We left Perth yesterday to fly to Alice Springs, where we begin a several day tour of a set of AU national parks. Our flight was a little nerve racking. As we approached the runway to land in Alice Springs, the pilot suddenly gunned the engines and shot us back up into the air. We began to circle the region, and the pilot finally came on to tell us that he had a technical problem and needed to burn off some fuel, which he did with the wheels and flaps down for extra drag. Kathie overheard one of the attendants say something about a problem with the brakes. After about 45 minutes, the pilot said he was preparing to land again and assured us that the landing would be normal. That turned out to be true, though we didn't care for seeing the airport fire trucks obviously standing by the runway for us. Anyway, we did make it to Alice Springs at last.
Last night, we stayed at a Double Tree Hotel. The temperature yesterday and today was over 40º Celsius (over 100º). So, the pool was really, really nice.
These crested pigeons, along with various other birds, including some parrots, entertained us.
As the sky darkened, Kathie began to see the stars come out. Although we haven't done it yet, we want to study the southern sky and see the Southern Cross constellation for the first time.
These are my feet. It isn't cold here!
Today we were picked up for a ride to Ayers Rock Resort in a very nice motor coach. The landscape reminded us of some combination of Arizona and the Colorado foothills. Very, very pretty.
At one of the stops along our 300 mile journey, Kathie decided to do a camel ride. She says it felt similar to a horseback ride but with "an extra boomp to it." I guess the mounting and dismounting were quite different too, as the camel does some of the work by standing or kneeling.
Here she is with her new best friend.
At another stop, we viewed one salt lake that is part of a massive salt lake system.
Also in the distance was Mount Conners, known to the aboriginals as Attila (not as in "the Hun", we assume). It is sometimes mistaken for Uluru, so the locals call it Fooleryou.
I don't know who the guy is in this photo who has obviously overeaten during the cruise, but Kathie looks great, and there is Mount Conners again in the distance.
We saw an area filled with desert oaks. The trees in this photo are likely to be over 500 years old, as they spend their first 100 years or so growing a root system down 25 to 50 meters to reach a water table. Then they begin to branch out and grow larger.
Tonight we begin our tours of Uluru and the other parks. More later!
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