Uluru etc.

We're out of the outback and on the Eat Coast now, in a town called Hervey Bay. I must say, when we saw our first traffic light I was a little sad. The outback was such a different and cool experience. I heard someone say that a big city is a big city, they're all a bit alike, but there is nowhere in the world like the outback.

From my last post, we headed north from Adelaide up through the middle of Australia. We stopped for the night in Coober Pedy, an opal mining town. The hostel we stayed in was underground, which was pretty cool. From there we headed north and took the road to Uluru. Uluru (Ayers Rock) is about 3000 million years old (according to the Lonely Planet). Its HUGE and pretty much in the middle of the country.
We decided to put our tent to use here and save some money. When we arrived we set up camp and then drove off to see The Olgas, a rock formation about 20km or so from Uluru. Here's Oli standing in front of The Olgas:

We spent a restless night in a very hot tent but got up early to hike around Uluru. The park recommends finishing all walks by 11am because of the heat so we made sure to do that. It was probably around 40 degrees Celsius that day and all sun. That evening we went for sunset which was pretty unreal, the light on the rock changes constantly as the sun goes down, it was magical.

We got up for sunrise the next morning and then took off to head further up north. I love all the red sand in the outback, so we stopped at some dunes to walk around a bit.

We called it a day in Alice Springs. From there we headed further north and then east and drove about 11 hours before getting to Mt.Isa. We did stop to see another rock formation, the Devil's Marbles along the way:

Just before we got to Mt.Isa it started pouring rain but all seemed well in the morning. We got about 120 km east to a town called Cloncurry when all the roads (all 2 of them) toward the coast were closed due to flooding. We waited it out all day but ended up staying in a motel overnight. The next morning the roads were still closed and we were hearing that it could be a few more days. The creeks had all flooded over the roads and were expected to rise over the next couple days. We explored the option of heading towards the west and doing the western coast but they were also expecting a cyclone and it would be about 9000km more to drive. So we thought we could wait it out a couple more days before having to backtrack the 4000km we had already driven back through the outback. We spent the day exploring the small town. This is where the Flying Doctors originated and where the first Quantas flight landed, so it's a bit of a historical place. We had some good food and drinks at the Post Office motel and met some other travelers who were in the same position as us. The next morning, the highway to Townsville was still closed so we altered our plans and took the now open highway towards Rockhampton. We made it to Barcalade (about 300 km from the coast) before the roads started to fill with water again. After a night here, we successfully made it to the coast and down to Hervey Bay. From here we'll they to get to Frasier Island and then down to Noosa and Byron Bay. So far today the weather looks pretty good, but I'm not uncrossing my fingers just yet.