Venturing into the Outback

Hey everybody!! We survived the Australian Outback and are now in Perth. We had an amazing experience on our Uluru Camping Trip but are glad to be away from the crazy heat!! We stayed for 1 night at Annie's Place backpackers before heading out on our 3 day adventure. Here's a quick rundown for what we did each day on the camping trip.

Day One:
- up at 530 am and on the road at 600 am
- first stop was Kings Canyon for a 6km hike. Temperature in the shade was +42.
- the hike started with a steep climb they nicknamed "Heartattack Hill".
- walked approximately 1 1/2 hrs along the canyon rim walk until we came to the Garden of Eden watering hole.
- went swimming in the waterhole... which was exactly what we needed to cool down our bodies in the blazing heat!!
- completed the remainder of the canyon rim walk making total hike time 4 1/2 hours.
- drove to camp stopping along the way for a photo op of Mt Conner and Lake Amadeus.
- set up camp at Curtis Springs: boys started the fire and layed out the swags while the girls prepared "Chili Con Camel"... yes - that's right. Camel meat!!
- after dinner we listened to Dan play his guitar while we all slowly fell asleep under the stars.

Day Two:
- "slept in" til 6am and headed towards Kata Tjuta.
- caught our first glimpse of Uluru while on the road so we pulled over for photos and brekkie.
- back on the road to Kata Tjuta where we took on a 7.4 km hike - again, in over +40 heat.
- this was a much harder hike because there was no Garden of Eden here so we had to endure the heat for 2 1/2 hours.
- once we finished the hike we noticed that the trail had been closed (after we started on it) due to the extreme heat.
- drove to the Cultural Centre near Uluru for a barbie at the base of the rock.
- enjoyed Kangaroo snags with Ulura as our backdrop.
- walked through the cultural centre where we learned a bit about Aboriginal history.
- went to the base of the rock for an hour walk where our tour guide, Neisha, explained different areas of the rock to us.
- Neisha treated us with a swim at the Yulara Resort - 20 km from the rock.
- after the swim we made our way to the Sunset Viewing Area while we enjoyed Chicken Satay while watching Uluru change colors while the sun set behind us.
- made way to camp - a spot we just picked in the bush.
- fell asleep (finally - after all the drunks passed out) around 2am under the stars.

Day Three:
- up at 4am, packed up camp and hit the road to watch the sunrise behind Uluru.
- went back to the viewing area for the sunrise and enjoyed some brekkie.
- made our way to the base of Uluru for a nice early morning walk.
- we chose not to climb Uluru and instead did the 10 km base walk around the rock.
- arrived back at the bus 2 hours later to watch the Mingas ("little ants" as the Aboriginals call them) decend the rock.
- headed home stopping at a roadhouse for lunch.
- arrived back at Annie's Place at 4pm.

After all the hikes, the heat, the flies and not showering for 3 days straight... we still managed to make some real good friends. The remaining 3 days in Alice Springs wasn't as exciting as our camping trip. Nathan and I went to the Repitile Centre where we were able to hold Bearded Dragons, Blue-Tongued Lizard, Pineapple Lizard and the 2m Black Headed Python. That was a great experience!! The other 2 days was spent moving room to room and checking our bags inside and out because unfortunately we came across some more bedbugs!! Nathan came out of there with no bites but I wasn't as lucky. I didn't count how many I had on my body but the numerous welts I did recieve literlly were about the size of a loonie. I'm healing up quite nicely now though.

So here we are in Perth and are going to explore the area. We'll talk to you all again once we've done something new!!

E&N

Aussie Fact of the Day - Perth is the most isolated capital city in the World.

Last week in Sydney!!

Finally!! We are actually leaving Sydney - for real this time!! I think I've mentioned to a couple people now that we were leaving but those times have come and gone and still we sit here in this big city. We have booked our flights out of here though and come Feb 18th we will be in flight headed to Alice Springs. Right in the middle of the Outback. We have 1 week to explore the area in which we will partake in a "3 Day Camping Safari". This consists of us exploring King's Canyon, The Olgas and Ayer's Rock. We will be doing alot of hiking, some swimming in waterholes, watching sunset & sunrises, a camel ride through the desert and sleeping in a swag (sleeping bag) under the stars - that's right - no tent!! Just us, the snakes, spiders and stars.

