The Land of Deadly Animals: Lots of beautiful rocks...

"The only difference between stumbling blocks and stumbling stones is how you use them."

-Benny Lewis

So after I finished my whale shark adventure I flew from Exmouth to Perth, Perth to Adelaide, and Adelaide to Alice Springs. After a lot of time spent on airplanes I arrived to the middle of the country and the middle of the very cold desert! I expected it to still be hot during the day and cold at night but that was not the case, it was just cold.

I joined a 6 day tour from Alice Springs to Adelaide with the main draw being the giant rock in the center, Uluru. I was picked up at 5:30AM and promptly fell asleep for 3 hours in the bus. When we woke up we could see Uluru! Just kidding this rock is know as fooluru because everyone thinks its Uluru but we still had another 2 hours to drive before we could see the real one.

A lot of the group also got their first glimpse of the red sand that the outback is so famous for!

After about 5 hours of driving we made it to Uluru! Its so weird to have this giant mountain rise out of the flat surrounding.

We were able to walk around parts of the base and our guide explained some of the significance of different places. The aboriginal people whose homeland is around Uluru believe that knowledge is earned, so only visitors are only allowed to know a very tiny bit of the significance and stories surrounding Uluru because we have not earned that knowledge. The tour guides who go in this area have to take a class to learn exactly what they can and cannot tell on their tours.

Some of the coolest parts were the paintings done in the caves around the base.

We were able to watch sunset over Uluru and the changing colors would be magical if I was not worried about frostbite (ok it wasn't that cold, about 45 degrees but when I came from 80's it felt like the Arctic!)

That night we slept outside in sleeping bags under the stars. Again it was super beautiful and you could see so many shooting stars and the milky way but again I was afraid my toes would fall off. The next morning we woke up to see sunrise over Uluru and the nearby Kata Tjuta

After sunrise we went to hike the Valley of the Winds that winds between the 36 domes of Kata Tjuta. Valley of the Winds is aptly named, the wind was very strong but the views were stunning.

The second night we were smarter. We shoved 7 people in a tiny tent and everyone had water bottles of boiling water by their feet.

So if you are trying to keep count these next pictures are only from day 3! Its amazing all you accomplish when you get up at 5:00! On this day we hiked the rim walk of King's Canyon. The hike began with a hill named Heart attack hill. Our guide kept telling us that the name is real and their is a defibrillator at the top of the hill if we need it. We laughed, we should not have laughed. It was a very serious hill and I almost died.

But thankfully I didn't need the AED and was able to enjoy the rest of the walk and beautiful scenery of the canyon!

So at some point the top of the canyon was at sea level and there were many examples of where the sandy bottom of the sea had hardened into rock. There was even a shell fossil up there!

We had 13 people on our tour. An American couple with their 14 year old daughter, an American man in his 60's, an older German couple, a group of 4 from Sydney, a girl from Mexico, a girl from Germany, and me, and our guide Craig. it was such a good group and we got along so well!

After our hike we crossed over the state border from the Northern Territory into South Australia. When I leave Australia, I will have visited all the states and territories except Tasmania and Canberra. I will just have to return at some point to see them.

Its hard to see in the photo but this was a drive-by photo of the dingo fence. The fence stretches 3,488 miles to try and keep the dingoes (wild dogs) out of the fertile south. According to Wikipedia (a great source I know) before the fence there were stories of farmers losing up to 3,000 sheep a year to dingo attacks.

Our next stop was the very weird city of Coober Pedy. This town came to promincence as opals were found and because of the lack of timber around the miners lived underground. To this day 80% of the residents live in underground houses. This truck is a Coober Pedy invention. Basically its a giant vacuum cleaner used to suck the rock up and out of the mines.

This is not a place to go wandering around at night. The whole surrounding area is full of mine shafts and test holes and they are not marked. This danger sign might be the best sign I have ever seen.

We were able to on a mine tour. This mine is within the city limits so they can no longer actually mine there so it is now a museum and shop.

After the mine tour, and some shopping, we went to the most magical place: a kangaroo orphanage. Please meet Clyde an 8 month old kangaroo joey. Unfortunately his mother was hit by a car but he as rescued and is being brought up here.

Is he not the cutest thing you have ever seen?! Also if you look at the last photo on the left he is sucking on his arm. Its basically a kangarroo version of sucking your thumb. Say it with me, "AWWWWWWW!" So I knew we were going to the orphanage and was so excited to hold a baby. Then I was told that we would not in fact be allowed to hold the joeys, and I was crushed.

And then my favorite person in the world, Rose-Mary, one of the Australians on the tour, told the worker that I really wanted to hold the joey, and she handed him to me!!!

It was like being handed my firstborn child. Unfortunately I had to give him back, but I googled it and in Wisconsin you are allowed to have a kangaroo as a pet, so I will be going back to bring him home. Also my grandma already volunteered to babysit him when I go to school so its all sorted.

We stayed in an underground hostel. It was really cool that they don't cover the marks that the tunneling machine makes.

I don't remember the name of this place but it is a salt lake that is apparently part of a military testing site. Our guide said he used to drive down to the lake until he was visited by the Federal police telling him he couldn't do that anymore.

The town nearby used to be a military base used to test missiles.