Australian Outback!

The last of the trips around Australia had me in the middle of nowhere.  I had six days in the Northern Territory, which I spent four of those exploring the outback and two days in Alice Springs.  In the NT, aborigines are everywhere, since this area was more known as where many aboriginal people settled.  The first days of exploring took me to the West Macdonnell Ranges.  These were a good precursor to Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon.  The three days after that were spent at Uluru, Kata-Tjuta, and Kings Canyon National Parks.  These parks has impressive features, such as impressive colors of Uluru (Ayers Rock), domes as tall as 580 meters (Kata-Tjuta), and dynamic scenery and landscape (Kings Canyon).  We spent our two nights camping and sleeping in swags, which are canvas sacks with a mattress and sleeping bag on the inside.  It was surprisingly warm, which was good because nights dipped into upper 30s and lower 40s at night. On the last day, the opportunity to ride a camel came up, and I did not pass it up!  Australia actually has the largest wild camel population in the world! It was a short ride, but still a fun one at that.  My time in Alice Springs was spent at the Reptile Centre and on Anzac Hill, which is a hill devoted to war veterans.  This hill overlooks Alice Springs. It was an ideal trip to get away from the hustle and bustle of exams back in Melbourne.

Stay out of the water...if you can find any.

Sunset over Kings Creek Cattle Station

Sunday night fire.  Nice to sleep by with a blanket of stars!

Base of Uluru; ~10km and about 3 hrs time

Kangaroo dinner!

If you love kangaroos, this post is not for you...

That right there is some pure Australian kangaroo.  Found some kangaroo meat at the supermarket and couldn't help myself so I bought it.  It tastes similar to a steak but not quite the same.  It is a very lean and healthy meat to eat apparently, but being able to say I ate kangaroo was enough for me to get it at the grocery store.

Pictures of Alice Springs/Uluru will be up next week.

Cheers!

Sunny Sydney!

After the Blue Mountains we returned to Sydney, Australia's largest city in terms of population.  We got lucky and made it to Vivid Festival, which was an event down by the harbor that celebrated art through the use of light.  As you can see, some major buildings were lit up and the Quay was buzzing.  Monday we walked from Bondi to Coogee Beach on the Coastal Walk.  It was very nice, but my camera had died! So only one photo from the beach.  Compared to Katoomba, it was a scorcher down in Sydney.  Monday afternoon was spent walking across the Sydney Harbor Bridge and checking out the north shore.  Found a cruise ship leaving the harbor so we hung out by the dock as it went by.  Tuesday was when John and I parted ways.  I had the whole day in Sydney by myself so I took a morning walk through the Botanical Gardens near the harbor.  A nice, cool, quiet morning and really nice gardens.  This led to Macquarie's Point, the end of the gardens and where a perfect view of the opera house and the bridge comes out.  After the gardens, I went to The Rocks, the area near the bridge where the English first settled in Sydney and had some of the first encounters with the indigenous tribes.  Finally, capped off the Sydney trip with some pizza and ice cream to treat myself.  Back to Melbourne to study for finals.

Next up is the Australian outback! (after these stupid exams)

Cheers!

Sunday night dinner.  

ANZAC memorial in Hyde Park

Try and pronounce that!

Gardens with the harbor as a backdrop

The Rocks

Blue Mountains

An early Friday flight and a train to Katoomba had us at the doorstep to the Blue Mountains.  Blue Moutnains NP is located about two hours west of Sydney and are considered the "Grand Canyon of Australia".  There are countless hikes to do in the park.  We did three big hikes, one each day, and found some great scenery and trails.  After spending the weekend in Katoomba it was back to Sydney.

Three Sisters

This leads to....

this! A 180 meter drop