We have a question for everybody though. Ayer's Rock is the former 'tourist' name for the giant red rock in the middle of the outback. It is now known as Uluru - it's Aboriginal name. Our question is this... Do we climb the rock or not?? Basically we are allowed to climb this rock if we want to but the Aboriginals in the area find this offensive because the land is sacred to them. So we don't know if we should just climb it because we are in fact tourists and came here to see and experience all that we can... or if we should just see it from the ground because we may offend someone. I should point out that there are people climbing it non-stop because there is an area designated for those who want climb it... but do we join in?? Let us know what you all think we should do!!

Anyway - let's rewind a bit to bring you all up to speed as to what's been happening since our last post. On February 4th we were invited to attend a birthday party!! We were promised lots of fun, games, cake and lollies!! All we had to do was bring our bikes and teddybears down to Blackman Park and join in to celebrate Charlie's 4th birthday!! We did attend, however we were a bit empty handed with no bikes and/or teddies. It was a good time considering I don't think I've ever been around that many 3-4 year olds since I too was that age!! Her actual birthday wasn't until February 7th and when that day arrived we had a small celebration at the house for her. Steve made his famous Fish Pie for supper and we followed that with some Strawberry Cheesecake!! It was a nice quiet evening spent at home and I think Charlie really enjoyed herself!!

I can't say the evening after that was as quiet though!! We met up at the StarBar with our friend Chris whom we haven't seen since we've been in Sydney!! We met him back when we were staying in Brisbane. Anyhow - Nathan and I went there with the intention of only having a few drinks so we were able to get home at a reasonable hour because both of us had to work early the next day. Well after about 3 'shouts' each I can say we all were intoxicated. You have to remember that a 'shout' is when 1 person buys everybody at the table a drink. So do the math and that's approximately 9 pints of Carlton Draught a piece!! *L* Ouch!! Umm - I can't really get into details about the journey home because honestly I don't remember it. Nathan has captured some good pics of me rolling around on the ground. I guess my legs turned a bit rubbery from the beers I drank. Now I know where that grass stain on my jeans came from. Haha. Anyhow, both of us managed to get up for work the next day - however only 1 of us actually made it to work. At about 9am I get an email from Nathan saying he went to the bus stop and basically turned around to go home and back to bed. Not fair!! I suffered the whole morning fighting off the nasty hangover from the nigth before. I did however leave work at noon to go home and laze around the rest of the day. Ahh - the joys of being a traveler and being able to do these things with 'no worries'!! If we were back home we both would have had to suffer through the work day.

Today we went down to ChinaTown to watch the "Year of the Pig" Chinese New Year's Parade. It was a good time in which we saw alot of costumes, dancers, dragons and fighters. The parade went on for about 1 1/2 hrs and afterwards we went down to the main stage to watch a bit of the entertainment. There were food tents galore and Nate got the courage to eat some Octupus. I had all the intentions of trying some too but when I actually saw what he was eating I just couldn't go through with it. In fact I had to turn my head and not watch him. He swears it tasted like pork and wasn't at all chewy. I let him enjoy it all though!! At one of the Chinese grocery stores we were in we found cans of A&W Rootbeer!! We scooped up one of those since you can't buy them anywhere else in Australia and enjoyed every bit of it.

So now here we are and our last week in Sydney. We have a few things planned but they will mostly be dining out experiences. With Valentines Day, my birthday and our farewell supper with the family we'll be getting in some real good eats!!

We're not sure when we'll post again. Maybe if we can find the time in Alice Springs otherwise you'll have to wait until we get to Perth. Which is only about 2 weeks away so I think you can all handle that!!

E&N

Aussie fact of the day:
- Uluru is 346 metres (1135 ft) high and more than 8 km (five miles) around.