Outback trip - Crossing OZ from N-S

It's travel time again!

Do you agree that I can't leave Australia without having seen the Outback, Ayers Rock etc.? You see: that's why I do this trip.

My flight back to Europe was booked for July 8, 2006. June was exam-month. I simply hoped to have my exams finished early, maybe by June 20 so that I could still travel a bit before leaving. Unfortunately, in the end it happened to be the contrary: my personal exam period started June 20 and was over by June 27. No time for travelling afterwards, also because I had to move out, hand over the apartment etc. But with a bit of organisation I found out that I could fit in a trip before the start of my exams, immediately after my last lectures had been given.

And there we go, the itinerary I booked:


With Adventure Tours Australia - the same operator I was travelling with on the East Coast in April - I booked the so called "Cloud 9" trip they offered which consisted of three 3-day trips (1-3 on the map in green):

Day 1: Darwin to the Mary River Wetlands
Day 2: Mary River Wetlands to Kakadu National Park
Day 3: Kakadu National Park to Darwin
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Day 4: Darwin to Katherine Gorge
Day 5: Katherine Gorge to Tennant Creek
Day 6: Tennant Creek to Alice Springs
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Day 7: Alice Springs to Kata Tjuta National Park & Uluru
Day 8: Uluru to Kings Canyon
Day 9: Kings Canyon to Alice Springs


After this trip with Adventure Tours Australia I could have flown directly from Alice Springs back to Melbourne. But Qantas is the only airline flying from there and as Australia's flag carrier charges "a few" dollars for the tickets... Thus, instead of flying back to Melbourne I decided to book another 2-day express trip with the company Heading Bush from Alice Springs to Adelaide (point 4 on the map in blue) via the underground opal city Coober Pedy. Therefore:

Day 10: Alice Springs to Coober Pedy
Day 11: Coober Pedy to Adelaide

Point 5 (on the map in red) indicates the last part, an 11-hour bus trip to get back to Melbourne on June 12.
Day 12: Adelaide to Melbourne

Every day has been so impressing and full of events and things we experienced that one seperate post will be dedicated to each day.

However, everything started with the departure on Wednesday evening May 31, 2006, flight at 9.40 pm from Melbourne to Darwin with the low cost carrier JetStar.

After a 4,5 hours flight and with a time difference of -30 mins. to Melbourne I arrive at 2.30 am at the Cavanagh Hostel. After only a couple of hours of sleep I will be picked up from here to start Day 1...