Elaine-Joan: Up in the air, we get our first impressions of the interior of this vast continent.
Elaine-Joan: The center of the country is desert: red soil, summer vegetation.
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Elaine-Joan: When it rains, it floods. These are not our photos, but they show the terrain.
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Elaine-Joan: Lots of river beds, but we soon see that they are dry now.
Elaine-Joan: In the middle of nowhere, we had a great hotel, with a swimming pool!
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Elaine-Joan: Back on the bus!
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Elaine-Joan: Our first glimpse of the inland mountains.
Elaine-Joan: (EVERYBODY needs them in this part of the continent!)
Elaine-Joan: It looks like this at ground level!
Elaine-Joan: This was more challenging than the Pony Express days!
Elaine-Joan: Our first stop near Alice Springs was at this vitally important communication center.
Elaine-Joan: Walking around the telegraph station helped us understand the very recent history (after 40,000 years of aboriginal culture).
Elaine-Joan: Boston kid learning to use a fan from Terrassa
Elaine-Joan: Another challenge? The flies. We needed fly nets all the time on this part of the trip.
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Elaine-Joan: and flies, of course.
Elaine-Joan: Joan was still in the toilets, taking photos (that's NOT one of the "little flies")
Elaine-Joan: Termite nests were everywhere in this part of the country, in trees and in the sand.
Elaine-Joan: Later on, we learned about the didgeridoo and made some noise ourselves (using PVC pipe).
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Elaine-Joan: Today's excursion: Simpson's Gap.
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