Dingo Hunters

Well, if Rob and I wanted to quit our day (and night) jobs to be professional dingo hunters, we'd be rubbish.  We've seen many Aussie native animals in our short time here, however dingos are still hiding from us.  It seems we needed to go to them in their environment.  After working an incredible 17 out of 20 days in one go, Rob finally had nine days off from work. Time for us to explore a bit!  We asked the locals if we should fly over to New Zealand and see either the north or south island or if we should explore the outback in OZ.  All mates were in favor of us seeing the outback.  We booked a three day camping trip that advertised daily walks, beautiful landscapes, sleeping under the stars, hot daily showers and fireside meals.  Perfect!  

Getting to the outback involved a day's trip, three flights and a time zone change.  Our venture started at the ungodly hour of 0600 (flight from Hobart to Melbourne), a lay over in Sydney then a leg into Ayers Rock, Northern Territory.  Quick geography lesson so we are all on the same page:

Thank you, Google for saving me from myself.

Words to describe the Northern Territory: vast, quiet, wild, serene, dry, and desert.  According to the tour book I read, this is one of the flattest, driest, and least populated areas on Earth.  Other than to see a dingo roam the open land, or catch a glimpse of Crocodile Dundee sling a boomerang... why go to the outback?  Because of Uluru.  Uluru is a massive rock formation out in the middle of nowhere and it is beautiful.  Made up of sandstone rock, it is called a monolith (whatever that means :)) and it sits almost right in the middle of Australia (in all its glory).  You literally have miles and miles of nothing - and suddenly Uluru is there.  The name, Uluru, came from the Aboriginal tribe, the Pitjanjatjara, who were the original owners of this rock formation.  The English or Western name for Uluru is Ayers Rock.  The Australian Government is leasing the land surrounding Uluru from the Pitjanjatjara people for a contracted 99 years.  This allows tourism and regulation from the Aussie government and respect for the original indigenous caretakers.  Enough facts, let's get to some pictures!!

Early morning flights allow beautiful window seat pictures.  I guess mornings are not all that terrible.
Flight from Hobart to Melbourne.

Coming in for a landing in Melbourne

Drum roll please! From the window seat, after many miles of desert, there she is!

Hi Uluru, I'm Suzanne, your new biggest fan.

I'll try not to have one thousand pictures of Uluru in this blog but I make no promises!  We landed just a wee bit after that last picture was taken at the Ayers Rock Airport.  After collecting our bags and being assaulted by the welcoming flies of the desert (more to come on that topic), we were ushered to a resort bus that took us on a short ride to the Ayers Rock Resort.  This resort is like an oasis in the NT desert.  Several hotels make up the entire resort as well as a town centre for shopping.  We stayed at the Desert Garden resort and booked a room with an Uluru view!  We settled into our room, took a short fly-accompanied walk into the town center for shopping and then watched the sunset from our room.

View from our hotel balcony.  It was a warm and dry day. Lovely for cloud and bird watching.

You know you're in the outback when you see an orange ute with extra headlights and roo catcher (bar rails in front of head lamps).
Classic Australian.
We spotted this car on our walk into the town center.

Approaching sunset.
This picture was taken with a special effect option on my camera for drama.

Special effect, drama shot but the clouds were dramatic!  Looking away from The Rock and out into the desert

About mid morning the next day, Rob and I met up with our tour group.  There were so many companies to choose from and we decided on Emu Run Tours, which ended up being great. Members of our group consisted of: A Frenchman, a lady from Vietnam, a man from Taiwan, three people from England, a couple from Western Australia, a gal from New Zealand and us, the Americans.  Our tour guide for the three day venture was from South Africa.  Quite a diverse group but all very lovely people.  The first day's agenda included a full tour of Uluru, a stop at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Center and an Uluru sunset with bubbles, cheese and crackers.  We finished up the day at our campsite which had hot showers, flushing toilets, a great campfire and pleasant company from our group.

