Australia Day 6 - Travel to Ayers Rock

This morning we were picked up to fly into Ayers Rock. The highlight of an otherwise uneventful travel day was the fact that we were chauffeured in a stretch limo (all by ourselves). I think it was dumb luck, we certainly didn't pay for a limo to pick us up.

We are sad to leave Palm Cove, but traveling in a limo is an appropriate end to this segment of our vacation. Now we can stop pretending to be living the lifestyles of the rich and famous and return to the lifestyles of the middle class and obscure.

This short Ayers Rock trip will consist of camping and a couple of hikes. It will certainly be a change from our time in Palm Cove but we're looking forward to it.

Ayers Rock is in the middle of the country and there isn't much else around for 100's or 1000's of miles in all directions. For all intents and purposes it is "The Outback" that we all think about in Australia.  I was surprised how green it was and later learned it's really a semi arid desert. There is an airport, a resort with 2-3 hotels, and 2 pretty incredible rock formations. Without the later there would be absolutely nothing here.

After landing we were picked up by the tour company. Right away I had a bad feeling. #1 … we were the only Americans, #2 … we were clearly the only ones who were NOT serious hikers  (i.e. big hiking back packs, boots, all sorts of gear, while we had sneakers and a couple bottles of water). Thankfully in the end neither of those ended up being a real problem. More on that and our camping adventure in the next posting.