The Ghan

This morning Jim and Maria rode on the legendary Ghan - a train that travels from the southern part of the continent in Adelaide all the way up to the farthest point of the Northern Territory of Darwin (many of you may have heard of this from the movie Australia) and back. We started the journey from Alice Springs yesterday at noon and will arrive back in Adelaide today around 1pm. The train is the way to go...this is now Maria's 3rd excursion on a train in Australia and it is a great way to see the land as I am learning how vast and expansive the Australian is. The Northern Territory where we just left has only 1% of Australia's population. It's hard to comprehend until you actually drive 9 hours on a paved highway with much or less the same scenery and look on a map to find that you have gone about 1 inch. This was our experience for the last 2 days when we took a tour of Ayers Rock (Uluru), Kings Canyon, and Kata Kjuta from Alice Springs.

Maria and Jim Explore the Outback

The first day we drove 6 hours starting at 5am out to Kings Canyon, stopping on the way to get my first glimpse of some kangaroos and a camel. The temperature for the day was 41degrees C, so about 100-110 F, so needless to say we only did a 1 hr. hike of the Canyon before returning to the van to enjoy some refreshing AC. From there we made a 4 hour drive to our camp site outside of Ayers Rock. That night we enjoyed a traditional Australian BBQ with kangaroo steaks - a great way to spend the night in the outback after a memorable sunset over Kata Kjuta (huge clumps of rocks rising over 500m in height in the middle of the desert). The next day was filled with the sunrise over Ayers Rock, a 2 hr. base walk of the rock, another 1 hr. hike of Kata Kjuta, and a million curse words at the billions of flies that flocked to piss off all the tourists. If Jim and I had not each invested in a fly net the day before, we would have been absolutely more miserable - at one time you could have 75-100 flies all over your back, arms, and face. That fly net was undoubtely the best $9 I have ever spent - for my emotional, physical, and mental safety! ha. Upon arrival at our hostel, our first priority was icing down a 6 pack and ordering a pizza to celebrate our accomplishment of seeing, exploring, and surviving the harsh outback