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Ayers Rock
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We just finished a four day driving tour of the area.  We drove 4.5 hours to see Ayers Rock which is a big rock in the middle of nowhere but quite picturesque nonetheless. We did the 1.5 hour climb to the top which was a beautiful view.  After that is was more driving through the outback to see all sorts of other cool red rock formations and canyons in the area.  Yesterday we did a gorgeous hike through the dessert and ended up walking through the Ormiston gorge and its dry river bed at the end - definitely a great hike.  We even got to see a bunch of rock wallabies along the way.  The highlight was probably the Meereenie Loop road back to Alice Springs from Kings Canyon.  Having rented an 4x4 we thought we would get our monies worth and take the 4x4 route back to Alice.  What a drive it was!!  It was 200km of the worst gravel roads you could imagine after a few colorful words exchanged between Marcel and myself as how to best navigate the horrible road we both fell into silent prayer that we would not get a flat tire or have a door or the engine fall off due to the huge vibrations!!   After about an hour at about 30km/hr and 1 car finally passing us at 80km/hr we realized the trick was to go faster!! So we drove the next 2 hours at about 70km/hr still shaking like crazy but we made it back to civilization.  Oh and the other thing was that there is no service station or inhabitant for that matter the whole way along the road!!  Hope eveyone is well at home and will put up some pictures when I get a chance.