Outback

July 23 - Aug 2

Day1

Day 1	Flinders Range	Jul 23
Day 2	Wilpena Pound	Jul 24
Day 3	The Desert	Jul 25
Day 4	Coober Pedy	Jul 26
Day 5	Painted Desert	Jul 27
Day 6	Dalhouse Springs	Jul 28
Day 7	Uluru	Jul 29
Day 8	Kata Tjuta	Jul 30
Day 9	Kings Canyon	Jul 31
Day 10	Alice Springs	Aug 1

We joined 8 other people on a 10-day Heading Bush tour of the Australian outback. The tour starts in Adelaide and ends in Alice Springs. We were chauffeured in a 4-wheel drive vehicle and stopped at various points in the outback...some areas were very remote (we spent days on rough dirt roads). Our friends Richard and Elly (from Fiji) had done this tour a few months before and recommended it to us. They warned us that it wasn't a luxury tour, so we had some idea of what we were getting into.

On the first day, Trevor (our guide) explained that we would be collecting our own wood, preparing our meals, sleeping in swags (we soon found out what a "swag" was), and that everything not wrapped in plastic would be permanently stained red from the desert soil. It wasn't until later that day that I found out what the shovel was for...

Turns out, a swag is a canvas sack that covers your sleeping bag. We slept on the ground (no tents) completely exposed to the environment. As you can imagine, this wasn't the most comfortable way to sleep - but it did afford us the most spectacular view of the stars. I have never looked at the stars for so long ...there were so many shooting stars!

We had an international group; Damia (from Lebannon), Martin and Sigrid (from Austria), Alan and Mandy (English, but living in Scotland), Christelle (from France), Sarah (from Germany), Carolyn (from USA), and our guide Trevor (from Melbourne, Australia). Hi guys! Thanks again for making this trip so memorable. As usual, half the fun is meeting people.

We drove into the Flinders Ranges and did a nice hike at Dutchman's Stern. There were beautiful views of the rolling hills. We saw several "euros" or wallaroos (they're small, grey kangaroos).

That night, we collected firewood and made our camp at Warren Gorge. We were all pleasantly surprised with Trevor's gourmet campfire recipes... vegetable coconut milk curry over rice, kangaroo goulash, roasted garlic, baked bread, even chocolate cake! We may have suffered from cold and sleep deprivation on this trip, but we ate VERY well! We were lucky (in many ways) to have Trevor as our guide (Thanks again, Mate!).