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.