Australian Outback

water is scarce in the outback
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We were finally on our way to the land of Oz!  Our flight was ok, Mark was kept awake all night by a loud, drunk friendly Aussie who kept feeding him booze all night long!  the staff kept asking us if we were ok sitting with this guy, but he was actually very nice.  Our flight touched down in Sydney then flew on to Alice Springs.  After a VERY expensive taxi ride ($45 for 12 Km's - and he had the meter on!)

We picked up our camper van and the company seemed a little too laid back about scratched etc so we were worried we were going to get bumped when we brought it back.  Once we got the van we pretty much drove straight to Uluru National Park.  We stopped enroute to sleep.  There are these really great rest-and-revive stops along the highways here that have space to park and camp and they usually have water tanks and tables for you to use as well.  We saw some cool lizards on the road as we were driving and we were keeping our eyes peeled for Kangaroos too, but never managed to see any.  Our first night in the outback was great!  The stars were the most amazing I had ever seen!  I thought they were good in Canada when you were out in the country but the outback was unreal.  The stars blanketed the sky and you didn't have to look up for them, they were so low down.  The moon had already left the sky by 10pm, which was strange, must just be the way things turn, but the stars alone are worth the trip.

rain coming in the distance
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The next day we headed in to Uluru and Kata Tjuta National Park.  Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are considered sacred places by the Anangu people, the Aboriginal tribes that have lived there for thousands of years. The Australian government formally returned control of the area to the Anangu in 1985 under the condition that the land be jointly managed by the Anangu and the Australian parks and management services. Allot of Kata Tjuta is off-limits, for example, and climbing Uluru is strongly discouraged by signposts. (A few areas around the base of Uluru are intended to be off-limits for photography, seemed like you weren't allowed to take a picture of anything!) We had slept in a wee bit, due to Mark's love of the 'snooze' button, so after visiting the cultural center for some info, we were geared up to do the Uluru base walk in the heat of the day.  The walk was 10 Km's and although it was 43 degrees, it wasn't too bad.  The worst thing about it was the flies.  You know those flies that buzz around your head and seem to be magnetically drawn to your eyes, nose, ears and mouth?  Well we had about 10 each buzzing around our heads, thank goodness we had our fly heads nets!  We looked like dorks, but were so much more comfortable using them.

Uluru
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Uluru itself was amazing.  The rock was smooth and looked like flowing sand and had a great red colour that changed with the position of the sun.  I had always thought that Uluru was the world's largest monolith rock - ie rock that is all one piece, but we were surprised to find out that it's actually the second largest and that the biggest one is in Western Australia, but it's apparently not as impressive.

After completing the base walk we drove the 30 Kms to Kata Tjuta (formerly known as 'the Olgas'.  Kata Tjuta means many heads, and it is the same type of rock as Uluru but it more than one rock together.  It's 200 meters taller than Uluru, and it doesn't get as much press but it's equally as impressive.  We attempted to do the 'Valley of the Winds' walk but it was closed due to extreme temperatures, so we went to the first lookout, which was as far as we were allowed to go, then headed down to Walapa Gorge.  The gorge walk was short but nice.  A short walk at this point was a good thing since it was still 41 degrees.  We drove back to Uluru to cook dinner while we watched the sun set.  The sunset was lovely, the sun changes the colour of the rock until it ends up looking black as the sun dips below the horizon.

Olgas
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The next day we drove to King's Canyon, I even had a turn at driving the stick shift (which I have only tried 1 or 2 times in my life before) and it was frustrating!  I hate not being instantly good at something and although I was getting the hang of it, I was still struggling and was not enjoying myself at all!  Mark was a good teacher though and I will try it again in the future until I get it.  Kings Canyon is about 3 hrs from Uluru, we did the Kings Creek walk, which was really nice, take you through the Canyon itself.  Gave 'heart attack hill' a miss though, since it was closer to 45 today.   The gas prices in the outback were ridiculous!  Normally we would prefer to support local businesses and give them our money instead of corporate brands but we found out that the locals were easily charging 30 cents more per liters!  That is a massive difference!  The gas stations are so far apart that you need to be careful where you fill up because there may not be another one for awhile.

me and mark taking a break
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After we saw King's Canyon we were going to take a 3 hr road along the MacDonald ranges back into Alice Springs.  When we got to the road there was a huge sign on it saying that it was closed.  We went back to the local shop and asked why and the woman working there said it was due to rain...huh?...rain in 45 degree heat!?  Ahhhhh so annoying!  You would think that if they were going to close the through road that there would have been a sign when you turn to go towards King's Canyon informing you of this fact so then you could make an educated decision if you wanted to do a 3 hour detour, but you have no idea until you actually try to pass the Canyon.  The woman at the shop suggested we could stay for another 2 weeks and wait for the road to open...and she was serious!  We said we didn't have the time, so our only way back was 3hrs in the direction we had just come!  We thought we would make it back to Alice that night but we ended up staying about an hour and a half outside the city at one of the rest and revives, there was a crazy sandstorm that night and it blacked out everything, we were looking forward to our last night under the stars but it was not to be as the sand seemed to cover the entire sky.

outback from above
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Driving in the outback was an amazing experience.  It was raining a bit and it was so flat and barren that you could actually see the rain coming down over another part of the desert in the distance.   There was tons of cool wildlife as well; we saw lizards; monitors and thorny devils (look them up, they are cool). Wild horses, camels, tons of birds, but by the end of our outback adventure we still hadn't seen any roos - we were both kind of disappointed.  We decided that when we got back to Alice we would go to the Outback Desert Park to check it out.  It's a wildlife reserve.  We arrived in time to catch the 'bird's of prey' show and it was so cool.  The birds were just flying all over the place and they said allot of times wild ones will just come and join the show.  At the Desert Park we finally saw our 'roos, relaxing in the shade.  They are nocturnal so are hard to see in the daytime, but we were still hoping to catch a few in the wild before we left.  We headed back into Alice and dropped off the camper van and pretty much raced to the airport, we were cutting our time very close.  But we made it in time and caught our flight to Cairns no problem.  What I was most excited for in Cairns at this point was a shower!  4 days in the dusty outback had left us pretty grubby!  Bring on the city living!