The Outback!! 7 days out of civilization!

Long way from home.
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Finally made it to the real Aussie outback.  We flew out there with a group and rented two offroad vehicles they call "troopies."  It pretty much just allows us to load all gear ontop and pile people in the back.  Over the course of the week we drove about 1,000 miles and hiked about 40.  We started in Alice Springs (the only real town within 1,500 miles) and did a big loop back around to fly out.  We would try to camp in areas as remote as possible.  This usually meant finding a dry river bed, driving up it and setting up camp well off any road, or hiking several km to an isolated campsite.  We got the see the big staple of the outback--Uluru--and a lot of other places less well known but even more amazing.  These included the giant domes of Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon, as well as Ormiston Gorge and Mt. Sonder.

Wedge Tailed Eagle
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Camping was exactly what you would expect when you hear the word "outback."  We cooked on tiny little stoves, ate out of the stoves, then scrubbed them with sand and water to clean then.  Sleeping consisted of finding a comfortable-looking patch of sand and throwing down your sleeping bag.  The bonus of not using a tent is the stars.  City lights tend to block out stars near large cities, but all of our campsites were remote enough to reveal the sky's full potential (when I say remote, I mean no building within 90 miles..."building" includes gas stations, motels, or portapotties of any sort).  So, needless to say the stars were incredible and sometimes the moon was so bright it was hard to sleep...but who's complaining?  Some nights at camp we would go to sleep to the sound of dingoes howling and wake up to a group of wild horses nearing our camp.  I wish I could have stayed out there longer, I really don't mind roughin' it out in the bush.