Alice Springs, Uluru (Ayers Rock) & King's Canyon

Early on Tuesday morning (Melbourne Cup Day - 4th November) we took a taxi to Tullamarine airport for our Tiger Air flight to Alice Springs. You can only appreciate the size of Australia by flying over it and what looked like a short hop on the map was actually a 2hr 40min flight over barren and uninhabited desert. On touching down into the small airport we jumped into a taxi to our hotel, the 4* Alice Springs Resort. We were expecting some glamour but it was faded glory and as Ash put it, a bit like an old people's home but it was comfortable! We dumped our stuff, changed into some cooler clothes and then wander across the dried up Todd River and into the town centre. Alice Springs has a population of just 27,000 inhabitants and it was so quiet with a kind of 'Wild West' feel to it. There is a large population of Aboriginals in 'the Alice', something you don't see in Melbourne and many of the other Australian cities. They were all sat in their groups around the grassy areas of the town centre just watching the day go by.

We wandered up and down the main thoroughfare which is a mix of souvenir shops and art galleries selling beautiful aboriginal dot paintings, restaurants and cafes and regular clothes and food shops. We stopped into a cafe for some lunch and then headed to a didgeridoo workshop for a free half hour lesson. We selected our didgeridoo (Bi pulling faces and wiping hers about million times to remove the germs from all the people who had used it before her!!!) and then sat with the instructor who made it all look very easy. It was really quite hard to get a decent sound out of the didgeridoo and to get the hang of circular breathing but by the end of the lesson, Ash was starting to get the hang of it. Bi got puffed out and gave up as most of the time her playing sounded like a 'fart' noise! At the end of the lesson Ash decided he had to have a didgeridoo and where better to buy one than in the Outback! After much debate we decided to invest in a good one and so Ash selected a locally handcrafted 'didge' carved from Bloodwood Eucalyptus. It was almost as tall as Bi and has been posted directly to the UK. It will be a nice surprise to meet up with it, amongst all the other things we have posted during our travels when we arrive back in the UK in March 09. We spent the rest of the day we spent wandering the town and admiring the work in the many galleries.

The following morning, Wednesday, we were picked up at 6am for our 3 day tour to Ayers Rock and the King's Canyon. After roughing it through South America and now earning we had decided to take a more relaxed tour and booked ourselves onto the 'Safari in Style' tour. Our vehicle was a large 16 seater 4WD truck with air conditioning. Funnily enough we were the only native English speakers on the bus besides for our tour leaders.. everyone else was German!

Ayers Rock is actually a 5 hour drive from Alice Springs so we spent the majority of the morning in the truck. It's amazing how barren the centre of Australia is.... after leaving Alice Springs we saw literally nothing but red sand and shrubland for 5 hours. We arrived at Yulara, the name for our accommodation base near to Ayers Rock in time for lunch before heading to the Uluru Cultural Centre to find out a little about the Rock. We then proceeded to drive an hour west to Kata Tjuta National Park where we walked among a group of 36 huge domed red rock formations called 'The Olgas'. We walked to a viewpoint as the temperature pushed towards a blisteringly hot 45oC for some good views before returning to our bus. We then drove to the sunset viewpoint of Ayers Rock and in true style drank a glass or two of champagne as we watched the sun set and the Rock become an ever deeper shade of red. It was a great experience. The Germans were restrained in their drinking so Ash finished off the bottle! After sunset we returned to our 'luxury campsite' in Yulara and were very surprised to find that the permanent tents we were staying in were really quite good... each contained two full-size single beds with mattress, duvet and pillows, clean sheets, a bedside table with lamp and a fan! After all our basic camping in South America it was a treat!

On Thursday we were up at 4am (ouch!) and after an early breakfast we headed back to Ayers Rock for a sunrise viewing and then walked the 9.6km around the base of the Rock. It was a pleasant and pretty walk, improved by the cool morning air which would have been perfect had it not been for the thousands of pesky flies that are common in the Red Centre! Ayers Rock is an huge and impressive monolith and regarded as sacred by the Aborigines. For that reason and for the fact that it was closed because of rising temperatures we decided not to climb the Rock. After an early lunch at Yulara we jumped back in our bus and drove 4 hours north to our accommodation at the King's Canyon Resort in Watarrka National Park. We were at another 'luxury campsite', this time with a bar, shop and swimming pool so we spent the remainder of the baking hot afternoon swimming in the pool and eating ice creams. In the evening a delightful cold change came through, lowering the temperature by about 200C and with it came a huge thunderstorm. The sky was lit up with all the lightning and the rain was extremely heavy. It was a genuinely exhilirating experience going to sleep in our tents with the net windows open, able to see and hear the full fury of the thunderstorm overhead.

