Outback and the Top End

As we sit in the Singapore airport overnight we have some time on our hands to complete our final post and reflect about Oz.

With limited time on our hands we turned in the campervan in Cairns and flew to Alice Springs rather than drive the 2400 kms to the red center.

This is where we met up with our tour of Uluru and the Outback (www.therocktour.com.au). Turns out nothing is close in the Outback, over three days we drove over 1400 kms but saw Kings Canyon, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta. Each day involved driving, hiking and more driving and finishing the day falling asleep under the stars in our swags (canvas sleeping bag) on the red dirt. The first day we drove to and hiked Kings Canyon in roughly four hours in 39 degree heat then finished the day at Curtin Springs Cattle Station where we fell asleep in our swags under the stars. The sleeping was good except for the scorpion Easton found and the kangaroo mice running over to the swags to see what or who was in them. The next day was more or less the same, we drove lots, hiked around Kata Tjuta and did a small interpretative walk at the base of Uluru and then set up to watch sunset at Uluru. The last day was a long one as we were up at 5:00am to go watch sunrise at Uluru, do a 9km hike around Uluru then back to Alice Springs stopping along the way to do a camel ride. Regardless of the driving it was a great few days with beautiful Outback scenery and was very educational to the geology of the area and ways of the Aborigines. For this reason none of us ended up climbing Uluru as it is considered culturally insensitive, as tempting as it was.

The next day we flew off to our exit point of Darwin which is just as remote as Alice Springs but 1500km north. You know you are a remote town when you can charge $8 for toast and get away with it. Darwin is a beautiful city with very humid weather and much war history. Interesting fact that Darwin had twice as many bombs dropped on it by the Japanese during WWII than Pearl Harbour did due to its strategic location. Darwin is also home to Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks which are infamous for BIG crocodiles (biggest ones can range up to 7 meters). With limited time we decided to see Litchfield and it was worth the drive. Our first stop was a cruise on the Adelaide River to see the jumping crocodiles (www.jumpingcrocodiles.com.au). They basically hang meat out over the water and watch crocodiles jump out of the water and snatch it...very frightening and entertaining at the same time since we are in a small open air boat.

From their we drove into the park where we saw the termite mounds which are common in the very hot humid portions of Australia. As you can see from below these mounds become quite large and are built to regulate the temperature within the colony. To regulate our own temps we headed to the beautiful waterfalls of Tolmer, Florence and Wangi and the Buley Rock Holes which are croc free so you can swim at them...however the image of the crocs never quite leaves you as you cool off in the water.

Four weeks in Australia is not nearly enough to see everything but we feel we got a very nice snapshot of the whole country. Diverse scenery, beautiful beaches, fantastic weather when it is not raining but very expensive especially to eat. The kids maybe haven't learnt a lot about different cultures between NZ and Australia but seemed quite interested in the different and varying ecosystems at least when it didn't interfere with their beach time.

We are now off to Vietnam which will be an instant shot of culture to throw us all out of comfort zones. So for now we will stay secluded in the safety of the Singapore Airport with its movie theatres, swimming pool and retail mall.

Bye for now!