September 6 Sunday With our local map and recommendations from our host we set out for the West Macdonnell Ranges. The recommendations were spot on and we had a wonderful day. First we stopped at Standley Chasm and did a few kilometer walk to a scenic lookout and down a dry creekbed, then took the short path to the Chasm itself. We were there early in the morning and were the first people in the canyon. Most of the crowds come between 11 and 1:30, the window when at some point the sun will shine through the narrow gap at the top and flood the canyon walls with light for around 15 minutes. It is a picturesque canyon and the walk to it was quite nice, but it was not overly impressive to either Eva or myself. We then pushed on to near the end of the paved road in the West Macdonnells to a place called Ormiston Gorge. We had been told that the Pound walk was a good one, but when we arrived and considered the 2 ½ hour estimated time and the increasing heat of the day we chose the shorter Ghost Gum walk that included a lookout over the canyon. This turned out to be a nice walk and did not take nearly as long as the park signs had indicated. In the bottom of the canyon were several water holes of various size, but the water seemed rather stagnant and uninviting for a swim. We had another swimming hole in mind anyway. Returning about halfway to Alice Springs we stopped at Ellery's Big Hole and this was a true swimming hole. There were probably 40 people there mostly picnicing in the shade. The water was shockingly cold, but we had been warned about that (and the number of drownings that have resulted from people not paying attention to what the cold does to the human body). It was rather invigorating and I had a good swim. Eva only got in long enough to swim a short distance and be able to say she swam in an Australian watering hole. It was really cold and I do not blame her at all for get back out so quickly. There was only one other guy that seemed to be enjoying the water as much as I was. After my swim we ate our lunches and then went back to Alice Springs.

Our host asked us to help with some yardwork, which we were happy to do, and so we raked eucalyptus leaves and mowed the lawn. After that Eva and I went to the top of Anzac Hill to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful sunset that was slightly muted by the heavy clouds on the horizon. That ended up making it even more spectacular, because there was an unseen gap under the clouds and once the sun reached that point it lit up the clouds with rich reds from underneath. The hill also gives a good view of the city itself. I helped Eva navigate around town to all the backpackers hostels to put up notices for travel mates to continue her trip. She wants to spend some time in this area (there truly are more things to do in Alice Springs than one would imagine and the parks in the area promise a wealth of amazing sights) before continuing up to Darwin. I have been very fortunate to have had two great travel companions over the last month or so. Both Jon and Eva have been great people to get to know and spend time with. We made dinner and talked with our hosts until late in the evening and then turned in for the night. Carl, the son of our host recommended that we find and watch “Samson and Delilah” a newly released film from the Alice Springs area, so I may keep an eye out for that.

September 7 Monday Eva came with me to the orientation so she could get a little information on Conservation Volunteers of Australian for a possible future project instead of just WWOOFing across Australia. After she did that we said our goodbyes and I started meeting the fellow members of our 10 person volunteer group. We have one Australian woman, an English woman, a Korean guy, two Taiwanese guys and four Taiwanese girls and myself. Jeffrey our team leader seems to have boundless energy and a really friendly personality. Everyone seems quite nice, although the Australian woman appears to be like the Mary Ellen character from the Bill Bryson, book I just finished reading (A Walk in the Woods), which is not a compliment. She is the most talkative in the group and has the least intelligent things to say. Sad how that seems to go together in this case. Jeffrey briefed us on different aspects of the project while we drove to Uluru back the same way I had driven with Eva a couple days ago. It was about a five hour drive, which included stops at several lookouts taking in the three Red Center monoliths from a distance (Mt Conner, Uluru and Kata Tjuta). The view for Mt Conner is opposite an enormous dry lake bed that immediately brought to mind that Burning Man was wrapping up and the exodus was surely underway as I gazed over the mind numbing expanse that makes up central Australia. We also stopped once for Jeffrey to drag a kangaroo body off the road. We did this because there were several eagles at the carcass and Jeff told us they are monogamous. If one eagle were to get hit by a car or truck (which was likely in this case), the partner would hang around and very likely join the first in being hit). They are large beautiful birds and it was nice to see more after seeing so many while driving with Eva. Jeff also pointed out several other kites as we drove. We made a short stop at Yulara, the last spot of civilization before entering Uluru National Park. Yulara is 20 kilometers away and it is were everyone visiting the park has to stay. Except us. We are about a kilometer away from the Rock on the side with the best sunrise views. Truly I can say that as spectacular as the pictures of Uluru are from a distance, driving around it at close range is another experience entirely, the scale blows you away and the formations are incredible and vastly different from what I was expecting (but in such a good way). Another bonus we had as we drove in was that an echidna was feasting on ants in the middle of the road. This is quite a rare treat to see them in the first place and during daylight especially. We stopped long enough to make sure it was not run over until a ranger could arrive. He came out with two heavy blankets, tossed them on the echidna and carried it away from the road.