We were up at 4.30am on Friday and after breakfast we drove to the King's Canyon. With all the rain, the road had severely flooded and at one point had turned into a 60cm deep creek. This was impassable for some of the coaches but as we were in our 4WD truck we plowed through, rock music blaring! We took a 3 hour scenic walk up and around the rim of the King's Canyon, which is an impressive red stone gorge carved by an ancient river. After all the rain the normally dry and dusty river bed was in full flow. It was a beautiful walk with great views. After lunch we packed our bags and returned the 5 hours to Alice Springs, with a short break to view the Mt Connor tabletop mountain. On returning to Alice we were dropped off at the Crowne Plaza Hotel... we had decided to finish our dusty desert trip with a little luxury! After some needed showers, we smartened up and had dinner in a great thai restaurant attached to the hotel. We had a well earned lie-in the following morning before catching our early return flight to Melbourne... it was a great finish!

Wedding Planning

With Ash's parents only in Melbourne for 4 days (before travelling onwards) we had a pretty small range of dates to chose our wedding. We finally decided on Sunday 28th December 2008 and with just three months to plan an entire wedding we had to hit the ground running. The decision on where to hold our wedding celebrations was an easy one! We love good food and good wine and we just happen to be in a country that has some of the world's best wine producing regions. So, where better than to celebrate our wedding at a local winery!

We spent the first four weeks of our time in Melbourne scouring the Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley wine regions (believe us when we say we left no stone unturned). Bi was chauffeur, venue critic and chief stresser while Ash was chief wine sampler and food critic! Both the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula regions are very beautiful with rolling vine-covered hills scattered with boutique wineries, excellent restaurants, boutique hotels, B&Bs and gourmet food shops. Trying to find the right venue was probably one of the most difficult decisions we have had to make regarding the wedding. We have been quite priviledged to see and do so many fantastic things together this year and so we had some pretty high standards!

We set our hearts on the beautiful Yarra Valley. It is on the doorstep of where Bi grew up and adds a nice touch of nostalgia to the whole occasion! It is also local to all our guests. We visited and revisited De Bortoli, Yering Station, Balgownie Estate, Fergussons Estate, Yarrawood, Helen's Hill, Stones of the Yarra Valley, Domaine Chandon, Badger's Brook, Roundstone, Rochfords Estate, Billanook Estate, Kellybrook Winery, Evelyn County Estate, Panton Hill, Tokar Estate, Tarrawarra Estate, Elmswood Estate and Inglewood Estate. It was on more than one occasion that Ash finished the day a bit tipsy from all the tastings!

After going round and round in circles we finally booked our reception at one of the first wineries we visited..... arrrgh.. after all that!! It is a small boutique winery called Evelyn County Estate on the edge of the Yarra Valley in a place called Kangaroo Ground. It is aptly named because there are so many wild kangaroos in the area. It is about a 15 minutes drive from Bi’s parents house and very local to all our guests. The restaurant serves local, organic, seasonal Yarra Valley produce and is in beautiful, rustic Australian bush setting with views out over the vineyards. Below the winery is a charming cottage called 'The Retreat' set next to a spring fed dam complete with resident ducks, geese and plenty of kangaroos. We will be staying at the Retreat on our wedding night which means we don't have to travel far after the reception. We love the place; it is definitely very us! We were keen not to replicate anything ‘English' and wanted to celebrate in proper 'Aussie' style with gumtrees, vineyards, parakeets, cockatoos, kangaroos and sunshine (hopefully!!!!)........ all washed down with locally produced wine and the sounds of a four piece swing jazz band on a Sunday evening!

With our venue booked we had to decide on where to actually get married..... just a minor detail!!! We decided upon having a celebrant marry us at a local National Trust listed building called Montsalvat. It is a five minute drive from Bi's family home and provides a beautiful, formal setting for our ceremony. The Gallery where we will be married has big stained glass windows and pews so that Bi can have her pew bows!

With the venue and ceremony location secured our next task was to sort out the bridal party, the celebrant, the entertainment, the cake, the cars, the hairdresser, the flowers, the make-up artist..... the list goes on and on and on! Bi very quickly realised the advantage of being the last of her girlfriends to get married and she capitalised on it by using most of their contacts which saved hours and hours of research time. We are very lucky that we have been able to book so much at short notice and can only thank the time of year we have chosen for that!

We are having a bridal party of 6.... 3 groomsmen (Ash's best friend Jez as the Best Man and Bi's two brothers) and 3 bridesmaids (two of Bi's friends and Ash's sister). Bi's mum and her aunty are taking on the huge task of making all the dresses and her Aunty Shireen is a professional photographer (Victorian Wedding Photographer of the Year in fact!) and will be doing our photos so we are very lucky to have many talented people here in Bi's family to help us out.

With such short time scales and given our wedding is just after Xmas at the start of the Australian summer holidays, we had to be early with our invites. Bi selected the paper design and colours (which included some vine patterned paper to tie in with our reception being at a winery), Bi's mum designed and assembled all the invititations and Ash did all the printing of the inserts. It was a real team effort!

We will travel to Sydney in a few days to make our wedding rings with a professional jeweller as well as spend a few days in the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley. We are nearly there!!!