It’s strange to feel that you’ve come home to a place you’ve never been before. I had this overwhelming sensation the first night of a ten day outback safari. We were camping in the Flinders Ranges just north of Adelaide and I snuck away from the Toyota Land Cruiser and the rest of the group to photograph the pink sunset coupled with the brilliant rock formations and rising moon. Suddenly it just all felt so right, like I had come home. Every night we slept in swags under the stars. I slept better on the trip than I have in hostels, despite the spiders and snakes and other critters that live the desert. I have become an expert at identifying the pointers and the Southern Cross.
Unfortunately we had such a bright moon for most of the trip that it was hard to see the stars in their full glory, but at least the full moon meant we didn’t have to use head torches in the night to find a good bush to pee behind! Even in the rugged conditions the food was great. One night we did burritos, only instead of beef or chicken the meat was skippy (kangaroo).
In the Flinder Ranges we looked at aboriginal cave paintings, layers of which date back 50,000 years! From the Flinders we headed north to the aboriginal community of Iga-Warta, where we listened to creation stories around the campfire and had our faces painted with ochre. We headed up along the route of the Old Ghan Railway, even stopping to collect some of the abandoned wood sleepers to use as firewood. While we traveled along mostly unsealed roads and might go hours without seeing other cars, there would be occasional signs of other humans in the form of burned-out cars by the side of the road or other random things such as the larger-than-life sculptures just north of Manree.
This was the start of a long internal debate; do deserts attract eccentric people or do deserts make people just a little bit different?
Speaking of different, what do you think of my new headgear?
We crossed the dingo fence, which keeps dingos out of sheep country and at over 3000 miles is the world’s longest fence. The night we camped near William Creek happened to be the Equinox and we watched the sun set over one horizon, only to turn around to the opposite horizon and watch the full moon rise minutes later.
From William Creek (pop. 5) we headed west to Coober Pedy, an … odd place where the majority of the residents live underground due to the extreme heat. Coober Pedy is an opal mining town, but is well known for both the opals and its lawlessness. With so many mining shafts there are a lot of places for people to disappear. We took a tour of an underground home but I had to bail out halfway through because I felt too claustrophobic - you try being in a small underground room with 40 people, the lights out, and no airshaft! I had been really excited to see the place, but a few hours was enough and I couldn’t wait to leave.
From Coober Pedy we headed north through the Moon Plain and the Painted Desert. The Painted Desert was my favorite place of the whole trip. The brilliant colors of this area are incredible, and watching the sunset and the following sunrise here was amazing.
As we jostled along the dirt roads, I was continually amazed at how much wildlife there is in the seemingly inhospitable desert. We saw wild brumbies (mustangs), camels, lizards, spiders, and heard some howling dingos. Did you know Australia has the second-largest population of wild camels in the world?
Next we traveled north to Oodnadatta, home of the famous Pink Roadhouse. They were actually looking for help…tempting… That afternoon, amazingly, it began to rain! Nothing too hard, but a steady rain the lasted long enough to clear the dust from the air and cool us off as we swam and drank beer in the Dalhousie Hot Springs. I've learned Tooheys is the Coors Light of Australia. Drinking anything else in the desert would just be wrong.
The following day we crossed the border from South Australia into the Northern Territory and visited the geographical center of Australia. About as interesting as it sounds.
Apparently nearby there were some dead camel carcasses that were missing their heads, but we only heard about these after we left. Australia definitely has their brand of rednecks. We headed west and made it to the famous Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) for the sunset. We stayed in the area the next day and hiked through the nearby Olga Mountains in Kata Tjuta. We watched the sunset over Ulura again, only this time from a popular viewing spot loaded with other tour buses and complete with helicopters flying overhead. It was pretty funny and I was really relieved that I had seen so much more of the outback than just that very touristy area.
The following morning we did the 9 km base walk around Uluru. There is a climb you can do to the top but because Uluru is such a sacred aboriginal site climbing on the rock is highly discouraged. There are even features on Uluru that hold such spiritual significance that photographing these areas is prohibited.
I think it’s fantastic that such a place can be touristy and still respectful of traditional ways, especially in a country that has such a sad and disturbing past in regards to the aboriginals. From Uluru we went to Kings Canyon, yet another gorgeous place with brilliant red rock formations. Pictures, at least mine, don’t do these places justice. We spent our last night dancing around the campfire in the West MacDonnel National Park.
Then it was a quick stop in the Glen Halen Gorge and back to civilization in Alice Springs. Coming back to civilization felt weird. In the desert I had become used to being dirty and wearing the same clothes every day. Relative to the open outback expanses, Alice Springs (not a big city) seemed crowded.
As with all things, it was the people who made this trip great. You bond pretty quickly with people when you are forced together in the middle of the outback, deprived of showers and toilets, and crammed together in the back of a Land Cruiser singing your heart out to 80’s pop songs...
I'm pretty sure the name Lucca translates into "the city of extremely well-dressed ederly men riding bycicles." My favorite Lucca story occured when asking an employee of a prominent cell phone company the location of a good local wine bar. He began to explain, then paused, sighed deeply, and gravely replied, "I will show you." He then came with us, left the store unattended, and sat for a half hour at the wine bar nursing a capucino. This illustrates both the friendliness of the Italians and their attitude that work comes second to life. My theory is that they can survive because the competition has the same attitude. Two of my best friends from home were married in a beautiful ceremony at the Villa Denise in Monsagrati, a tiny village nestled in the vineyard-covered hills of Tuscany 13 km north of Lucca. 
