So I did not end up going to bed early. Instead I spent some time down in the bar with a couple of new friends I made in my room. Although I ended up going to bed around 11:30, I was definitely tired for our 6 am departure. Groggily I rolled out of bed, quickly grabbed some toast and hopped on the bus, a bus which would become a constant companion for the next 5 days as I ended up driving about 2,500 KM!
I have to admit, as I got into the bus that first morning, with a group of complete strangers at an ungodly hour in the morning I was very unsure about the decision I made. But in the end this was one of the best parts of Australia! I met some amazing people and saw some of the coolest (read SO HOT) places in Australia. Very different from the big cities and the Great Barrier Reef!
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| Rammy Ram and Our Nice Bus! |
Our first stop of the day was a camel farm. These are found all over the outback as camels are ridiculously numerous in this area. Our guide said there was something like 9 million wild camels (I can't remember the actual number but it was in the millions!). We had a chance to get some warm drinks and try a camel ride. As I had already ridden a camel in Egypt and had woken up early this morning with a KILLER sore throat I opted for the warm drink and some cough drops!
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| Rammy Ram Meeting a New Friend |
After the first Camel stop we didn't really stop again until King's Canyon which is about 460 KM from Alice Springs. And there we went on a amazing hike. About 7 km round trip, it was beautiful, but definitely HOT! I wore lots of sunscreen and even a niffty hat I borrowed from an American and French couple!
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| Map of the Hike on Day One! |
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| King's Canyon |
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| Rammy Ram and I Made It To the Top! |
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| Look at That Nice Hat Keeping the Sun out of My Face |
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| Some of the Amazing Rocks! |
After this fairly intensive hike, where one the members of our group had to turn around because of dehydration and almost fainted, we headed to our amazing camp site for the night. One quick pit stop for gas and beer (I know in the middle of nowhere and you can still buy beer and wine, go figure Australia!) and we were in our AMAZING camp site. It was the Outback, and I mean middle of nowhere, no cars anywhere near, hearing dingos howling at the moon, millions of stars kinda Outback. Absolutely amazing. We lit our fire, made a delicious dinner, cracked open a beer and looked at stars. Eventually the day did catch up with me and so I grabbed my SWAG and sleeping bag, walked a couple hundred feet from the campfire and bedded down. It was just amazing. The stars were so bright and the night was mostly silent, really a great experience. I tried to stay up and watch the stars, but after only see two shooting stars I doozed off! I was definitely beat! And tomorrow would be another early morning!
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