travels of a wandering canadian

red center

i got back from a 4 day tour of the red center: uluru (ayers rock), the olgas, kings canyon, palm valley and many more. it was just incredible!
we went to the olgas on the first day and walked in the valley of winds. the scenery looked like a painting.













this is me at the first lookout on the walk, while the previous photo is from the second lookout. the sun was really intense!
















in the evening we say the sunset at ayres rock and then the next morning saw the sunrise. they weren't very impressive, at least not like they could be, probably due to a lack of moisture in the air or because it was so windy that there was too much dut in the air. if anyone knows which of the two theories makes more sense, please enlighten me. so we walked around the base of the rock because the wind speeds were so high, the climb to the top was closed. this is a different view of uluru than you usually see on postcards.
















of course being in the outback we slept in swag (it's like a canvas sleeping bag with a mat inside that you put your sleeping bag into and than it can protect you from the wind and dust). and the stars were absolutely gorgeous. you could really see the milky way. and of course i couldn't recognize a single constellation (although i think i saw orion one of the mornings). there were about 5 aussies on the tour (the others were german, korean, french and english) and they couldn't point out the southern cross to me so it's a bit reassuring not to know anything more about the stars than the locals :) in the evenings, we would have a camp fire, and had to collect the wood for it in the afternoon. so here we are in the middle of nowhere in the 35 degree heat putting the wood on the truck.

















the third day we went for a walk at kings canyon. it use to be under the sea so in places you could see the fossilized ripples in the sand. it was really cool to see and the landscape sort of reminded me of the badlands cause there were different layers in the rock.

posted by madeleine @ 7:06 PM