This one begins with us flying into Alice Springs......
And there it is, in the middle of Australia.
One of the many(that's an exaggeration) things to do in Alice Springs was to climb to the top of this hill for a view of the town.
Another "attraction", Rex's Reptile Zoo. Yep, this is the only picture from the reptile zoo. There was a 10 minute presentation of "some of Australia's most dangerous reptiles" and then we took a walk around the zoo which was about as big as my bedroom.
The camels were a bit more interesting. We were picked up from our hostel by Crocodile Dundee, who actually owns a camel farm despite the "Crocodile" in his title. He drove us to said farm and took us for an evening camel ride. I had no idea that there were camels in Australia but apparently there are thousands!!
On our way to the big Rock!!
Jens and I both fell asleep just before we stopped for this picture (we left REALLY early with the bus) and we missed the explanation and thought this was an early glimps of Uluru. Turned out it was just a big rock that looked a bit like a toothbrush.
Emu spotted in Erldunda, the closest town to the center of Australia. Its not really a town actually, more like a rest stop on the side of the road.
Merry Christmas everyone!!
On our tour we stopped here, at Kata Juta, also known as The Olgas, and then Uluru. Kata Juta is an ancient religious site for the Aboriginal people. Kata Juta means "heads many" and the multiple rocks seem to change shape and form depending on the angle and the lighting.
At Kata Juta we stopped to walk around.
I'm glad we just saw this guy and not one of his long slithery friends.
And there it is!! Uluru. The ancient migratory Aboriginal peoples lived in and around this rock throughout the year as they traveled through the desert. To the Aboriginies, every crack, cave and pile of rocks has an story.
Drawings left by the Aboriginals.
This area of Australia gets 2 maybe 3 days of rain in one year, between 9 and 10 inches. And we were told the evaporation it approx. 110 inches. So you can imagine This pool of water here in the middle of the desert was important for the ancient Aborigines. This water also attracted animals and gave the Aborigines an easy hunting opportunity.
Maybe I'm just a nerd but I thought this was really interesting.
The rock that we see is actually only a small portion of the rock. Approximately 4/5 of the rock is underground. You can see that the rock layers are vertical and not horizontal because this rock is actually turned on its side. Hundreds of Thousands of whatever years ago, this rock was pushed and squished together but the shifting earth and then turned on its side, and there it is!!
K.
Sydney Harbour.
Not very spectacular with a grey backdrop, but there's the Opera House!
The obligatory photo of me with the Opera House.
And me with the Harbour Bridge.
This is as high as I climbed on the Harbour Bridge but some crazy people pay money to strap on a harness and climb to the very top of the bridge!!! No thanks.
That's more like it!! This is day 2 in Sydney, on the ferry out to Manly Beach. I wish I could explain just how happy I was to be on a boat on the water. I don't know but it just felt great to get out on the water, even though it was just on the ferry.
Maybe I was a little snap happy because I was on the boat.
Manly Beach.
Coming back into the harbour.
One beach is just not enough!! Here's Bondi.
New Years Eve!! We camped out at the park with all these people waiting for the fireworks show from the bridge there in the background.
There it is......
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
