The Next Block #4 - Its been a big 12 days.

Learning as I go.

As I started to write this blog I was excited to dig in to it, after all we had such a crazy 2 weeks. But as I sat down I underestimated the struggle to remember what I was feeling and some of the raw moments experienced. The days were busy and I wasn’t journaling daily like I normally would. I try to write my blogs about events or challenges and whatever may be going on in my head as I go through the week; so with this blog I was genuinely overwhelmed with what to write. I still enjoyed writing this one, but it’s definitely a learning curve and it was this weeks challenge.  

As all jobs do, they come to an end for us. Probably the main reason I enjoy what I do so much is the fact that we always have an end date, we do our time and then adventure. We always know we will have a few weeks up our sleeve to explore the location where we are sent.

The weeks preceding this trip I got a pretty exciting message from Jess letting me know that the NT tourism board reached out to them and they somehow scored a bit of work together. Mainly doing content creation, but the best part was they even slipped my name in on it and I was ‘_aswewander’'s main photographer… no complaints from me.

We got ourselves organised, putting the work van in the airport long term parking and all 3 of us jumped in the Troopy. A three seater bench seat across the front and sweaty legs touching around every corner. We had planned a few dirt roads along the way and the van just wouldn’t have survived. Our first stop on the exciting and busy itinerary was the West MacDonald Ranges. A place that has now made its way up on my list of all time favourite locations in Australia. I was in awe by the endless water holes and hikes that this place had along the way - oh, and the dreamy outback roads with mountain views for miles on end, making it feel as though you weren’t in central outback Australia. Coming from South Australia where I live for the beach, it was good to have an environmental change up out here. 

Photography is a new game to me, I’m definitely no ‘guru’ behind the lens but I have certainly learnt a thing or two over the past 7 months. Owning a camera gave me more of a reason to get up before the sun and be more patient, slowing my days down that bit more. 

The three of us work relatively well together, I think?  We shared the same hype when we arrive to a new place, or when we get a photo that you just know is that genuinely cracking shot, that ‘ohhh yup, you’ll froth this’ comment and you just know it was the one.

From West MacDonalds Ranges we moved on to Uluru. Coming to Uluru I was still confused on why they had closed the rock and stopped people climbing it; I wasn’t educated on the topic at all. Coming here opened my eyes and I guess it removed the thoughts in my head like ‘Why did they close the rock?’ or ‘Why can’t you go here or touch that?’. After talking to one of the head rangers at the national park, he explained a lot and I took a lot away from that 20 minute car park convo.   

It was a busy 12 days that’s for sure. Every morning and every night we would be out at a new location shooting for sunset or sunrise. From morning helicopter rides over Uluru to nights by the ‘light show garden’ drinking wine. It was an interesting thing to think that what I’m doing for these few days is some peoples full time job… I gained a lot of respect for photography over that week. There’s taking photos for pure enjoyment and then there’s a paid gig; I wouldn’t say I felt pressured or stressed, but its certainly a lot more responsibility. Luke and Jess are pretty chilled people so they guided me a lot, from helping me map out an idea to even just giving me tips for camera settings. 

The accommodation over the past week was by far my favourite sort of accommodation; the 5 star Troopy living, no showering, free camping sort of spec. After selling my Troopy at the start of the year, with plans to spend the year overseas, I was a little heart broken knowing that I could have potentially been driving that up here. 

After 4 days around Uluru, it was time to move on with our plans to head to Kings Canyon. But first we wanted to head out to a place that Luke and Jess had camped at this time last year on their big lap of Australia. I think I’ll let the photos below speak for themselves. We originally had plans to just spend the afternoon here and then pack up and head off in the morning, but when you don’t have any real plans you’re allowed to decide what happens next. We had perfect views of Uluru in front of us and from a far, we could see Kata Tjuta to our right. With two perfectly placed trees that looked like they were designed purely to hang hammocks on, this spot took the cake for me. We ended up spending three full days enjoying some down time, a few early nights and a bit of a sleep in. I decided to throw my sleeping bag on the dirt and slept under the stars with the fire next to me for both nights, I didn’t want to miss a second of that view. 

I’m still dreaming of heading back to that spot some day soon. 

Heres some of my favourite photos of the 12 days.