Brian's Australia Trip

Section 3

After a diving trip in Cairns, I flew on to Alice Springs, right in the middle of Australia.

This is the town of Alice from the top of Anzac Hill.

I rented a bike to tour around Alice Springs.

After a 2 hour ride on a desert path, I get to Simpson's Gap, a gap in the ridge formed by a creek.

The creek doesn't get much chance to carve the gap, as it usually is dry.

This is a Ghost Gum tree, which I thought was pretty cool.

The white bark reflects light, helping it to stay cool. Also, the bark is very thick, and serves as an insulator.

From Alice, I joined a 3-day camping trip to the "Red Centre."

Our first stop was Kings Canyon.

This formation at the top of Kings Canyon is called Camel View.

This is on the edge of the canyon.

And down inside part of the canyon is the Garden of Eden.

No apples left there.

Next we drove to Ayers Rock, called Uluru by the Anangu people.

This is Uluru during a slightly overcast sunset.

For various reasons, the Anangu ask not to climb Uluru. It is a reasonably tough climb, and they feel responsible when people are killed on the rock (mostly from exhaustion). One of the seven groups around the rock cite spiritual reasons for not climbing.

Being a tourist, and after much thought, I did the climb. The rock is 1000 feet high, and 9.5 km around.

There are actually plants at the top of the rock.

But there is not too much else to see from up there.

There is a 9.5 km base trail around the rock. Having climbed, my guess is that the base trail would be more worthwhile than the climb.

This is part of the base walk.

The spectacular thing about Uluru is the way that it glows at sunrise.

After Uluru, we drove the 40 km to The Olgas, known as Kata Tjuta by the Anangu.

The Olgas are much more sacred than Uluru. Climbing the domes is not permitted.

You can do a great walk through the Valley of the Winds around the Olgas.

Some Aboriginal ceremonies are still held in certain parts of the Olgas which are closed to tourists.

A water hole in the Valley of the Winds.

The Olgas are composed of many small rocks almost cemented together by the sedementary rock.