Outback Road Trip

Painted Desert, in the Breakaways

Sunrise at Uluru

After the last few months of crazily living in the lab, I finally had the chance for a holiday, and went on a 2200km road trip thru South Australia and Northern Territories, in the process travelling more than halfway through the continent. The route took us driving through Adelaide, down through Kangaroo Island in the Southern Ocean, north through the Adelaide Hills into Port Augusta, then farewell to civilization as we covered the next 1000km through the desert, arriving first at Coober Pedy, then northwards towards Erldunda, west to Uluru, north through to Kings Canyon, and finally arriving at some sort of normality in Alice Springs.

Enroute to Kangaroo Island
Coast to Remarkable Rocks
Dancing with Remarkable Rocks
In the cleft of the rock
Northbound: Narnia and the North
Coober Pedy - underground homes
Underground Serbian Church
Painted desert, the Breakaways
Jolly bunch
On our way northward
Spinning on the milky wayWhossere? Foot of Uluru
Heaps of Molten Chocolate!
The upward way I go
Moonrise over Uluru
Shew me the ancient paths
An island above the desert-sea
Top of Uluru
Kata-Tjuta as seen from top of Uluru
All a matter of perspective
Uluru sunset seen from Kata-Tjuta
Sunrise at Uluru
Imposing cliffs of Kings Canyon
Are we already in the middle east?
Kings Canyon rim walk
Don't loooook down!
Climb!
Hobbiton?
Pool at the bottom of the canyon
Curious pancake-rocks. Spot Chloe
Sheer cliffs of the canyon!
Peering over cliff edge
In a dry and thirsty land
Ambling thru Standley Chasm
Noonday glow in the chasm floor
Desert rainbow!

Did I mention I love the desert? Great big expense of nothing. And yet life thrives. O bring me back to Central Asia...
Off into Nothingness
Brooding skies; an open land

Some points of note, and pleasant surprises from God:
- Our rental vehicle got upgraded to a Subaru Forester at no extra charge, when the engine of the car initially assigned to us mysteriously didn't work that morning, and there were no more equivalent vehicles in that category, so they upgraded us to a bigger, more powerful, spacious and taller car! (And they were apologetic about it, but we said, Oh, no problem!)
Our trusty vehicle
- All through most of the trip, we had amazing weather, including the highest concentration of intense rainbows and secondary rainbows I have ever seen in a day - 7 one day, and 5 the next day. To top it off, we even caught a mighty rainbow in the middle of the desert as we were headed back to Alice Springs on the 2nd last day of the trip. That rainbow was a rain/hail cloud system that swept through the desert that day. I will not quickly forget the smell of a wet desert!
Greeen fields of Kangaroo Island
- Despite seeing live seals, sealions, penguins, bandicoots, possums, wombats, wallabies, echidna, kestrels, wedge-tailed eagles, kangaroos, cattle herds, we're thankful we didn't crash into any of them. There were already too many road-kills lining the roads.
For those who are hungry - Very handy
Sealions basking, rainbow sunset
Young fur-seal teen
Cape Barren Geese
Little Wagtail
Penneshaw faery Penguin
Kookabarra sits on the ol' gum tree
Wedgetail Eagle sits in the evening coolness
Prehistoric monsters invade the road!
- Got to pick opals from a working opal mine, live underground, and hang around Coober Pedy - one of the places I've always fantasized about visiting, and never thought actually possible.
Heheheeheheh,...
An opal miner at work
- Great company, food, smooth trip, and timely wisdom persisted! Thank you Chloe, Cirong, Eleen and Wern for sharing the journey.
Shmiles!
What to say what to say....
Ol Buddies
Clockwise: Chloe, Wern, Eleen, Cirong