotted from a distance, and we initially thought it was the real Uluru. The rock had a similar shape but consisted of several smaller rocks, earning it the name Fake Uluru. On the other side of the road from the lookout point, we climbed a big red sand dune from which we had a great view of a huge dried-up salt lake. Ewel also told us that we could take really cool pictures with the sand here, which was something I really wanted to do, so at first, only Marie and I threw a handful of sand into the air while Henrik took photos with his cool phone camera, and then the five of us - Leo, Bee, Henrik, Marie, and I - got into position. I ended up getting a good amount of sand dust in my face and felt like I was back at the Holi Festival.
We all got along great, and I already knew that this was going to be one of the best tours, if not the best, that I would do in Australia.

After that, it was already getting late, and we stopped at a spot where a fire had occurred a few years ago, and there were many charred trees perfect for firewood lying around. While gathering firewood, I got a scratch on my thigh, but everyone else was more concerned than I was.
Once we had loaded up the trailer, we continued to our last proper toilet stop for today because after that, we would head to the bush camp, where there was only an outhouse, although surprisingly clean and not smelly. There was also no running water, so I couldn't even rinse off the sand, but Ewel assured us that we could shower tomorrow.
Just as we turned off the asphalt road onto a bumpy dirt road, Ewel suddenly turned on dramatic survival music, and we drove past a scarecrow holding two beer bottles in its raised arms, and finally arrived at our sleeping spot for tonight. There was nothing here except a flat red sandy area with a fire pit surrounded by trees and bushes, and a shovel hung from a lonely tree in the middle - if this were a horror movie, or even something similar to Pretty Little Liars, then that would be the murder weapon, and one of us would die tonight. At the back, there was a small metal rectangular box - that was probably our toilet. Overall, it looked really cozy, especially when we unpacked the swags - kind of like outdoor sleeping bags - and laid them in a circle around the fire pit. Ewel arranged our collected firewood, and when the fire was burning, we all started preparing dinner, which was a lot of fun and brought us all together, just like sitting around the fire afterwards.
Some people began chopping carrots, bell peppers, onions, and other things into huge pots, and I had the task of making bread, and with a really cool recipe: lots of flour, beer, garlic paste, and a herb mixture. I mashed it all together, kneaded it into a ball of dough, and also put it in a pot.
But since there was no running water, except for the large water tank on the bus, I had some trouble getting the dough off my hands again, until Leo had the idea that I should use some sand to rub off the dough. It worked surprisingly well, except that my hands ended up looking like witch claws, but I managed to clean them well under the small stream of water from the water tank.
The Koreans also got involved, and even though we had a language barrier, they were all super sweet and nice, and I think Koreans are some of my favorite people because they are just super friendly and sweet.
Once we were done, we all sat down on our swags around the fire and chatted, while Ewel used the shovel to arrange the embers into good positions and set up the pots.
He also brought out a surprise, namely a kangaroo tail, which he also placed in the embers and explained that the tail would bend upwards when it was done.

After a few campfire conversations, dinner was finally ready, and everyone served themselves a big portion: there was rice, meat and vegetable stir-fry, my delicious bread, and more vegetables. Everything was very tasty, until Ewel showed us the bending of the kangaroo tail, removed the skin, and started going around in a circle offering it to all of us - the correct way to eat it was simply to bite in like with a corn cob.
Henrik reassured me the whole time and assured me that kangaroo meat was really delicious because he had apparently already eaten kangaroo steak before. I also knew that I would regret it if I didn't try the weird-looking thing in front of me - after all, I wanted the whole experience.
So I took a hearty bite but quickly realized that there was just a thick, disgusting, and tough layer of fat on the outside, and that's all I had gotten. The smell was also beastly, but I forced myself to swallow the bite without much chewing and looked pained at Henrik because it was now his turn.
It ended with us washing away the taste as quickly as possible with the other delicious food and trying to get rid of the smell on our fingers, which more or less worked. We both agreed that it was one of the worst things we had ever tried.

Once everyone was finished, we unrolled the swags, and because it was dark at that time and the last red sunset light had disappeared, our little group walked a bit away from the fire through the bushland to a small bare spot from where we had such an amazing view of the starry sky that it left us speechless. We had never seen such bright stars before, and the fact that it was a new moon and there was no additional light made the view even better. Henrik's phone camera was also so good that he could almost take professional pictures of the stars, which I was really excited about because my Lumix camera hadn't been in the running for a long time. We also shared knowledge about the individual constellations and stars and spotted a lot: of course Orion again, but also the Southern Cross, which had just risen, the Pleiades, which reminded Leo of a small variation of the Big Dipper and we all agreed, and also Pollux and Castor.
The Milky Way rose above the black shadows of the trees, and it was simply stunning and totally surreal.

Song of the day: Moskau by Dschinghis Khan, because Ewel played it loudly on the bus, even though it's a German song, and it reminded me of all my party buddies back home. I love you all.