trip to australia’s red centre

01Sep10

by susan…

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Uluru and Alice Springs for work. My role on the trip was to assist with hosting the group of Mack Trucks VIP customers, in particular to host the customers’ wives.

It was a whirlwind trip that started at 4am last Thursday morning when I had to get up and head to the airport for a 6am flight to Uluru (via Sydney). I’m so glad I had a window seat on the flight to Uluru as the scenery was amazing – there was water in Lake Eyre which is very rare!

We arrived in Uluru around lunch time and were transported to our 5 star luxury hotel, Sails in the Desert. Whilst it was a perfectly comfortable hotel, it was a far cry from a usual 5 star hotel – in any other city in Australia it would have been 3.5 or 4 star at best! But the fact that it’s in the middle of Australia you can’t really complain – just being there was an experience in itself.

Dinner on that evening was a poolside BBQ under the stars. It was absolutely freezing at night (apparently it was getting down to minus 2 degrees at night) so even though I had come prepared with several layers of clothing, we spent most of the night standing under the gas heaters!

The next day the customers headed to a full day workshop while the wives (27 of them) were treated to a day of pampering and adventure activities. In the morning, we enjoyed a massage at the Red Ochre Day Spa (of course I had a massage too!), followed by a 3 course lunch at one of the hotel’s restaurants. But the most exciting part of the day was the spectacular helicopter ride over Uluru!

For dinner on this evening we were taken by bus to the middle of the desert, at a location about 20 minutes from the hotel. Pre-dinner drinks were held at sunset and we had magical views of Uluru and The Olgas. The dinner table setting was amazing for the middle of the outback, with the big Mack bulldog taking centre stage (we had wrapped him in bubble wrap in Brisbane and he took 3 days to get there by truck!). We were treated to brilliant entertainment by Amber Lawrence, as well as commentary by a star gazer who pointed out all the constellations in the sky.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for the bus transfer from Uluru to Alice Springs. We departed at 9am, and after a few stops along the way (including a morning tea stop at an outback Road House), we arrived in Alice Spring 6 hours later for a late lunch at the Road Transport Hall of Fame.

Now the main reason for taking the group to Alice Springs was for Reunion 2010 at the Road Transport Hall of Fame. This week-long event was attracting 10,000 trucking enthusiasts to Alice Springs. After walking around the Hall of Fame for a couple of hours we headed to our hotel (Alice in the Territory – basic motel style) for a quick shower and change for dinner.

Dinner on this evening was the ‘Mack Mania’ dinner (not organised by us) which was being held in conjunction with Reunion 2010 and was a fundraising dinner for the Mack Trucks Hall of Fame Museum. It was an interesting evening, with the entertainment including a man playing a beer carton (I am not joking!). Whilst it wasn’t my cup of tea, the customers and all the Mack enthusiasts seemed to enjoy themselves so I guess the evening was a success!

On Sunday morning we left the hotel at a reasonable time (10am) and accidentally ended up in the Reunion 2010 truck parade! It seems that there is only one road going in and out of town to the airport, and we ended up smack bang in the middle of the 700 trucks that were parading up the street. So what do you do when you’re stuck on a bus in a truck parade? You wave to the thousands of onlookers – who were all very friendly and were waving back! 1.5 hours later we made it to the airport – and the first group to depart only just made their plane.

I finally arrived at 7.30pm on Sunday evening and was greeted by my wonderful husband who had cooked a beautiful meal and had a glass of red wine waiting for me. There’s no place like home.