The one where I Outbacked

I went to the Outback.

I signed up for another small group tour. I'd have preferred to not be with a group, but it was probably cheaper for me to take the tour than to rent and do it myself, and I didn't need to drive or be worried about being all alone in the middle of actual nowhere.

My group: the 23 yr old guide, me, a Polish woman and her German boyfriend, a German woman and her German mother, a German woman, and a Swiss woman who spoke German. All except the mother spoke English, but it was easier for them to just stick with German and I got to spend most of the travel time reading by myself.

On day 6 our guide had to leave us to move or something, so for the last 3 days of our trip we hooked up with a different group on a 3 day tour that happened to match the last 3 days of ours. Well, you know what I mean. So we switched guides and added an English guy, 2 Aussie girls and another German couple. Our new guide had us all introduce ourselves at dinner, so I finally had to learn the names of the people I'd been travelling with for almost a week.

While hiking in New Zealand (which I really will write about at some point...), a friend said "[I think] every state in the US is in New Zealand, too. We're in Utah now!" My overall impression of the Outback? It's like Arizona, if Arizona were really, really big.

As requested, here's some details, with apologies for inconsistent tenses and sentence fragments and stuff.

First day: Drove from Adelaide to the Wilpena Pound. We stopped at a winery in a monastery, and maybe somewhere else. Camping on a site in a resort area. Kangaroos start reminding me of the Quokkas from Rottnest Island--the first time we saw one in the wild was really cool. The novelty kinda wears off when there are five eating the grass by the pool.

Next day: Hiked up the trail to the peak to look out over the pound. Pretty, but not spectacular. But I took a nice walk back by myself--I wasn't "lost", I just wasn't on the trail. I saw oodles of roos in their natural habitat, some giant eagles, and, on the way back, a miserable looking group with 2 guides and about 25 people. We drive to Angorichina to spend the night in a motel of sorts on a sheep farm.

I buy some beers and head off to find the water hole, about 30 minutes away. I find water 10 minutes later. Not sure if that was what I was looking for, but it got me wet when I fell in. Saw sheep, goats, and accidentally killed a crab trying to move a rock to get a picture. I also came across the one area that reminded me most of my preconceived ideas of what the Outback looks like. Which come, of course, from Crocodile Dundee. I and II, thank you.

Dinner is steaks, chicken, kangaroo fillets, steamed vegetables...we're not exactly roughing it.

Next day: Rent a bike to check out the Parachilna Gorge. It's a very bumpy 45 minute ride, but no one else rented so I was able to be all by my lonesome. Gorge is pretty. And when it ends abruptly, there's a flat desert.

We drive. Stop in to visit Talc Alf, a nut and tourist attraction. He gives a spiel on the origin of words based on his ideas of what some letters mean. In explaining the origin of "Israel" he asked me rhetorically what "Is" means. I said "It's the present participle of 'are'". One of the Germans started laughing, then coughing, then choking (actual present participles...). Alf took a liking to me, and I had to change my shirt after he put his arm around me for some pictures.

We drive to William Creek, population 8, and sleep in a parking lot.

Next day: Drive to Coober Pedy. I've been trying not to duplicate on my blog what I've said in postcards, but I'm not sure how better to say it: CP is where they film bad movies that take place in desolate climates. We take an awful tour, then go learn about opals. In my free time I try to play golf, but the place to rent clubs is closed by the time I get there. We stay in a suite of rooms underground. It's really quiet, completely dark, nice and cool, and I have my own room as there's room for 42.

Next day: Drive almost 500 miles. We meet up with the new guide and new people. It's raining so we stay in some permatents near Kings Canyon.

Next day: Walk Kings Canyon Rim walk. There were some pretty cliffs. The Garden of Eden wasn't so delightful, and the pool is this stagnant water that's kind of nasty so I didn't go in. We drive to Yulara, the Uluru resort town. Stop by the Uluru Cultural Center, which is fascinating. Back in time to check out sunset at the rock. Which is gorgeous, though you're not exactly seeing a sight that few get to see...the tour buses are lined up, and many of the companies have tables set up for the "champagne at the rock" part of their itineraries. For dinner, I cook fried rice and a potato casserole and steaks on the barbie.

Next day: Get up early (4am?) to get breakfast and head to the sunrise viewing area. Also pretty. Also more buses lined up. We take a walk around the rock, which takes about 2 hours. I totally want to climb it, but the Aboriginal peoples who consider the rock sacred ask you not to. We spend some more time at the Cultural Center. We hang out all afternoon, going for a swim at the pool and walking around the town for a bit before heading to a different sunset viewing area.

Next day: We get up early again. Head to Kata Tjuta/The Olgas, a spectacular series of rock formations near Uluru, for the Valley of the Winds walk. This was an awesome walk and by far the prettiest thing we saw. Finish up and drive into Alice Springs to end our tour.

I only spent one day in Alice as I wanted to fly off to Melbourne to see some tennis. What I saw: the Todd River. The Todd River is usually dry. When I saw it: not so much. And there were great storms as I was leaving, so I'm sure the flooding got even worse.

So anyway, if you're still with me, selected Outback photos are up at my picture site. I'm taking lots of pictures but many are duplicitive or may be meaningful only to me so I decided to just load the highlights. As with the content of my entries, let me know if you want any changes to my picturedom--more, fewer, of different things, etc. All I know now is that the most viewed picture I have, by far, is this.

Now that that's off my chest, I'll write about Melbourne later.

ta,
sg