Update Teaser

Hi kids!
Sitting here in the youth hostel recovering from trip number one and preparing for trip number two so I decided to give a quick update on my glamorous life as citizen of the world. Unfortunately I'm being a bit of a tease (aren't I always) since I can't post any photo evidence yet (funny how my laptop isn't considered essential luggage for an outback tour). So here's the down low on the past few days:

Alice Springs
After finishing work Wednesday, we woke up rondiculously early to catch our 8am flights the next morning. Since I'm used to the early hours, I was bouncing around chipper as ever and pretty much doing Chris' head in as he often doesn't go to bed until 6am let alone ever wake up that early. Fortunately we made it to the airport before Chris could lash out at my hyperness so no casualties occurred. Our flight was uneventful and quite luxurious for our general backpacker ways. This is the first time in ages we booked a non budget airline flight and I actually had to stop Chris from pushing money into the shocked flight attendants hand as the drink cart came around. We touched down in outback central and booked into our hostel all before lunch ready to explore the metropolis that is Alice Springs. Coming in at the second largest city in the Northern Territory (one of Australia's seven states) at a whopping population of 26,000, there was unsurprisingly not a whole lot to occupy our time for the rest of the day. After walking the entire city, engaging in a cultural heritage self guided walk, entering every tacky souvenir shop, stopping by the bank, and even hitting up the local kmart, we realized that it was-alas-only 5pm. After giving Chris a good tease about how he wanted to live and work here instead of Melbourne (yep, that was the original plan) we hit up the local supermarket for a picnic dinner and pretty much called it a night. Another pre 6am wake up call was on the horizon.

The Outback Camping Safari
Gathering outside of the hostel front entrance at 6am the following morning with half of the other backpackers staying there (turns out the only reason anyone come to the Alice is to engage in one of these outback tours so everyone is either on their way to or returning from a tour) we were met by an incredibly chirpy akubra hat wearing (complete with an eagle feather I might add) tour guide named Sheldon. He boarded his zombie like charges onto the modest bus and set us out on the road destination outback. A few hours and a couple of short stops later, we embarked at Yalara-a community built for the sole purpose of catering to the tourism surrounding their famous rock formations-at our campground. Thirty seconds after departing the bus, each of us were horrified to discover the thirty flies buzzing around our heads. I was not expecting this. A few well prepared and rather ambitious travelers pulled out mosquito netting attached to goofy hats and proceeded to wrap themselves up like bee keepers. I stifled a giggle at the ridiculousness. Five minutes later I was considering offering $50 to the first person who would sacrifice their ridiculous headpiece for my own sanity. I have never experienced flies on this level. They were to a point that it was a serious detriment to my trip enjoyment. But, being in the outback and all, we sucked it up and spent the next three days perfecting our Aussie Salute-waving our arms wildly around our heads while simultaneously cursing all flying insects to the depths of hell.

The next two days were amazing-hiking Kata Tjuta (a series of rock domes sticking up out of the flat landscape), discovering the awesomeness that is Uluru (the largest monolith in the world) through sunrise/sunset viewings and a 10k base walk, and sleeping under the breathtaking stars in traditional swag bedrolls. Unfortunately halfway through the second day we ran into an obstacle. We must have the rain gods stowing away with us because our last destination-King's Canyon-had been saturated to the point of inaccessibility. Did I mention we were in the desert? After jokingly asking Sheldon if they were going to helicopter us in, we found out that we would have to spend a second night at our current location and forgo King's Canyon which was actually the bit of the tour I was looking forward to most. Our consolation prize was that we were not forced to sleep outside in the rain-at least we were upgraded to tents, something that most of the other tour groups were not as fortunate in. We spent the rest of the day playing card games, reading magazines, and listening to the rain pour down around us. The last day was a bit of a bust as we just drove back to Alice Springs, had a picnic lunch, and saw a couple of second rate sites that we would have been just as happy to miss. No time to dwell on our sorrows though, we decided to drink our disappointment away with our fellow tour group members at the pub instead.

And on to Adelaide
Waking up severely hungover yet incredibly satisfied with an amazing night out, we checked out of our rooms, hobbled to McDonalds, and tried not to remember that we currently felt like the living dead as we ate our greasy morning after breakfast. Next we hopped on another flight this time traveling to South Australia's capitol of Adelaide-the city of churches. Now I have officially been to 5 of Australia's states which I think is a rather good accomplishment. We celebrated our anniversary two days early since we'll be in the middle of another tour on March 17th. We went for a beautiful walk around the city, I popped into a shop to buy an outfit that didn't consist of red tinged sneakers, sweaty tshirt, and manky trousers to look acceptable for dinner. Next stop was a lovely local seafood restaurant where we toasted our two years with a bottle of champagne and enjoyed the local cuisine before rounding the night out with a little bit of gelato, or in Chris' case, a rather large amount of gelato. Knackered and anticipating a 6am rise in the morning, we are about to hit the sheets and recharge for round two. But more of that to follow....