Sunday, May 24th
Another early morning! We were up at 5am to get to Uluru to see sunrise. Again it was cloudy, but there was a rainbow by the rock which was awesome! After the sun came up we walked around the rock on the Southwest side. Uluru is a single giant sandstone rock, and the red color comes from iron oxide in the dirt- which apparently 
was blown from another part of the continent relatively recently (only a few thousand years ago) and in places where there has been a lot of wind erosion you can see the original greyish white color of the rock. 
When we met up with the bus again on the other side of Uluru it started to rain, and Steve our tour guide gave us the option of doing the short Mala walk in the wet or to go to the visitor's center and stay dry. Hannah, one other girl and I were the only ones willing to brave the rain, and it turned out to be the best decision of our trip! Because it was pouring, water was collecting in pools at the top of the rock and flowing along paths down the sides in waterfalls and the whole rock became a milky white color. We saw some rock paintings which were much more simple than the ones we saw further north, and Steve explained this is because life around Uluru was much more difficult and most of the people's time was spent looking for food a fuel and they didn't have extra time to sit around and paint. We saw some sites where women butchered emu and ground and stored seeds. There was a cave called the Wave Cave because wind erosion has made it look like there are waves in the wall, and then we went over to a waterhole that tours don't always make it to. During the dry season it rarely rains much, so a lot of the people familiar with the area haven't seen it like this! Our guide and a couple of others were running around taking pictures, and apparently park rangers were stopping on the road to take photos as well. When we got to the water hole there were at least 4 waterfalls coming down in different areas. Some were just small streams, some were coming down through a series of pools on the face of the rock, and there was a giant one rushing one. While we were standing there looking at it I said to Hannah that I really wanted to run into it, and she said she was thinking the same thing. Steve said "I won't tell if you don't tell" and then it was pretty much decided. I pulled off my socks and shoes, rolled up my pants (not that it made a difference) and just ran in. I think the other two were surprised that I actually went for it, but once I ran back out they both went in as well. You aren't actually supposed to go swimming there, but we rationalized that it wasn't really swimming if you just run in. And anyway, how many people can say they've been under a waterfall coming down Uluru? Ridiculous. Hannah and I couldn't stop smiling all day. 
Luckily we could get dry clothes- it would have been a very uncomfortable 4 hr bus trip to King's Canyon otherwise. It stopped raining by the time we got to the campsite. A bunch of us scrambled up a hill like goats to watch the sunset. Leanne and Fabi taught some of us to line dance- apparently country music is huge in Canada. Who knew? We all made fools out of ourselves, but had a good time. Jane made damper bread for us- an Australian outback tradition. It's baked in big cast iron pot on the embers of the campfire. It was dense and delicious and we ate it covered in butter. We had another night in swags. A bunch of stuff was wet from the rain (unfortunately including the last sleeping bag which I had to use). Steve helped me heat it over the fire, and I had my sleep sack. I woke up in the middle of the night to hear dingos howling which was both spooky and amazing! 
Saturday, May 23rd
First morning of our Red Center Tour! After 2 hours of sleep it was a fun first few hours on the bus. Our Canadian friends Fabi and Leanne and Regula from Switzerland from our first tour were on the same bus as us, and about half the rest were on a different bus doing the same tour so we saw them at all the stops along the way. We had 2 guides again, Steve and Jane, who told us Jane was just along to drive but it turns out Steve is still training but they wanted everyone to think it was really his tour and give him feedback accordingly. He did a good job, and mostly fooled us all!
On our way out to Yulara where we spent our first night we stopped at a camel farm and a couple of the girls went on a little ride around the paddock. Apparently there are only one-humped camels (dromedaries) in Australia. They brought them over from Asia and the Middle East to help build railroads across the desert. When the work was done the handlers were told to shoot all the camels, but instead they set them free. The camels adapted to life in the outback pretty quickly and now there are close to a million that roam free. We also drove through Curtain Springs where we saw Mount Conner or "Fooluru" because a lot of people think it is Uluru the first time they see it. It isn't a rock at all, but a mesa or tabletop mountain, and impressive in its own right.
We set up camp at the Yulara "resort" (a very loosely used term) and got our passes to the National Park sorted out. We went over to Kata Tjuta which means 'many heads'. These are 36 domes about 50km west of Uluru. I hadn't known anything about them until we got out there, and they turned out to be spectacular. The domes are a conglomerate of sandstone and other small rocks that were pushed into the area millions of years ago, and they look like they are made of a rough red concrete. The area is still sacred under Anangu law and there are only a few tracks that you can walk through it on. We did the Valley of the Winds Walk (not the same as the Valley of the Waters Walk in the Blue Mountains!) which was a bit steep and rough but and very windy! We made it to the second lookout in between two massive boulders and looked into a valley dotted with boulders. People were losing their hats and everyone's hair was blowing all over the place, but it was nice to escape the heat and especially the flies (which were EVERYWHERE. Gross.)
