Waltzing Matilda

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled
“You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.”
…

From “Waltzing Matilda” a wide known bush ballad about a swagman (itinerant worker)

Being off the typical tourist highways for the last weeks, my next travel plans took me quite straight back to one of Australia’s main sights. With the Indian Pacific Railway and The Ghan I went via Adelaide to Alice Springs, right in the red centre of Australia.

For me Alice is quite a torn place. I was not sure what it was supposed to mean, when people told me I should be careful there. However, when you come to the town, it is obvious. Definitely not much of the lovely small town atmosphere I experienced in Broken Hill (although being almost the same size), but instead the centre is dominated by shopping centers and bars. In between many Aboriginal people, who seem to wander around like lost souls not belonging to the place, sitting around and not doing too much. This depressing picture was even intensified a police patrols during the night and stories of locals you get to hear. The youth hostel, where I stayed, felt like a fortress during the night time.

On the other side Alice is a very lively town, with lots of tourists in all “travel classes”. Bringing with them the typical night life and fun. Also quite some people seem to stay much beyond their initial intention, and make the town their home for some years. Furthermore, the surroundings of Alice offer so much and you can spend years there and still discover new places worth visiting.

I stayed for 1 ½ weeks in the area, joining two quite different tours. The first one was the standard package, almost everyone coming as backpacker to the red centre joins: Three quite packed days with hikes around Kings Canyon, Uluru and the Valley of the Winds (Kata Tjuta). Thanks to our fantastic tour guide Mel, who enthusiastically shared so many stories and knowledge about the sites we visited, it became a great experience.

On the second tour with Chris we went out to the West MacDonnell Ranges, enjoying some hikes around the Larapinta trail, visiting various waterholes (e.g. Glen Helen and Ormiston Gorge) and finally doing proper bush camping in the middle of nowhere. Chris turned out to be the perfect bonfire cook and sleeping in a comfortable swag below the Milky Way is for sure something I want to do again in the near future 😉 One of the highlights of the tour was the visit to Rainbow Valley, a recently opened Aboriginal place, where we met Ricky. He introduced us to some of the stories of his people and showed us around in the area, giving us some insights into the Aboriginal way of life and how the two so different Australian cultures can live together.