"My emails home" a Northern Territory Travel Page by windsorgirl

Hi guys,

My first week has flown by. I'm now in Alice Springs, I arrived this
morning but I had been staying in Melbourne with Carmel's friend Rene. She's an american now living here so I can say ketchup and pop freely and without riducule. We've also had fun doing some private Aussie bashing. She's been a wonderful host and I'm very grateful that Carmel has such a
generous friend.

On Wed I arrived at Carmel and Mike's house and met Mike's family from Ireland who also had just flown in. We fought off the jet lag together and had a nice meal before I was delivered to Rene's.

On Thurs and Friday I helped Rene with the baking and decorating of
Carmel's wedding cake. Thursday night Carmel had a pizza and champagne get together at her house so friends and family could meet before the wedding.

The wedding day was miserable weather-wise but we all managed to have a good time anyway. Mike and Carmel hired two antique trams to carry us from the church to the reception, they were decorated inside and out and had drinks
and hors d'ouevres on board. It was a unique and fun way for all the
guests to meet and mingle. We had a great meal, good music and alot of drinking.

Not enough drinking though because after the reception about 20 of us (including the bride and groom)continued the party at a local pub! There was a post-wedding barbie on Sunday before we headed back to Melbourne.

This morning I flew here to Alice Springs and have booked a 5day camping tour of the area leaving on Wed, so I have this afternoon and tomorrow to see the sights of Alice Springs. Happily the weather is much more Australian here. It is 27 today, apparantly that's cool for this time of year, but it's very comfortable.

Hi there,

Update #2 from sunny Perth. I had a great week in the outback and am now in Western Australia. I left some horrible weather in Melbourne and arrived to sunshine in Alice Springs, unfortunately, it didn't last long. On Monday I
explored the town on foot with a Mexican girl from my flight. There are
alot of Aboriginials in Alice Springs and it's a little uncomfortable
walking alone so I was happy for the company.

On Tuesday I rented a bike and set out early, I rode along the Todd River (which incidentally doesn't have a drop of water in it) to the alice Springs Telegraph Station. It was very cool and threatening rain all morning but I didn't get wet until late afternoon. I had a great ride and saw tons of rock wallabies (which are like small kangaroos) along the way. I parked the bike and went walkabout, chasing
the pink and grey galahs(like a cockatiel) around for that elusive photograph. Only when I sat down to eat my lunch was I suddenly surrounded by them. In the evening it was very cool and poured rain all night...not what you want when you're heading out camping the next morning. But, like a miracle, the
clouds broke and the sun shone through. That's when I was picked up for my 5 day camping trip.

We had 14 on board, mostly 30 somethings, 6 Swiss, 3 dutch, 2 other Canadians, and Englishman and an american. We drove first to Ayers Rock which is over 400 kms away. Since I had climbed it last time(and also since climbing it is offensive to the aboriginials) I instead did the 9km walk around the base. It was just as rewarding. The rock is 348m high, 3km long
and 2km wide. We stayed for sunset but that was unremarkable and then headed for camp. the tents were clean and very roomy, but best of all, they were already set up. We had a huge feed of snags and chops on the barby and went straight to bed since we had a 3:50 am wake up call. We had to leave
early to catch sunrise on the Olgas.

The Olgas are a bunch of mini, rounded Ayers Rocks, like giant orange heads scattered among the trees. We did another amazing walk there, this one was 8kms. The next morning we got to sleep in until 430am. We hiked Kings Canyon early before the heat set in. This walk took us right to the canyon's edge, with no railings and strong gusts of wind, we had to lie on
bellies to get a look over the edge.

That night we camped at Glen Helen Gorge. What a spectacular spot! There was a beautiful swimming hole set between the red cliffs with sandy beaches at either end. We swam from one end to the other so unfortunately I couldn't take my camera with me.

Saturday we hiked through Ormiston Gorge spotting more wallabies here and had another swim at lunchtime in another beautiful waterhole.

Sunday was our hottest day yet but I had no complaints after the miserable Melbourne weather. finally I was experiencing the Aussie weather that I had packed for!
We drove off-road (getting stuck 2x) to a small oasis in the desert called Palm Valley. More hikes, more amazing scenery, much more photos....