The Australian Outback

I booked a safari that went to Uluru (Ayer's Rock), Kata Tjuta, and Kings Canyon and spent three days exploring the outback and camping.

The outback is enormous and seems to just go on forever and ever. To get from the hub city of Alice Springs to all the major sites, we spent about 15 hours on a bus (over three days). Our guide Jason DJ'd the event with a very - um, I suppose "upbeat" could be the right word - iPod full of stuff like Barbie Girl, Venga Bus, Weird Al, Village People, Inspector Gadget, national anthems of all the countries represented on the trip, and some Chopin for the pre-sunrise time aboard. He kicked off our tour with the song, "Come to Australia, and you might accidentally get killed!"

The whole experience felt pretty authentic Aussie to me. For starters, we gathered our own firewood (watching out for venemous snakes and spiders), set up campfire and prepared our own meals. We slept in swags (Aussie bed rolls - no tent) around a campfire. Our guide bought a kangaroo tail and cooked it over the fire along with our dinner. Driving through the endless outback was an experience on it's own, with the occasional camel crossing the road and the fine music selection to top it off.

The Outback is beautiful. One of the coolest things was seeing the sunset on the first day over Uluru and Kata Tjuta and enjoying a champagne toast. We were up bright and early every day to see the sunrise. The stars in the Outback were fantastic - I'm getting really good at spotting the Southern Cross and will be sad to head back to the Northern Hemisphere and not see it again until who knows when. We also did a lot of hiking in Kings Canyon and around the base of Uluru.

We also had the opportunity to learn about Anangu (aboriginal) culture. European settlers began arriving in Australia quite recently - in the 1870's - and I was disappointed to observe that Australia seems quite segregated. I know things take time, but it definitely felt very different than New Zealand where the Maori culture seems like a pretty proud part of the country's identity. Uluru and Kata Tjuta are sacred to the Anangu, and there was a bit of controversy when Australia turned them into a National Park in the 1950's. However, progress has been made over the years. Representatives of the Anangu petitioned the parliament and Queen, and in the past 20 years, they were able to regain their land. Today, the national parks are operated jointly between the Anangu and Australian goverment, and the relationship has worked so well that they've proudly received an award from the United Nations.

After all that craziness, it was great to get to Sydney, switch gears, and clean-up a bit. A new friend from the safari, Nick, and I headed to the Sydney Opera House for a performance of Edward Scissorhands, which was a ballet, and amazingly well-done. The Opera House is incredible in real life and it was a really fun night to complete my Australia trip.

Next up, Shanghai!