Arrived in the Outback... and it's a long way out here!

Just 5 days in the outback so far, and you can often feel like you are on
the edge of the earth.

Coming North from Adelaide (not much to tell - it's a 'pretty' city, and
that's about it!) we wound our way through the Barossa and the Clare Valleys
(few little tastings - beautiful!) and on to the Flinders Ranges. Once you
pass those, it pretty much goes to scrub, spinifex (tussock grass) and
ghostly, spindly trees with dusty green leaves.

The Outback is flat, flat - oh wait - a rock! and then more flat. The rocks
look like they have been burnt by the sun, and even as we slide into winter,
you can get an idea of just how baking the sun is. Nothing describes it
better than the extra-terrestrial landscape of the opal mines in the town of
Coober Pedy. Early miners burrowed their houses right into the rocks and
hills of terrain that must have been the inspiration for Luke Skywalker's
home on Tatooine in Star Wars. Coober Pedy is a erie town - a place where
outlaws go to hide, an almost total cash economy. It's very spooky, and
there is barely even scrub brush to cover the rocky, sandy desert. It's hard
to believe anything can survive out there. We stayed in an underground
backpackers, which was quite a treat - the underground houses never get
hotter that 23 or so degrees, unlike the plus-40 temperatures top side.

We spent the next 3 days in Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and
Kings Canyon - sleeping out by the fire in our swags and sleeping bags... up
before dawn to catch every sunrise. The stars are incredible out here - no
light polution at all. You can see the different bands of the milky way and
even the pock-marked face of the moon. It isn't that warm up here right now,
and temperatures at night are close to 4 or 5 degrees.

Uluru is as majestic as you've heard, and this massive rock rising out of
the flat, backed earth all around it is truely awe-inspiring. Kata Tjuta
('Many Heads' - 36 rock heads in all) were both formed by the same
geological processes. We caught a couple of incredible sun rises and sunsets
on Uluru - you can actually see the rock change colours even from one minute
to the next, like God painting and then changing his mind about the tints.

The red dust of the Centre gets bloody everywhere, you are pretty much
eating it. The dryness and the incredible colours of the sand and rocks are
exactly like you see in photographs, it's hard to believe. We aren't really
in the 'real' outback - still on sealed roads mostly, and there are still
service stations and rest stops every hundred or so kilometres. In a couple
days I will be hopping another bus from Alice Springs to Cairns: dirt roads,
baked bitumen and water that tastes like a children's swimming pool.... Hey!
Good stuff.

hope you are all well!
I'm not really updating the blog right now - it's hard to get internet
access for the next little bit, so expect a gushing e-mail fter my wreck
dive trip in the Barier Reef!

Tara