interior #1: uluru, kata tjuta, kings canyon, stuart highway

I feel like a Tooheys... right in front of Uluru.
Our first time in the Aussie interior, we kicked it off with a three-day tour to see Uluru (Ayer's Rock), Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and Kings Canyon (Watarrka). Turns out that in our group of 17, Kris and I were the oldest travellers, aside from one forty-something Chinese woman. Our fellow travellers were typically German, had just finished high school and were travelling for many months in Australia to escape the pressing decision of what to study at university when they went back to Germany. We overheard numerous conversations about this conundrum. The 5.30am wake-up calls were also a little hard to bear... But hey – that's what you get for booking a budget tour, right?
Yet the tour was great. Our guide, Scott, was a 25-year-old surfer-come-bush lover. Kris was the star of the tour, managing to fix both a crackling microphone in the bus and a leaking gas stove with his surprisingly dexterous fingers. I was not without my own feats of physical strength, eagerly helping to collect fire wood (ie ripping large branches off big trees beside the road... doesn't seem very eco-friendly, but I just do as I'm told) and being "keeper of the campfire" (ie making sure it stayed lit), until splinters stopped me from doing both.
We slept in swags under the stars – great on the first night when there was cloud cover and it wasn't so cold; torturous on the second night when our faces almost froze off in temperatures that hovered perilously close to zero.
Still, it was all worth it to catch such a great sunset over Uluru. Incredible colours!

Sunset over Uluru.

Uluru shadows.

Those three years of gymnastics really do come in handy.

Uh oh, here come the jumping shots...

JOY!!!!!!!!!
A picture paints a thousand exclamation marks.

Er, no comment.

Stair trail shot in Uluru National Park.

In front of Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), saddled with my camera gear (I brought four lenses). Oh, the things you do for a good photo!

Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) rock face, inverted.

Native Australian flora... don't ask me which species. Mum?

Majestic Kings Canyon.

Gumnut baby! Kings Canyon.

The beast with two backs... two-hump camels, that is.
We rode these beasts on our way back to Alice Springs. Note Kris's skillful maneouvring to protect his precious assets.

Rocking out with Lauren in Ti Tree, population 250.
After finishing our three-day tour of Uluru, the Olgas and Kings Canyon, we picked up our hire car in Alice Springs and Kris and I started heading north on the Stuart Highway to Darwin. Our first petrol stop was at the tiny two-store town of Ti Tri, 193km north of Alice Springs.
Bizarrely, after having dinner with Lauren at "Bojangles" pub in Alice Springs the night before, we just happened to run into her in Ti Tree...

Lauren had told us about freaky Barrow Creek pub – right near where Peter Falconio was murdered by Bradley John Murdoch on the Stuart Highway. So I was understandably nervous walking into this dim joint, with walls covered from floor to ceiling with photos and foreign currency of every kind. Then we saw the hardened bar man with his bald pate and bushy goatee, and I almost backed out there.
"What can I get you to drink?" he asked, cheerfully.
Turns out he is in fact the friendliest bar man this side of the equator. He couldn't have been more helpful or eager to please, happily telling us stories about all the photos and money on the walls, taking photos of us behind the bar... Looks can be deceiving, eh?

Greetings, Earthlings...
On the paved Stuart Highway with a speed limit of 130kph, the drive to Darwin turned out to be disappointingly easy. The highlights of the trip were stopping at the unusual roadhouses along the way. Competition is tough, I guess, so roadhouses have to compete for business, which may explain the unusual alien art that graces Wycliffe Wells petrol station – renowned for a spate of UFO sightings over the past 50 or so odd years. The funny thing is, the owners really believe that aliens have landed there...

When you gotta go... in Wycliffe Wells.

After a day's driving from Alice Springs, we finally got to the Devil's Marbles, 393km north, just in time for sun down.

Devil's Marbles silhouette.

Spirit fingers!

The curse of Sisyphus.

You can see why it's called the Red Centre.

Native minor atop a rock, the Devil's Marbles.

The Devil's Marbles.

On day two of our drive, we reached Mataranka, population 250. My favourite town along the Stuart Highway between Alice Springs and Darwin, it has numerous natural thermal lagoons, fed by natural springs that are heated about 30-100m beneath the surface of the earth (as opposed to volcanic hot springs). The water rises from underground at 30.5 million litres per day, at a temperature of 34-35 degrees Celsius, and is then contained in a relaxing swimming pool surrounded by a paperbark and palm forest. Highly recommended, with the added bonus of there being no crocs, yet lots of turtles and fish.

Shy freshwater turtles.

Not-so shy underwater life.