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.