I left the East Coast behind and flew to the very hot and dry outback. It was a 5am start to head into the outback. We drove for about 10 hours before we reached our first stop at Kings Canyon. We went for a hike in the midday sun, not the best idea! It was so hot and the flies were everywhere! But the impressive view looking out over the Canyon made up for that!
Our first stop for the night was at a camp sight not far from Uluru. I was expecting tents and not much else but it was really nice with showers, a fully functional kitchen and the tents had beds in! I went for the real outback experience though and slept in a swag under the stars!
We had to be up early again to watch the sunrise over Uluru. It's a really weird experience. You cram into a car park with thousands of other tourists and it's all noisy but then the sun comes up and suddenly everything and everyone goes quiet. Everyone is just staring at the massive red rock appearing on the horizon. I know it's just a rock, but there really is something impressive and magical about it that you can't help but stare with your mouth open!! You can still walk up it but I decided I didn't want to. It felt really disrespectful as the Aborigines don't like it plus it's a pretty steep climb! So i walked round it, which meant pictures of the rock, not just the view of nothingness from the top. I took far to many photos! In the evening we watched the sun set with some sparkling wine-heaven! Then we had a BBQ and camp fire with marshmallows before sleeping under the stars again!
The next day I was up at 4am!!! We drove 12 hours to Cober Pedy where they have opal mines. We went on a mine tour and even slept in caves carved into the rock! I even got to hold a joey and he gave me a kiss. If you blow on a kangaroo's nose, if they want to be your friend they will lick you and they have ears in their feet, just so you know!
Thursday was a driving day to Flinders Ranges national park. Drove through the nothingness of the outback. We had a really fun tour guide called Benchy (all drivers have silly names!) who got involved in the games as much as we did. We went to a salt lake which is just crystallised salt no water, it's like walking on the top of a Christmas cake! In the evening we went on a hike up to the Dutchman's Stern and saw loads of kangaroos.
On the last day I went on a camel ride through the outback. My camel was called moon and she was lovely, no spitting!
Then it was back to civilisation and Adelaide. It was really sad to leave the group behind. I was supposed to do my dolphin swim but it got cancelled. So I did some museums and art galleries and the Botanic gardens instead.
Next stop Melbourne!
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