We went over to a lookout area to watch the sun set on Uluru. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast so we didn't see the spectacular colors as advertised, but it was still pretty cool. After dinner and a campfire (with the obligatory didgeridoo being passed around) we set up our swags- Australian bedrolls with a pad at the bottom and a canvas part that zips over your sleeping bag. We were told to stick our shoes under our swags, as the dingos sometimes like to steal them in the night! We were a little more concerned about the dingos eating our faces, but everyone woke up intact.
Friday, May 22nd
Our final day on the road. In the morning we went over to the Barkly Community Center where a group of Aboriginal guys play rock music and had invited us to come listen. It was cool to see a different, more modern side of the culture.
Our major stop was at the Devil's Marbles, a large group of boulders in the middle of the desert that was formed underground millions of years ago and now, due to water and wind erosion, has left large round granite boulders perched on top of one another. We tool the obligatory tourist photos and got to climb around on them. 
We went through Wycliffe Well after lunch. The entire town consists of a couple of houses, a few campgrounds, and one creepy service station (servo). It's claim to fame is being the UFO capital of Australia, and they get over 300 sightings there a year. The servo was full of newspaper and 
magazine articles on sightings and abductions, photos of flying saucers...and a whole glassed off room of knick-knacks from around the world and a stuffed gorilla sitting on a canopy bed. If we didn't think the people there were freaks because of all the alien stuff, that whole other bit really put them over the edge. I wouldn't want to find myself in Wycliffe Well at night time. I think I'd be more scared of the town folk than anyone from another galaxy, though maybe they prove there really is something to all the abduction stories...
After a few other quick stops in nondescript towns we got into Alice Springs! Everyone from the tour went to 
Annie's for dinner, which upon reflection seems to be about all there is to do in Alice. We had a lot more time to chat with one another, and I learned a lot more about Morocco, among other things! A few of us carried on the night at Bojangles, the local tavern, and going to bed at 3:30 is a really good idea when you have to get up for your next tour at 5am!
Thursday, May 21st Hiked to a lookout over Katherine Gorge- unfortunately we couldn't go swimming or canoeing because the rangers hadn't gotten all the crocodiles out of the water! We did get to go swimming in Bitter Springs in Mataranka at lunch. Because of the geothermal activity underground, the water is warm but also smells like sulphur (rotten eggs). It 
was amazingly clear and there was tons of tropical vegetation in and surrounding it- including chunks of floating algae and enormous spider webs. The rocks and logs at the bottom of the spring were also covered in slimy algae. About 6 of us floated down together- there is also a current, so it is hard to swim in the opposite direction. It was an interesting game of trying not to bump into everyone else, to not touch anything on the bottom, to dodge the floating algae, and especially to keep your face well away from the spider webs. Definitely an interesting experience, but I'm not in a hurry to try it again.
Further down the road we stopped in Daly Waters which supposedly has the oldest pub in the outback. We met our "guide" for the town, 9 year old Baily who showed us around an abandoned house, an old jail cell, a tree with a bower bird nest under it, and the "community center" which is essentially a covered concrete block, and took us to the pub. And that was essentially about it! We had a drink in the pub which was good fun. People that come through can staple anything to the walls, so the place is covered in money from all over the world, photos and old IDs, hats, socks, and bras. Our tour guide Michelle had us all sign her bra and stapled it to one of the rafters. Our last stop of the day was at a road house that had an quite the reptile collection. We got to hold an impressive boa constrictor who was pretty friendly.
We finally got into our camp at Tennant Creek 12:30 am! The stars were incredible- you can see the Milky Way really clearly, I learned what the Southern Cross looks like (now I'll be able to navigate my way out of Arnhem Land!). It was FREEZING at night- I woke up with a numb face. We were were in tent cabins again, but this was on a horse farm. I was up at 6:30 and got to pet some of the horses and see a flock of Gullahs!
Wednesday, May 20thRoad trip! Hannah and I decided to go with a tour for the 1,500 km from Darwin to Alice Springs. We booked on with Adventure Tours Australia which turned out to be a great idea. We got picked up at 5:30am (well, we were waiting outside at 5:30 but didn't get picked up til after 6 because of a flat tire, but met some nice people while we were sitting on the curb). 22 of us backpackers and all our stuff into a small bus with a trailer. The people on our trip were from all over the world- The US, UK, Canada, Belgium, Morocco, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland, Tasmania, Korea, and we had crazy Ozzy guides Scotty and Michelle.
