Australian Outback Adventure - Photos

We just finished our 5 day guided Australian outback safari. What an extraordinary time we had. Its sure to prove one of the highlights of our entire year.

Our guide Paul was a cross between Crocodile Dundee and the Marlboro Man. Not a large bloke but he made up for it with his sweaty machismo. He was very friendly, but much more subdued than many guides tend to be which was nice.

It was such a great feeling to have seen Uluru in person. We arrived in the evening for a sunset viewing. It was overcast so we did not get the amazing color changes you get as the sun sets when the sky is clear. But it was still fantastic.

The next morning we got up at 4:30AM to get to Uluru before sunrise and do the 9 kilometer walk around the base as the sun came up. There were some great views of the rock as we went around it. It was cool to see that it has a lot more shape to it than it appears from the distant view that you usually see in photos. There were some really unique undulating rock formations, and weird hole patterns along a lot of the hillsides.

Here's the "Sofie Star" making an appearance at Uluru.

We visited several other sites during our 5 day journey including Kings Canyon and Kata Tjuta which provided some unforgettable views.

Lynette feeling on top of the world!

Lynette being dwarfed by a lone tree.

For a sense of the scale, can you see the three tiny people on the sandy ground in the middle of this photo?

Hey, isn't Lynette standing a little close to that guide??

We got to swim in this deep gorge with the cliffs shooting up around us. What an experience.

One day on the road we got the opportunity to stop and talk to this old German fellow. He has lived in the outback for 14 years, just travelling around in his motorless minivan towed by his two pet camels. He was quite the character. His camels were very friendly and some of us got to feed bread to them.

At one road side stop Lynette and I actually got to ride a camel which was a really fun experience.

Lynette and her new friend.

Another great experience we had was getting to sleep outdoors under the amazing starry sky. This is something I never thought I would do. I've slept in tents before but I've always been too leary of mosquitos and other critters to attempt actually sleeping outside. Well there are no mosquitos in the outback due to the really dry climate. There are tons of flies though, so many that if we had not followed the advice to purchase fly nets to wear over our heads I would have gone mad. But fortunately they only come out to annoy you during the day and are absent at night. I was a little freaked out about the presence of scorpions, but since they are not the really poisonous kind and are about equivalent to a bad bee sting I took my chances. I was however the only one that wore my fly net through the night. Even though there were no mosquitos and flies there were some big moths and grasshoppers and who knows what else that might have landed on my face. Okay that's not very adventurous of me, but hey at least I slept outside! But it was all well worth it. The night air was cool and breezy, and the views were spectacular. There were so many stars visible. As I started to fade into sleep I kept wanting to stay awake to watch the sky and the falling stars, but I also kept wanting to fall asleep because we had to get up at 4:30 AM. What a dilemma.

No, Lynette and I are not on the way to a funeral. These are the fly nets we wore to keep the flies from landing on our eye lids and lips, or flying into our ears or up our nose, which let me tell you is quite annoying. Lynette wished she had one on when she inhaled at the exact moment a fly tried landing on her upper lip and she inadvertantly swallowed it.

For all you non-Australians out there, we just want to fill you in on a little secret. Fosters beer is NOT "Australian for beer" as the commercials claim. It is all just a big marketing scheme. We all have been lied to. They think its crap here and don't drink it. They mostly export it to other countries. Only a few places here actually sell it and that's for all the tourists who come and think they are doing as the locals do by drinking it - as did I. But I never lived it down. The guides and others made fun of me for the rest of the trip.

Here's something I swore I'd never ever do - sing karaoke. But since we are on this amazing journey doing things we've never done I let Lynette talk me into it. We are singing a song called "Elvira" - Lynette's choice. I then did a solo singing Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash.

One of the special treats of the outback trip was meeting some awesome people. We met one couple from Germany and another from Denmark who were our age and who were really nice. They were really funny and we had some good laughs. We'll never forget our discovery of the legendary Pygmy Koala. But I'll save that story for another time.