Inside our tour bus and approaching Uluru.  Our plan was to walk the base of the massive rock however weather had different plans for us.

Although people are allowed to climb to the top of Uluru, out of respect for the Aboriginal people, it is strongly discouraged.  We did not climb The Rock.

Drama pic!

Our fancy tour bus at the base of Uluru

Ready in hiking boots and pants to hike the base.  The sand is rather red in color.

It rained about half the time we were exploring the rock.  The silver/gray shiny stream you see behind Rob is rain water coming off the top of the rock.

The walking path around the base.

The rain giving the rock a silver shine reflection... beautiful.

Walking around the base, we came in contact with a whale!

A small, hidden water reserve we spied while walking the rock's base.  It was very quiet in this small hideaway.

Our tour guide pointed out these Aboriginal drawings (within a cave) along the Uluru base.  It's possible that people have done some graffiti over the original drawings.

Looking away from the rock base, all you see is miles and miles of open land.  Here, dingo, dingo, dingo...

Close to sunset, our tour guide brought us to a lookout spot for the best view of Uluru. Unfortunately, the rainy day muted the usual glorious colors of sunset.  There were, however locals selling their Aboriginal artwork at this location. Rob and I decided to purchase a painting portraying Bush Medicine.  You'll see this painting one day, framed in our home.

We asked the artist, Rosemary Armstrong, if we could take a picture with her and the artwork that we purchased.

Sunset

Ok, last picture with us and Uluru at sunset.

Ok, last picture of Uluru - for real!
Our group rose at 0500 to have a light breakfast and travel to another Uluru lookout spot.  This was the perfect place to see the sunrise.  It was actually pretty amazing.  We were joined by a few other groups but everyone watching the sun come up were quiet and in awe.  The only sound was of cameras capturing the morning glow.

Roughing it.
Back on the tour bus, our guide made a quick stop back to Ayers Rock resort to coffee us up.  Thanks a latte!

Kata Tjuta aka The Olgas aka Talking Heads aka massive rock

After sunrise and a coffee stop, our tour continued to The Olgas (Kata Tjutas).  Kata Tjutas, aka the Talking Heads, is a collection of smaller, rounded rocks about 30km west of Uluru.  Once more in the vast desert, after miles of sand and bush, a unique rock exhibit comes into view.  We spent a few hours walking around, over, and between the massive rocks.  In a way, we enjoyed this experience more than Uluru because the area offered many lovely views.

Our walk within The Olgas

Wow

Between the massive rocks, there was vegetation.

Along the path we saw the processionary caterpillar.  Look closely and you'll see it's made up of several fuzzy, creepy caterpillars.  They follow the leader and leave a tiny, thin silk string behind the chain to help stragglers.

Low and behold a straggler. We spotted this singleton just a foot away from the chain, desperately following the silk trail.  Our guide warned us not to touch the caterpillar.  Although they look soft, touching the spikes causes pain and discomfort.  I'll just take a picture.

Walking up one of the massive rocks. Steep but doable.

We walked down between two rocks into a beautiful valley

The Olga's

Any dingos in this picture? Nope. Just the Doyles.

I heart you, Ruthie!
I have to give a shout out to my friend, Ruthie, whenever I see a natural heart.

Coming out of The Olgas and a pic for you to see how well rounded these rocks can be :)

You know you're in the outback when your tour bus literally has a license plate that says, Outback Australia

Driving to our next campsite we stopped on the side of the road to use the loo.  In the distance, you see another magnificent rock formation called Mount Connor.  The land is privately owned and does not welcome visitors.  We'll just gaze upon it from afar.

Something "special" about the Northern Territory is the presence of flies.  Although small in size, there are billions of them and they are often referred too as "sticky flies".  They tend to stick to your face, neck, ears, nose, head, shoulders, knees and toes (you get what I mean) and are undeterred by swatting.  How can you tell the difference between a local and a tourist? By the use of fly nets.  Rob and I had no shame in donning our fly nets to keep ourselves from going crazy.  The flies disappear at sunset but are full-on during the day.

