July 27th, Australia Day 156

This was the first day of my tour and it began early, with the tour beginning before 06:00. At first I was worried that I would oversleep my departure time but I was fortunate that I didn't. The reason for the early start is that the sights to be seen in one day are numerous and, somewhat unlike New Zealand, the distances between them is considerable. In any event, I was anxious to begin my adventure in the Northern Territory.

My tour guide was a very knowledgeable and interesting young woman named Jess, which, coincidentally, was the name of my tour guide in New Zealand, but not the same person. The tour group, about 15 of us, set out into the scrubland of the NT before the break of dawn. The demographic of the group on this tour was a little more varied than my New Zealand adventure because the company is not specifically designed to cater to students or even the very young. On this leg, there was a couple, as well as a woman on her own, from the U.K. as well as several a Spanish couple, some more Spanish, some Germans, many Brits and again, I was the solitary Canadian, although there was a young woman from New York also.

We drove off into the scrubland around Alice Springs but it was difficult to discern anything given the pre-dawn darkness. Eventually, dawn broke to reveal a land replete with contrasting red and green colours. The soil is fairly sandy and quite red owing to the high levels of iron oxide in the soil; this same phenomenon makes both Mars and Prince Edward Island red. I was surprised to see so much green since I had been under the impression that the center of Australia is a desert. Our tour guide pointed out that this was a common misconception and while true sandy desert exists further west into Western Australia, it is more accurate to describe this terrain as arid savanna. The greenery consists of tough spinifex grass as well as some desert trees.

Our first stop that day was a ranch where you could ride camels for a paltry $5.00. I took up the offer and had a fun ride on the camel. Even with a saddle, it was not the most comfortable ride I've ever had. Camels were imported into Australia in the 19th Century to assist with desert crossing and have since become at home in the continent. There may now be anywhere from 500 000 to 1 000 000 wild camels in Australia at the moment, along with wild horses that were released, or escaped, from their ranches. All camels in Australia are of the dromedary (1 hump) variety because the woollier bactrian (2 humps) would never survive the hot days. A joke about camels from our tour guide became a sort of running gag for the rest of the trip. Firstly, she asked, "What do you call a camel with 3 humps?" and I yelled out, "A freak!", to which she answered, after a few moments of silence from the rest of the tour group "Humphrey" (hump-three). The next joke was, "What do you call a camel with no humps?", to which I quickly responded, "A horse!" The answer to this joke is also "Humphrey" (hump-free). We all had a good groan and continued on our way.

The next stop on this part of the tour was a place called Erldunda (ehrl-DUHN-dah or EL-duhn-dah) which consists of a gas (called petrol down here) station, a food dispensary and a motel. Its claim to fame is that it is the nearest human settlement to the geographic center of Australia, and it is quite literally the "dead center". From here we drove onto the Lasseter Highway to pick up some fire wood which embodies the sense of isolation that is palatable in the NT. As the 4WD drove on, there would be long stretches of time when no other living soul would be seen. Interestingly, along certain parts of the highway there are no speed limits, indicated by road signs consisting of a black circle with a black saltire (stripe) through it. Along the way we were told about the famous Wedgetailed Eagles, or "Wedgies", which are Australia's largest bird of prey with a wingspan of 2 meters, I think, and they stand about 1 meter high. They have been known to pick up sheep although they prefer smaller targets. Although Australia-wide, their numbers are few enough for them to be considered threatened though not endangered. There are stiff fines for killing a Wedgie because they mate for life and if one is killed, then its mate dies of loneliness.

We eventually reached the first major sight on this leg of the tour which was Kings Canyon. It is a feature created not so much by riparian (river) action, like the Grand Canyon of Arizona, but by erosion taking advantage of the natural fractures in the rock. Here I also made a joke, which I think was pretty witty. According to the local Aborigine myth, some of the dome features of Kings Canyon were formed by quoll-men, and quolls are a sort of cat-like creature. I then told our tour guide that if ever she was asked how the dome were formed according to Aborigine legend, she could just reply, "Catman do" (Kathmandu). Kings Canyon is a spectacular place with some very interesting rock formations and greenery. There were sheer walls and even a small "garden" called the Garden of Eden, but I will let the pictures speak to Kings Canyon's magnificence.

From there we made our way to our camp for the night. At the fire that night, I learned of one more of Australia's "dangerous animals". Apparently, one more of these fictional dangerous creatures is the "Camp Fire Python" that survives the cold NT nights by sleeping between the stones that surround a camp fire and they can be quite deadly if disturbed.

We had the option of either sleeping under permanent tents or we could take advantage of a "swag". A swag is a burlap sack with a mattress that rolls up like a sleeping bag. When you unroll it, you unzip the bag and then place your sleeping back on top of the mattress and then zip the bag back up again. If you should get cold, then a flap on the sack provides cover for your face. Being the adventurous person that I am, I opted for the swag. I knew that the night sky would be amazing and I wanted to see as much of it as I could but I also knew that the camp fire as well as some lights from the permanent kitchen tent would interfere with my sight, so I asked if I could wander out of the camp that night. I was told that I could as long as I made it back in time for breakfast the next morning. For dinner, one of the things we made was a special type of bread, the name escapes me, which uses beer instead of actual yeast. To that you add a few other things and though I do not drink alcohol, the bread was quite delicious. After dinner, I went walkabout to the top of a nearby hill and planted my swag down on a smooth, though slightly inclined rocky surface. I placed everything I had with me into the swag, even my shoes, because dingoes have been known to take them. My adventures in the swag will be posted in the next post but as I fell asleep, the baying of dingoes echoed in the night around me, under the brilliance of a clear, moonless and starlit Australian sky.

Photos are now available at: http://australiaday156.blogspot.com/