The Australian Outback (post and photos by mary)

Cousin Peter and Lynn’s Farm House – if only you could see the extensive gardens Lynn has created!

  Farmer Brown proudly displaying his protest to the massive desalination plant project that has ripped up the country side and his land.

We are on the road!  In 18 days Matt and I have driven over 4000 kilometres, most of which seemed like a wide, endless barren scrub land.  Until you looked closer and saw the abundant desert life.  Green desert life full of spinaflex grass, flowers, desert oak trees, plum bushes, snakes, lizards, parrots, kangaroos and many other creatures.  Australia is unlike any other country we have travelled in.  As much as it is a westernized society, you only have to leave the expensive towns and cities and enter a realm that still holds onto unique species, geological wonders and a people whose culture has not changed for over 70,000 years.  Every day offers a new discovery, a new dramatic landscape that makes us reluctant to move on.

 
Sweet Rocky in his PJs and House Robe.             Rocky and I bonded well.
  
And here’s our Rocky, who we are bonding so well with – he a good boy, tho he and Matt team together naughty adventures when off road!  The actually talk together!

We landed at my cousin’s beef farm and scored a sweet Toyota Hilux 4×4 truck with a jazz aluminum box, which we filled with cool camping gear.  Cousin Peter and his partner, Lynn have this adorable gnarly Staffordshire terrier, Rocky, who we quite loved.  We named the truck Rocky in his honour.  Rocky, the truck, has proven his strength and agility in being a road warrior capable of serious off road 4×4 river bed maneuvers.

  
Desert flora and fauna.  We have met many lizards on the road, awesome creatures of art.

I am already beginning to worry that six months is not enough time for us to do everything we want to.  We expect to travel 16,000 km with our itinerary starting south of Melbourne, north thru Ayres Rock and onward to Darwin (before the rainy season hits and floods), west to the Kimberlies on the Gibb River Road (before it floods),  further west to Broome to explore the west coast and inland mountain ranges in Karajina and on south to Perth, then east on the south coast back to Melbourne.  We have already established a plan B should the rains wash us out in the north.

  
Mary and Matt after our sleep over on top of King’s Canyon in the golden waterhole.

We hit the road on 5 Oct heading north and before hitting the South Australia state border on day two we had to dump our fruit as we entered a no fruit fly zone in the grape and citrus agriculture area.  We ate as many apples and oranges as we could before hitting the border!  We expect to experience the same at the Western Australia state border.  Even honey! (Hey, I hope Canadian Maple syrup is not on their grab list!  Just stocked up on some for our pancakes)   Found a number of free camping spaces in the first five days on the road.

  The Painted Desert.  This was a beautiful 200 km detour to find these outcroppings in the desert.

We motored onto Coober Pedy in hopes of fossicing for opals.  No luck there but did go off road and crossed into the Painted Desert.  This was my first glimpse of just how ridiculously vast an Australian “station” (aka farm) is.  There is no way I can rationalize how or why one family should ever own so much land and then have the right to put up fences and demand that travelers not set foot on it or pitch tent.  We did comply and camped on the desert station ($20) in wicked winds that could have blown us like tumble weed if we didn’t anchor the tent to the truck!  Some man thought it would be fun to light a bonfire with us 10 feet directly down wind from the fire pit!  He reluctantly agreed to set fire further away and all night we watched his embers fly 60 metres sideways!  Luckily he didn’t set the desert on fire (or us)!

  World famous Ayers Rock, or Ularu at sunset – the spirits glow!

Onward we motored and eventually arrived in Yulara (Ayres Rock).  What an amazing place – a green desert with red sandy dunes centred by the most enormous red rock, barren of life other than in its water streams.  Matt and I walked around the rock  (10.5 km) and learned something of the local legends of that sacred place.  We stayed there for seven days and were up before dawn for sunrise photos and lingered in the desert all day for the sunset.  The park has been handed back to the Aborigine people and have contained the humans onto clear paths and shady resting places so we would not disturb the desert sand.  Matt and I got busted only once by the ranger for straying across the line for a particularly beautiful photo angle and breakfast picnic.  We did our best to respect that and found several lovely shady retreats that offered a cool siesta place alone in that peaceful place.

  Sister formation, Kata Tjuta or the Olgas.  A truly marvelous place to explore.

We also spent time in Kata Tjuta (the Olgas).  A wonderful hike around thru the canyons (7 km) with the sense of being quite alone there.  It was rugged and remote enough to deter the numerous bus loads of travelers from making the trek.  The buses had tight schedules which soon gave us back our space and tranquility knowing the hoards would only be there for a quick peek and pee.

  The top of King’s Canyon.  We slept on the bare, warm rock just to the left of the cleft in the middle.

There is so much to see in this region alone.  Matt insisted we hike up onto King’s Canyon with a tin of salmon and our sleeping bags and spend the night under the stars on top of the most amazing sheer walled cliffs.  Reluctantly I agreed, afraid of snakes slithering into my sleeping bag.  What an amazing night.  My sign, Scorpio shone brilliantly over my head, the radiant heat of the rock warmed me like an oven and the wind woke me with the sunrise.  I had been initiated to the real outback.  Not so afraid now (ok, still a little bit).

  
Desert sand created by the erousion of Ayres Rock some miles off.  And a Dingo friend.

The Red Centre offers some of Australia’s most interesting geographic terrains. Once an ocean disrupted with geological upheavals that shifted sea beds into mountain ranges or massive rocks, and at other times vast floods from meteorites landing off coasts east and west, and eventually the creation of the MacDonnel Range where the upper level of the Ormaston Gorge cliffs slid from two miles away landing on top of the existing ridge, resulting in the formation of incredible walls, gorges, river beds.  We won’t leave this area until the weather clears up and the photos have been taken!

  Eroded rock, once an ocean bed, now like a bunch of bee hives at King’s Canyon.

  Sunrise on the creek outside our tent in Palm Valley – one of our favourite places found so far.

  Palm Valley erupted and eroded.  There were so many places we wanted to explore here.

Meanwhile, we have set up camp just outside of Alice Springs where we have stocked up for the next five months.  Even Matt might get sick of canned beans and salmon sandwiches by the end of this adventure! We will use our dull weather time to get caught up, research how to stay connected  (Auz is not wifi free friendly!) and generally hang out until we get back the light!  Bring on the forecasted rain! (aha, the sky gushes down as I write!)

  Up a 5 km river bed road in serious four wheel drive, we hiked up on top of Palm Valley where palm trees have existed since the times of dinosaurs in that region.