Adelaide to Alice Springs

Starting out at the butt-crack of dawn I got on a bus, out of the horrible hostel I was at, and headed for "THe Outback". I keep redefining what I know as "the middle of nowhere" I can't even explain because it's just nothing as far as you can see. On day one we travelled through "Alligator Gorge". I don't know why it's called that, there are no gators in Oz, and no crocs in that area. Then we stopped in a town called Quorn and I don't think anyone lives there. It looks like a movie set. THere are store facades but nothing in them, it was creepy. I spent the night underground in Coober Pedy, an opal mining town. There's no more mining allowed in the actual city b/c people live there but you can "expand" your house and whatever opal you find in it is yours. So there is one guy with a house that is 44 rooms b/c he keeps finding opal in every room. I loved it, it was the cutest thing, the people live like hobbits.
Uluru (Ayer's rock) was spectacular. I couldn't believe how amazing it was. I mean, it's one rock all the way through! Not a bunch of rocks together. I climbed it. I thought I might die on the way up b/c it's really steep and I am way out of shape. I had to have a small lie-down on the way up. But I made it in the end.

The Great Ocean Road

From Melbourne to Adelaide is a 3 day, 2 night trip. It was pretty freaking cool. I saw the "12 apostles" which are huge rocks standing out in the ocean, but one fell over so now it's more like the 11 apostles. I have yet to figure out which rock was Jesus, I don't think they gave him a rock. Maybe it was Judas that fell over, I dunno, they weren't specific. We also went through a really cool rainforest. There were huge hollowed out trees. The Australians have cut down over 99% of their rainforest and then wonder why it never rains.... hmmmm. seems pretty clear to me. The weather has been flukey. Its the middle of summer and sometimes it's just cold. We had a fire going in Melbourne.
I actually saw wild koalas up close!! There was one outside someone's house in a tree. I bet he had a name, it was probably something like Bob. Bob the Koala. I saw another one but he was kinda ugly with a crooked nose. I didn't give him a name. Can't upload pics at the moment, but they will follow soon.