Back to Alice Springs October 29, 2008 Goodbye to Uluru and our cozy cabin. We had an uneventful drive back to Alice Springs with the exception of a doozy of a dust storm that lasted about 30 minutes. In Alice we stopped for 15 minutes at our hotel to drop off the luggage and to fix a quick sandwich from the stuff in our “Cool Bag” and we were off again. This time we headed 25 miles west from Alice Springs into the MacDonnell Range (MacDonnell National Park.) This area looks a lot like parts of Utah and Arizona, if you ignore the Eucalyptus trees and ferns. We hiked in two areas and both rewarded Joe with new birds. The second place, Simpson’s Gap, was a rockin’ good time as we were entertained by cute rock ... read more

The Rock October 27, 2008 Our 280 mile drive from Alice Springs to the middle of nowhere began early with a few stops along the way for gas and diversion. One roadhouse had caged emus and kangaroos for our amusement, another had saddled up camels ready for a ride (we passed), and another had a memorial to some guys who had died at that spot in the high speed Cannonball Run. Our favorite stop was the roadhouse where we ate lunch. It had a lot of Aboriginal crafts for sale and you could look through a window and see the “artists” at work with a sign saying “do not photograph the women working” and also had a lot of antique items scattered throughout the building. There are four big dangers driving the roads in the ... read more

October 25, 2008 With three alarms (Joe’s phone, the clock in the room, and a wake-up call) to assist us, we made it down to the curb at 7 AM for our taxi to the train station in Darwin. We are riding “The Ghan” in the Red Kangaroo Car to Alice Springs. The Ghan bills itself as one of the great train rides of the world. The Ghan name and symbol, the camel and its handler, is in recognition of the pioneering Afghan cameleers in Australia. They used to use camels as transportation from Adelaide into the center of the country. When the train was built they released about 1000 camels into the desert, so now there are feral camels in Australia. We haven't seen any, but have had plenty of opportunities to ride on ... read more

Plunge Pool Day, Kakadu and Litchfield NP October 23, 2008 We drove through the southern part of Kakadu National Park very early this morning taking time to go 74 kilometers (roundtrip) on a 4WD road to a waterfall and plunge pool called Gunlom where Joe swam. The signs said to look out for freshwater crocodiles, and I figured that was my job since nobody else there was doing that. Soon it was “Goodbye Kakadu” and we were on the road heading back north toward Darwin. For a while we drove along the train tracks for the “Ghan” train that we will be boarding on the 25th. We made a couple of stops exploring small towns and then turned off the highway to the town of Batchelor where we checked into the Banyan Tree Cabins…a very adorable ... read more

Darwin to Kakadu October 21, 2008 It was a long but good day. First order of business was hiring (that means renting) a 4-wheel drive vehicle over the phone. Then we went to Woolworths (in Australia that is a grocery store chain) and bought some food before Andrew arrived at the hotel with our Nissan. We are now in Kakadu National Park, the largest park in Australia and was named a World Heritage Site for both its cultural and natural resources. It is quite the place, especially when it comes to bird watching. We started out with a visit to Window to the Wetlands (not in the park) to look at the exhibits there, but I ended up spending most of the time visiting with several Aboriginal kids. They were on a field trip and were ... read more