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.

The Red Centre - King's Canyon

The next day started out slow, but somehow we packed up and made it to the Mount Connor lookout for breakfast a little over an hour away.  The lookout was okay, but the exciting thing was the dead camel we saw on the side of the road.  We were on the lookout for a wild one and keeping our fingers crossed that it would be alive.

After a long, uneventful drive, we managed to arrive at King's Canyon at 11am, which was unfortunately the peak heat of the day.  You'd think that we would have figured that out by now, but because of that we were unable to do the supposedly spectacular, 4 hour ridge walk around the canyon.  It was 34 degrees when we arrived, and we definitely didn't have enough water carrying capacity to do a 4 hour hike in the heat.  Instead, we did the lazy tourist thing and booked a hotel room at the resort and I bird watched from our balcony.  Later on we went to the campground to cook our salmon and veggies as a delicious "pre-dinner".

We were still hungry after that and could hardly wait until 6:00 when the restaurant opened for dinner.  As usual, we were the first and only ones in the restaurant for awhile.  Our second dinner was delicious (scallop salad and stuffed chicken), and we were early to bed again.  One night of partying was enough for us!

After a good night seep we packed up so we could do our short King's Creek walk by 9am.  Unfortunately, when we got to the trail I realized I had left my camera at the restaurant the night before, so we had to go back to get it.  UsuallyI would think that all signs were telling us not to do the hike, but we saw a wild dingo on our way to the hike for the third time so it was all worth it!

The hike was really easy and we regretted not planning more time for the longer ridge walk, but oh well.  The gorge was beautiful and I spent some time looking for a Mistletoe Bird without any luck.

I was "off the path" trying to track down the bird in the mistletoe bush with no luck.  Ryan found it hilarious.

Back in the car, we started our very long drive to Alice Springs.  The only noteworthy part of the drive was the wild camel we saw!  You've gotta love that just like in Canada the best way to spot wildlife is by watching for other cars that are pulled over on the side of the road!

We didn't get to Alice until 4pm that afternoon, so we checked right into our beautiful hotel, The Chiefly Alice Springs Resort.  It was actually a lot like a resort with palm trees and a pool with a (closed) swim-up bar, so we decided to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant.  Man, it was good!  We had braised rabbit and pumpkin (aka, squash) soup for our appetizers, then a kangaroo fillet and macadamia crusted barramundi (fish) on ratatouille, and we shared panacotta and ice cream for dessert.  My mouth is watering again just thinking about it!

After dinner we re-entered our food comas, so I fell asleep during whatever movie Ryan was watching.