Alice Springs

I got into Alice Springs in the center of the outback just in time to grab a rental car and head out for a small drive into the mountains of the outback... I first went to the Ormistead Gap... it was pretty cool.. but the best thing about it was a huge water whole surrounded by rocks with crazy lizards all over them... when you get to close they stand up on two legs and run away upright, it was really funny to watch (I have a video for later viewing ;0):

Then I continued on down the road ) - I didn't have enought time to get out to King's Canyon but it looked great from the distance...

I wasn't too bothered though as I'd seen a lot of the outback at this point.. I was however pretty hot.. so I stopped off at a large water hole (tried to tell myself that crocodiles weren't found this far into the outback) and took a very refreshing swim in it ;0)

After my cool down (and a nice big ol' Magnum Ice Cream from the gas station) I headed back towards the "city" stopping off at the Ocre Pits where aboriginals used to get different colored clays to paints their bodies with:

And then I ended the day at Simmon's gap and was lucky enough to find some rare Black Footed Rock Wallabies drinking from the water hole there... they were very skitish... fun to watch!

After the sunset (which mean I had to drive VERY slowly so not to hit all the marsupials around) I went back to Alice Springs, took a shower and hooked up with my Irish friend and a few other girs @ a crazy bar where I ate Camel pie (really... it tasted a lot like Venison) and then got a little too drunk and ended up dancing with them to bad 80's songs ;0)

Alice Springs (or The Alice) was fun and it was great to see an "outback town"... but the aboriginals who make up 20% of the popoulation are pretty scary there.... it's mostly the alcoholics who have been kicked out there tribes and have nowhere else to go.. which means lots of desperate, not to happy, drunk people lurking around in the dark... I drove all the girls home in my rental car then ran from the droppoff back to my hotel... fun to visit but more for the country around it...