We covered pretty much all the major points of interest along the Stuart Highway. We got breakfast in a small town who's claim to fame is being the home of Charlie, one of the start from Crocodile Dundee. After Charlie died they had him stuffed and put him in the pub! Lunch was at Edith Falls where we went swimming in a waterfall pool and went for a hike with lookouts of the area. Jeremiah from our group went on walkabout and we spent a few hours waiting for him. Next we went to a "culture camp" where and Aboriginal artist Manuel and his wife Jessica taught us how to do the traditional rock painting with the very precise lines. They typically only use 4 colors- red ochre, yellow ochre, white clay, and black charcoal because those are what they can find in nature, though many of them like Manuel use man made colors now. We got to try our hand at painting, and it is so much harder than it looks- and it definitely doesn't look easy! We also got to throw a boomerang, play a didgeridoo, and pet an emu (I called him Marley and he scared the pants off me. I didn't dare touch him for fear of getting beaked). We spent the night close by in Katherine at permanent tent cabins and got our first tasted of a cold Australian night!
Even though we didn't get to see a crocodile out in the wild (probably for the best) we went to see a bunch of them in captivity in Crocodylus Park here in Darwin. It is a farm so they raise them for their skin and meat, and they take "problem" crocs from the wild for their breeding program. They also have a zoo area with native animals including wallaroos, cassowaries, dingos, and agile wallabies. They had monkeys, lions, tigers and a fisher cat but that was kind of sad.
The crocs, however, were awesome! The males they had taken in were
HUGE- over 4 meters, which is like 15 feet! They do a whole guided tour and feeding and get the crocs to jump out of the water. We saw some of the females and babies jump, and that was cool and all, but then we got to feed the big guys and I actually got to hold the pole with the chicken on it and make the big old crocodile jump out of the water. Ridiculous! And then we got to hold baby crocodiles- and it peed on me. Check that off of once in a lifetime experiences!Tomorrow we are off for the tour to Alice Springs at 5:40 
am :-/
Kakadu National Park! One of only 11 places in the world listed as a World Heritage Site for both it's cultural and natural aspects.
The trip started off a little shaky when we nearly missed our bus in the morning due to faulty alarms and then showed up in the town of Jabiru and realized there was... nothing. No people, no town (it was really only a little block of stores) and it was so bloody HOT. We checked into our "hostel" which turned out to be a Bush Bungalow- a hut with slatted floors and corrugated tin walls full of holes and covered in screen. The roof was tent material and the bathroom was in a seperate building. We came to really like it, but at first it seemed a bit, well, rustic. We really were in the middle of nowhere.
Being the intelligent young women that we are, we booked ourselves onto two full day tours that picked us up and dropped us off at our little hut, and they turned out to be excellent!
Saturday we went on an Aboriginal cultural and arts tour to Arnhem Land which is within the park but fully under the control of it's original owners. Our guide was an extended member of the tribal leader's family and so could take us to a lot of sites that were not open to most visitors. We saw a number of billabongs full of wildlife (didn't see the crocodiles that inhabit them though) but lots of native birds including the 3 species of egret and the Jabiru or stork. We saw a bunch of rock paintings, some tens of thousands of years old, a sacred burial site complete with human bones, and a working art center and gallery.
We were taught some survival skills in case we were to get lost in the bush (like how to kill a file snake- bite it's head off, how to hunt for long neck turtles, getting water from paperbark trees, and what the Southern Cross is- do we have different constelations in the Northern hemisphere?) We also found out that the Arnhem Escarpment used to be the coast of Gondwana- the mega land mass before the continents broke apart. Crazy!
On Sunday we went on another 4wheel drive trip, but this time to Jim Jim Falls (named after the An Jim Jim plant, or Pandanus tree). It was a long bumpy ride down a 2 track road and then we hiked 900m down a "path" that was really just a scramble over huge limestone boulders. When we made it to the base of the falls we got to go swimming in the pool at the bottom, and actually got to swim right under the falls and get splashed by water coming down 250m! The water in the pool was about 60m deep according to our guide, and I tried not to think about the Rainbow Serpant rumored to be in it as I swam over it. There was another beautiful beach in the valley/gorge and Hannah and I went wading in it after lunch. The little fish were very curious and I had my toe nibbled so we high tailed it out of there. On the hike out we saw a file snake (but didn't bite it's head off) and learned about the Eucalyptus called the Darwin Woollybutt (hehehe). 
(Alice Springs. I was really not this thrilled about it)
Our outback adventure is officially over:-( The last few days in Alice Springs were uneventful, except for our new German friend Paul from the YHA who told us Alice is the murder capital of the world. Nice. Hannah and I flew into Sydney and went to Govinda's for the evening- an all you can eat vegetarian Indian buffet (which we took FULL advantage of) followed by a movie in their crazy theater with futons instead of chairs and you have to take your shoes off. It was a great set up for one of the worst films of all time- some sci-fi thriller with Nicholas Cage which was super creepy but luckily ended by aliens blowing up the world (not even kidding) so we weren't scared anymore when we had to walk back to our hostel at midnight.
