Adelaide - Alice Springs

We stepped aboard "The Ghan" in Adelaide with about 24 hours of rail travel in front of us. The train was practically identical to the "Indian Pacific" - although the scenery was a bit different: orange sand and scrubby bushes all over the place.



The Ghan is a shortening of Afghan. Apparently Afghan camel teams were pivotal in the establishment of Alice Springs as a settlement. They carried cargo and passengers up to Alice. The train was named after them - which is why there is a statue of a camel and rider at Alice Springs station.


We stepped off the train in Alice Springs into the blazing sunlight of the "Red Centre". We were met by the hostel bus (they remembered this time :-) and were taken back to the hostel for a well-earned rest, curry and beer. In the morning (6am to be exact) we were picked up by our tour bus, destination Uluru.

On our tour we took in such sights as Kata Tjuta and King's Canyon. We saw various rock formations, valleys, chasms, outcrops and aboriginal sites. Each night we stayed in tents around a camp fire.


Uluru


Kata Tjuta


Kings Canyon

We also added dingos and emus to our "seen in the wild" list. We also were able to spot wedge-tailed eagles and whistling kites.

All in all the whole experience was wonderful. We met some really friendly and cool people on our tour and hope to keep up with as many of them as possible (and get a hold of some of their photos too!). Last night we had a post-tour dinner and wound up drinking all the Coopers Ale in the whole bar!

The photos will follow shortly. Once I find a computer that lets me upload all my photos to facebook I'll put them all up there for general perusal and provide a link.