Elliot

We had to stop in Elliot (another tiny dustbowl town) to camp for the night on the way back. I found the bar there quite funny. If you look at the picture below you'll see lots of sheets of paper pinned to the wall. Each one has the name of a person, how long they are barred for and what they did!

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I also liked the spear he had up on the wall. Check out the eyesight ...

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The Tropic of Capricorn

We had to stop here - The Tropic of Capricorn. Technically we were crossing over here from the desert red center the tropical top end. A little bit of novelty.

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From Australia, Re...

Wildlife

Unlike anywhere else I'd been, the wildlife really rules here in Australia. No humans around to frighten them off. When you're walking around here you really do see Kangaroos and Lizards and Dingoes. When we got out from a swim in Kakadu there was a huge monitor Lizard walking on our stuff! Walking through the Olgas we saw two kangaroos hopping down one of the domes! When we were in Kings Canyon a frightened Kangaroo hopped by right in front of us. We saw why a couple of minutes later when we spotted a Dingo about 20 meters away! This is all very, very cool - I love it so long as I don't come face to face with anything dangerous ;-)

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From Australia, Re...

From Australia, Re...

Devil's Marbles

This was an interesting diversion to pull off the road for - "The Devils Marbles". Huge boulders just lying at the side of the road. A welcome break from flat, endless bush.

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Wycliff Well

One of the oddest stop on the Stuart Highway - "Wycliff Well" This town has the highest number of reported UFO sightings in the country. The roadhouse here has been quick to cash in on this little quirk. Of course the sightings have nothing to do with the fact that the bar here also has the largest selection of beers in the country also.

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From Australia, Re...

Nothing ... Not a thing

Probably one of the remote places I've ever been. The Northern Territory has a population of about 200,000 (only 1% of the population of Australia). Half of these people live in Darwin. Another massive chunk is in Alice springs, and the tiny percentage that's left is distributed throughout a state bigger than Gemany and France put together. Driving at times can get lonely where you won't pass a car on the Highway for half an hour or so. If you're going off on any of the 4WD tracks you still have to inform the police because if you break down there, someone else mightn't pass you on the road for another week! When you look at a map of the Territory you could be easily fooled into thinking there's lots of towns on the road. In reality these "Towns" are nothing more than a petrol station and you'll easily drive over 500km at a time before passing through another town. Adding to the lack of population is the sameness of the landscape. For hundreds and hundreds of kilometers along the highway is simply flat, unchanging bush that gradually gets redder and more desertlike as you approach the center. The drive down was a pretty unique experience and we definitely wouldn't have gotten the same feel for the place had we flown to Yulara.

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King's Canyon

This was a real surprise of our Red Center trip. Apart from reading the guide book, I hadn't heard of King's Canyon before coming to Australia. We arrived at the canyon at about 7a.m. and did a walk around the rim of the canyon. There's an amazing landscape here. The canyon itself is spectacular, especially when the sun lights up the wall of the canyon. Also, around the rim are hundreds of weathered sandstone domes, making the place look like some sort of lost city. I think this is one of these "must sees" in the area. Really liked it.

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From Australia, Re...

From Australia, Re...

You can see in some of the photos that we're wearing pants and fleeces - Even though it was sunny, it had gottten quite cold in the desert ... the temperature had gone down to 15c at night and about 21c during the day at one point.

Kata Tuta (The Olgas)

While Uluru won the competition of having the best view from a distance, Kata Tuta (or "The Olgas") was definitely far more interesting to explore up close. We took the "valley of the winds walk". It was great. The Olgas are actually taller and bigger than Ayers rock and are only a short distance away from each other. Well worth the trip. You can just about see both Ayers rock and the Olgas in the picture below.

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From Australia, Re...

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

The centerpiece of the Red Center trip, but different to what I'd expected. Uluru is best seen from a distance and it's where you're most rewarded. We went to the viewing point for sunset. It was a cloudy evening and we though we weren't going to see the full effects but fortunately things cleared at just the right moment. Definitely well worth the wait - it looked spectacular and changed through all sorts of colours as the sun set.

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From Australia, Re...

Alice Springs

The town seemed like an oasis in the middle of the desert when we arrived. Very nice town. We camped here for the night before we toured the relatively nearby sights (Uluru is still 500km away from here) and stocked up on supplies. Almost 20% of the population of the territory lives here and it only has 30,000 people!!!

Larrimah

We were running out of daylight fast so we pulled into the tiny town of Larrimah to pitch our tent for the night. At the bar there the owner was asking where we were from. "Co. Limerick - oh, Paddy's from there" he said. What a coincidence. We got chatting to this guy Paddy later in the evening. He was 62, from Abbeyfeale, and had emigrated to Australia on one of those $10 visas way back in 1968. He had totally lost the accent and he was really interested to hear about home - he'd only been back once in the 40 years. He had spent years moving cattle across from Broome and eventually he stopped in the Larrimah area where he's retired now. ... the Irish turn up in the strangest of places.

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Camping It

Now that we had a car at our disposal we could easily reach all the campsites. Quite a nice way to get around and definitely cheaper - sometimes its free even depending on the site you choose and the few dollars you pay is definitely worth it to get a shower and the use of a kitchen - We finally had our first open air "Barbie"

Alice Blue

We rented a car for the trip down to the Red Center and shared the costs with two other girls we met in the hostel. The girls quickly name the car "Alice Blue". Really comfy, 2.3litre monster of a car (Toyota Camry) - Great for the long journey we had ahead.

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To The Red Center (25th April - 1st May 2007)

After the Kakadu trip our next destination was to the "Red Center", deep in the south of the Northern Territory, to see Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tuta (The Olgas), King's Canyon and whatever else looked interesting along the way. We rented a car for what was going to be a mammoth 4500km trip!