11/6

We took the ferry back to Adelaide and the next morning we boarded the short bus for our 6 day trip through the red center.  The tour hiked through Alligator gorge and we saw aboriginal cave paintings.  We ended the day at Pachilna where we ate kangaroo, emu and camel for dinner.

 

Our tour went through another gorge where we saw yellow footed rock wallaby, emu and a shingleback lizard whom we affectionately refer to as a turd lizard.  Their tail resembles their head and as it was described to us, a predator might bite the shingleback’s ‘fake’ head and get a mouthful of something not delicious.  Later in the day when it was much warmer, we climbed Mt. Ohlssen-Bagge.

The following day we drove to Lake Hart salt flats.  It was the first time I’d ever seen salt flats and it was pretty neat.  It was also very flat.  After that short stop we continued our trek to Coober Pedy where they mine opal.  They had these crazy vacuum vehicles made of old pickup trucks.  They use these vacuums to suck the dirt up from inside the mines.  It was very hot there, so hot that the houses are built underground.  We fossacked dirt piles for a while trying to find opal but gave up and bought one.  The breakaways are near here, and a lot of movies like Mad max and Pitch Black were filmed in this region for the desolate landscape.  That evening in the dining hall where we stayed, we saw a giant spider and learned that everything in Australia can kill you.  You should listen to the ‘Come to Australia‘ song.

11/9

We made it to Uluru.  It was quite hot.  That night we camped under the stars.

The next day we had a chance to walk around Uluru (or climb it).  We read that it is disrespectful to the Aboriginal people to climb it, so we admired it from the ground.  After a few hours at Uluru, we hiked at Kata Tjuta.  We camped in cabins that night and saw more of Australia’s poisonous spiders.  I’m pretty sure that’s a redback.

After packing up camp, we head to King’s Canyon where we hiked for a few hours.  It was very hot once again.

Leaving King’s canyon we drove the rest of the way to Alice Springs.  In Alice Springs we bought a painting by an Aboriginal artist then took a flight to Cairns.