A Town Like Alice - Uluru - Dinky the singing Dingo

Alice Springs has been on my 'list of places to see' since I read the book a long time ago. The main thing I remember reading is a description of an ice-cream parlour, so obviously the first thing I did was to go and buy one - delicious, Kahlua ice cream (like Bailey's but much much better).

The best thing about Alice is the river, as it is upside down. The water flows underground, and there is sand on top. Trees grow in the middle, and you can just walk across without getting your feet wet. In fact you'd be hard pressed to tell it was a river, if there weren't bridges crossing it. I made Alice my base as I went on a tour to Uluru (Ayers Rock).

Uluru is strange, as before I actually went there I had seen it a thousand times. It is an ubiquitous image on postcards and Australian books. In the pictures, it just looks like a big rock in the middle of the desert.

When I arrived, that's exactly what I thought - that it is just a big rock in the middle of the desert. It's a long way to travel just to see a lump of sandstone. However, after about 1/2 hour of staring at it, I suddenly got a weird feeling. I can't describe it, except that it was overwhelming. I suddenly understood what all the fuss is about. After that, I could hardly take my eyes off the thing. Everyone on the tour felt the same way, and its not something you can experience from looking at a thousand pictures.

The beauty of the rock, its magical quality, is that it changes like it has a personality of its own. Everytime you look at it, it looks different. It changes not only colour, but as the sun sets or rises, it appears to change physically as new cracks and crevices are highlighted and shadows move across the surface. My favourite colour was pitch black with a dark blue sky, it looked like this early in the morning before the sunrise. Beautiful.

It looks very different close up than from a distance. I didn't climb the rock, as the aboriginal people who own the land hold it sacred like a temple and ask people not to climb. I believe that when you are visiting someone else's home or country, you should respect their wishes. So instead I walked around the base.

That night we 'swagged under the stars'. A swag is a canvas bag that you put a sleeping bag inside. It is brilliant, what else do you need? Why stay in a 5 star hotel when you can have 5 million stars? I wouldn't recommend laying your swag on an ants nest though. My friend Matt did this and woke in the middle of the night with hundreds of ants crawling over his head and in his hair. Not good.

The second evening we went to see the sunset again. On the way we passed posh tour groups who had the champagne and caviar out, and made an effort to walk up the hill. Watching sunset over Uluru wasn't so good this night, there were too many clouds, but from where we were we could also see the Kata Tjuta mountains and the sunset there was absolutely spectacular. We felt quite smug tramping back down the hill to see the disappointed posh people who hadn't been able to see the mountains. Anyway, because we had all missed out on champagne, Glen, our lovely tour guide, bought us some the following evening. Is there anything better than drinking champagne out of plastic mugs whilst toasting marshmallows on an open fire?

On the third day we tramped round the King's Canyon, an amazing place but it was somewhat spoilt by the the intense heat and millions of flies. We got to watch a great sunset from the top of the hill though, coming back down in the dark.

Another day, another 5am start to watch another sunrise. I have seen some beautiful sunrises out here in the Outback, it is amazing to watch the birth of a new day. They even make someone like me (who hates mornings) want to get up early.

The last day was the best in some ways, as everyone was in a great mood. Matt took control of the music on the bus and by 7am we were all partying hard! In fact, the party lasted all throughout the day and til 4am the following morning, I had been up for 23 hours before I fell into bed!

For lunch and a swim in the pool, we stooped off at a remote pub. We had to stay here, if only to see 'Dinky the singing Dingo'. A Dingo is a wild dog, with a fearsome reputation for stealing people's food, bags and even babies. Jim, the pub owner, had trained one to prove they weren't so bad. I don't think I need any more evidence for my theory that everyone in the outback is plain crazy.

I was picked out of the small audience to play the piano. Of course I went bright red, and my protests that I couldn't play went unheard. I bashed away tunelessly and Dinky jumped up onto the keys and started to sing. Well it sounded more like howling, but I wasn't going to argue with Jim. Dinky was about 2 inches away from my face, it was my first (and hopefully last) close encounter with a Dingo.