The Red Centre - Alice Springs

On our first morning in Alice Springs we had a relaxing buffet breakfast, then quickly went to pick up some groceries to make lunch before we met Leanna and Daniel for our local tour of the area at 11am.  It was great to see Leanna (friend from my last synchro team) for the second time while in Australia.

Our first stop of the day was Ellery Creek Big Hole, about an hour west of Alice in the Macdonnell mountain ranges.  I had been really excited about going for a swim in the outback, until we got in the water and it was freezing cold!  Despite that I was determined, so off we went through the cliffs for a beautiful private swim.  Our timing was perfect because once we got out the sky got cloudy and about 15 people showed up.

My first international double ballet leg!  Thanks Leanna!

Next we went to Simpson Gap, which looked similar to Ellery Creek Big Hole but had almost no water.

In the later afternoon we walked up a hill in Alice near Daniel's house in search of kangaroos.  We had no luck with that which was unusual, but the views were beautiful.

Our last stop was to feed the rock wallabies at 5pm.  They were wild, but quite tame and knew they would always get fed at sunset so they come off the rocks and entertain the tourists.  Quite a few of them had joeys in their pouches, so we got a few glimpses of the babies.

Not feeling too adventurous, we decided to eat another amazing dinner at the hotel because we knew it would be great.  Not surprisingly we had another early night, but our excuse was that Daniel had planned a sunrise hike for us.

The alarm went off at 5am the next morning and we headed down for breakfast at 5:30.  Unfortunately we misread the time and it didn't open until 6am.  We also forgot our key in our room, and the hike got cancelled because of lightning.  We waited for breakfast to open since we were already awake, then went back to bed until 10am in hopes that a second try at the day would be more successful.

Ryan and I did some window shopping at the Todd Street pedestrian mall, and I think now we both have a better understanding and appreciation for some aboriginal art.  I always love going to art galleries with Ryan because it's fun to compare our favourite pieces and see what we both like.  After a much needed cup of tea on a rainy day we met Leanna and Daniel for lunch at a nice pub (that Daniel used to work at...oops).

Our indoor entertainment for the afternoon was the little local reptile museum, which was far cooler than we expected it to be.  We got up close to a massive crocodile, then we got kisses from a blue-tongued skink, hugs from a python, and had fun with Jessie the bearded dragon.

It really did give kisses, but no matter how hard I tried, or how many kisses it gave Ryan, I couldn't get the blue tongue in the picture.

We said goodbye to Leanna (who is visiting us in Adelaide again this week) and went back to the hotel for another glorious dinner.  We knew the menu back to front by this time, so this was the ultimate meal.  In yet another food coma we watched a documentary about the Big Bang theory, and they kept showing clips from the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, which was both neat and nostalgic.

For our last buffet breakfast I was really looking forward to indulging in some pancakes, but as it turned out they only had those on weekends.  I was very disappointed and had to gorge on chocolate mini muffins instead.  What a shame!

Before our flight we went back to the Todd Street mall to see some stores that were closed the day before, then headed to the airport to conclude a wonderful trip to Australia's Red Centre.