We have comfortable quarters, there is plenty of good food, and while the work will be hard, it looks like it will be quite rewarding and I am looking forward to it. I was on dish duty with Gillian from England after dinner, then I played a game of chess with one of the Taiwanese guys and a couple of games of Chinese checkers (Jump Checkers according to the Taiwanese) with some of the others.

September 8 Tuesday Today was a busy day, starting when we left the ranger compound at 8 am, although we only worked briefly at actual conservation work. First we did a half hour of weed pulling where we could comfortably identify the buffel grass we are trying to remove, then we went on a ranger guided walk on the Mala Trail section of the Uluru circuit. This was an excellent glimpse up close of a small section of the rock with caves, paintings, waterholes and more. Our guide told us the stories behind some of the rock features and the origins of the people who call this area home. One primary story was about a group of Mala men who were performing a ceremony on the top of the rock when a group of men from the Mulga Tree people came to invite them to a ceremony with them. Now apparently there are some hard and fast etiquette rules among the aboriginals and two came into conflict at this point: 1) once a ceremony has been begun it must be completed and 2) no invitation can be refused. So the Mala men who were in the midst of a ceremony already refused the invitation from the Mulga Tree men. This infuriated the Mulga Tree men and they summoned a powerful demon to punish the Mala people. A wise woman saw the demon approaching and went to warn the men, but since women are not allowed to attend men's ceremonies, she was chased off. She also went to warn the Mala women, but was too late and they were mostly killed. When the men realized what was happening it was too late and they fled with the demon pursuing and killing them too. For a long time the Mala stayed away from the rock because of this and it has significance today in that the path that people use when they climb the rock is the path the Mala men had used. This is why it is offensive to the Mala people to have others climbing the rock: it is a constant reminder of a bad memory for their people. The question I still need to ask a ranger is why, if those two aforementioned etiquette rules were known by everyone, did the Mulga Tree men make the first offensive move and interrupt a ceremony that had already begun. Either they did it intentionally to put the Mala people in a no win situation or they were so egotistical and selfish as to not even see their own offense, when their invitation was refused.

Regardless, the Rock is amazing. It is its own ecosystem out here in the semi arid outback, and that eco system is under human attack. There are nearly 400,000 yearly visitors and a quarter of them choose to climb the Rock. Many of those then use the top of the rock as their toilet instead of coming back down the half hour to the real bathrooms. This has created a sanitary problem which will likely close the top of the rock, when the wishes of the aboriginal people for years could not. We spent about 2 hours at the cultural learning center having lunch and learning more about the area. Then it was back to weeding for about a hour before returning to base camp. Gillian and I were on cooking duty for dinner and Geoffrey told us it would be prudent to get some of it prepared now since we had a ranger coming to speak with us about our contribution to the park and then we would be going to a private viewing site for the sunset. The menu called for stir fry chicken and we had already put out the chicken from the freezer in the morning, but we chopped broccoli, peppers, onions, zucchini, and carrots. We also got some garlic ready and cubed some tofu for the vegetarians in the group (there are three/four of us, me, Derek, and Gillian, and Danny who is Korean and only vegetarian because of food allergies.

When the ranger came he explained how the buffle grass got here (it was planted in the early sixties by park personnel to try and stop some erosion problems at that time), how it has spread and why, and how CVA and volunteers like us have been contributing to fixing the problem for the past nine years. He told us that the echidna that we saw yesterday was only the third one seen in close to 20 years in the park. The aboriginals eat them and that is a main reason they are scarce in the area, but they are rare anyway.

September 9 Wednesday We have a routine now. Up at 7 for breakfast, in the van by 8, work on clearing a section of buffle until 10:30, have morning tea (cookies/crackers/apples/oranges), more clearing until about 12:30, break for lunch near the cultural center, another session of work until 3:15 or 3:30 then back to camp. The evenings are mostly free. We usually go to a sunset viewing location and a couple people have cooking duties (and a couple other have clean up afterwards. Geoff said we are the first group he has led out here that has congregated outside in the open common area in the evenings. That is the most comfortable area, so it is surprising that we are the first. He said other groups all holed up in their separate rooms. My initial assessment of the Australian woman has been soundly confirmed. It is one of those things that is so sad it becomes funny. She is oblivious to the goals and aims of the conservation project, doesn't understand what we are supposed to be doing, does what she wants, wants to climb the rock, continually throws out completely random comments that have nothing to do with the the group conversation. It is embarassing. Luckily Geoff is a fantastic example of what Australians can be and so her damage is minimized. She seems to have latched onto me (as boyfriend material) and it is a struggle to make her understand that will never happen. She is as I said before completely oblivious to how she comes across and how other people are responding, to a degree I have never in my life seen. It makes it very clear why she is unemployed back in her home town of Melbourne.

September 10 Thursday Same routine. Gourry and I were cooking for the evening and making curry. We started early and while the rice was easy, the vegetables and curry mix were taking a long time. We all went to view the sunset and Gourry and I decided to turn the stove off, because we would be gone for an hour. I thought we would probably have to cook for a while longer when we returned, but actually there was enough heat in the pot to nicely cook everything and it was perfect once we got back. Did not have to hold up dinner at all.