Into the Outback!

DD and I have had a wonderful trip to the Outback. We spent 2 days in Alice Springs (remember "A Town Like Alice"? book by Nevil Shute and then the miniseries? It doesn't look like that anymore!) The Alice is a bustling town of about 27,000 people spread in the valley between the MacDonnell Ranges. The Todd River runs through the town, but the river is usually dry. This is desert country, but was really greener and had lots more vegetation than I thought. We walked the Todd Mall (pedestrian shopping area) and climbed Anzac Hill-got a good lookout over the city and the red rocks. I bought some art by an Aboriginal artist. This is the place to learn about Aboriginal culture, as the further north you go, the more Aboriginal settlements there seem to be. Alice Springs is in the Northern Territory, which isn't a state of Australia, but a territory. It was a 3 hour plane ride from Melbourne and really in the middle of nowhere. A lot of tourists use this town as the waypoint on Outback adventures. Also, the famous train, the Ghan, stops here.

We were picked up by luxury motor coach on the third day for the 5 hour drive to Ayers Rock Resort and the famous Ayers Rock (now called Uluru). Talk about the middle of nowhere!~ We road for many miles without seeing a single sign of human habitation. Uluru the rock is visible from 40 miles away. It is a sandstone monolith, the largest in the world. We had a sunset tour of the rock, where we saw several geologic and sacred Aboriginal sites and then watched the sunlight change the colors of the rock as the sun set. We had an Aussie BBQ dinner where we sat out under the Southern Cross and ate kanagaroo, among other delicacies.

At 5 am the next day we were back on our coach with Tina, our local driver-guide for the sunrise tour and short walks. The climbing route on Uluru was closed, as the temps have been 100 degrees or higher every day. We saw more Aboriginal sites-ceremonial and dwelling- and got close to the huge walls of Uluru. Truly an amazing site.

Pictures will follow, but internet connection is pay-per-minute here. I also promise to expand on our experiences-Oz is a fascinating place!

One thing we haven't seen much of is wildlife-I expected to see some kangaroos while we were driving, but didn't. We did see a fascinating lizard called a thorny devil-spikier than a horned toad. And the bugs and FLIES are too numerous to mention. Most of the tourists wear fly nets as soon as the sun gets warm until dark. I'm so happy I bought my L.L.Bean Allagash hat with fly net attached.

On to Melbourne for a one-night layover as my trip was supposed to be ending here. I added on Brisbane at the last minute and couldn't change flights without huge penalties, so we will be in Brisbane next.

Have one min. left on my pay-per-play, so signing off!