The Outback

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Well, we were all excited to see the Outback, but were dreading the heat.....it was definitely in the 120s before we got there, and only supposed to be hotter.....we got there one night and didn't have much rest time before our two day tour group picked us up at 5 am. We loaded the van and headed to King's Canyon, one of the main attractions. Driving in this part of Australia was really cool, we wouldn't see any cars for the longest time and it literally was desert the whole way with maybe a couple gas stations every 100 miles or something. When we got to the canyon we were supposed to do like a 7 mile hike, but of course it was closed due to extreme temperatures.....we got to the second lookout which gave us a great view at how outstanding this place was. The temp. on the top of the canyon that day was 60 C....which just so you know translates into 150 F.......so I'm not kidding when I say hot. We spent a lot of the day in the car getting to our campsite, but we got there just in time to see the sun set over Ayer's Rock & The Olgas, the two most famous landmarks in this area. Let me tell you I have never seen anything like it, it was truly so beautiful and amazing. The rock, like we had heard, changed colors as the sun went down, quite a scene!! We were all really tired and not looking forward to our 4 am wake up call, so we hit the sack...or shall i say swag.....It was blazing in our tent, so we all slept outside on a swag (close to a sleeping bag, but more comfortable), under the stars and it was of course hot, but so beautiful and unforgettable. 4 am, came pretty early as you can imagine, so we packed up camp and were on our way to the Rock for the sunrise. Just like the sunset, the sunrise was amazing, except we were way closer and could see the giganticness of Ayer's Rock. I have never seen anything like it, so great! We had the choice of climbing up the rock or walking around it....just so you can have an idea of how big it is, the walk around is 7 miles! It is about 1000 feet high, if not bigger in some places, so this is a dang big rock haha! At the last minute I decided to climb it....it was really scary, really steep at first and the only thing they have is little poles with chains linking them to climb up....it was really the best thing I've ever done, except yall will have to wait for pictures from the top, because I took it on my 35mm camera. the scene was amazing! You could see for miles.....so great! I made it down, sore above anything else and we headed to the Olgas, for another hike. Again, we were supposed to do the long one, but it was so hot, and getting late morning by this time we just went for the 5 mile hike. Yep, no shade at all either. It was stifling! Wavering around the 130s.....I've never experienced heat like that in my life, but so amazing. Different than the rock, but still great. Everything was so red, which was really different and cool.
The other thing we did in Alice Springs was go to the Kangaroo Rescue Center, where this guy rescues baby kangaroos.....how cute are they....Little Albert was tiny, the cutest thing I've ever seen! Our trip to the Outback was complete, and I can say we were not sad to leave that heat haha! It was such a great experience, and I'm so happy we truly experienced the Outback heat and all!

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