Hey Baby, want to catch a cold Foster's sometime?

Super Fly Net!!

Stick'em flies all over Rob's back.

That night, a short distance from our campsite, our group watched this awesome desert sunset.  How often do you watch the sunrise and sunset in the same day?  The dingos must be on holiday.

The first night of camping, Rob and I slept in our swag, on concrete flooring and under a metal roof.  Our campground had a structure that covered a grill and picnic tables.  Rain was in the forecast and the last thing we wanted to do was wake up wet and cold.  When I say "swag", I'm referring to a large canvas bag (that can zip you up from head to toe), a sleeping bag and pillow.  Surprisingly warm and protective gear.  When I say "concrete", I mean the hardest surface you can find to sleep upon when camping.

Our second night camping, the campsite had large tents that were raised on wooden platforms and housed metal spring beds.  We could either sleep in the tent or sleep under the stars, and for the two of us, the answer was easy.  We slept under the stars.  The rest of our group including our guide, slept in the tents.  I have never slept open air, under the stars.  It was a beautiful experience.  Rob and I zipped up our swags and talked quietly into the night.  The night was cool, calm but an occasional breeze blew over us.  The vast open plains carried the sound of the breeze before it kissed our faces.  Kinda like hearing the crash of an ocean wave then feeling the water lap over your feet on the shore.  At one point during the night, I woke up and just stared at the stars above me before drifting back to sleep.

Our swag awaiting us for a night under the stars

A loaf of bread baked away in the black pot over our campfire.  We sliced it up and drizzled honey and nutella over it for dessert.

Sunrise in Kings Canyon

Our final day on the tour had us hiking Kings Canyon.  There are several walking tracks in and around the canyon.  Our group started the day on heartbreak hill also called heart attack hill due to it's long, steep ascent to the first canyon rim.  This part of the day's walk did get our hearts pumping but the views were worth the sweat equity.  On this walk our guide pointed out plants, birds and fossils within the canyon's ridges.

I do enjoy hiking.

Standing inside the canyon.

Handsome man!

At one point, we descended down to an area called, The Garden of Eden.  A natural water reserve and trees live here, encased in rock walls.

Garden of Eden

Back up the top of the canyon

Our group resting before the final walk down and out of the national park.

Cairn!
One last pic within the canyon.

Heading back to Ayers Rock Resort, our bus took a quick stop in a tiny town in the outback. Which way to the dingos?

Rob and I gave our group a sad farewell and headed back to the Desert Garden hotel for a long, hot shower and relaxing evening.  We even ordered room service for dinner and spent the evening watching old movies on TV.

The next morning we swatted a few more flies before boarding a plane to Melbourne.  Since Rob still had a few work-free days left, we decided to spend two days in Melbourne.  It was almost one year since we lived in Melbourne and we thought it would be fun to see our first Aussie hometown.  We booked tickets to a local footy game as well.  Tasmania's Hawthorn Hawks versus St. Kilda's Saints.  True, we didn't know what was going on for at least half the game (as in the rules of the game), we still enjoyed the athletic spirit.  It helped that the team we were rooting for, Hawthorn, won. :)

Back in the air with cotton-like clouds to see

Rob entering one of our favorite Melbourne restaurants, Mamasita's.  Ohhhh, so good!  

The next morning we found ourselves having brunch at the Pancake Parlour. Notice how my plate has stewed strawberries and yes, that's ice-cream, while Rob has sausage and eggs.  Sweet versus savory!

The Melbourne Cricket Ground where we watched our first footy game.
Go Hawthorn Hawks!

Our team will run out onto the field and tear through the banner as we cheer!

Big fans
The patrons seated behind us congratulated us on our first footy game at the very end.  I guess it was obvious that we were watching a game for the first time. Haha!

Strolling along the beach in St. Kilda.  Last year we walked on this boardwalk many times.  This time we reflected on a full year in Australia, and thanked God for the experience.