A Land Down Under - Day 11 Off to the Northern Territory

December 27th

We had a visitor to our living room this morning. Today we flew to Alice Springs and rented a car to drive out to Uluru (former known as Ayers Rock).

Turns out there's a lot of nothing between Alice Springs and Uluru.

 But there's this memorial out here in the nothing.

 Outback!  You can practically hear the didgeridoos. 

 We stopped at Erlduna, the center of Australia, for lunch

We're in the center of Australia!

 We pulled off of the road to stretch our legs and take a photo of Mount Connor.

 There's still a lot of nothing out here.

 A very wiry shrub with some birds resting in it. Can you find them?

 It's very wet over there.

And over here.

I scrambled up a little hill to see what was to see.

 I found a lizard.

 And some nice scenery.

 And some scrubby yellow flowers.

 And another lizard!

We pulled into the hotel compound outside of the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park, checked in, and went out to see Uluru.

 But first I found a walking stick.

 And a bird with a mohawk.

Our first glimpse of Uluru was over in the compound's campsite area.

 Yup, it's a large rock.

 We drove into the park to see it before the sun set completely.

We were there!

 Kaliny-kalinypa or Honey grevullea - it was very fuzzy.

 

 Artsy photo!

Info about the scrub around here.

 Kaliny-kalinypa open pods. It's easier to see how fuzzy the branches are.

 Uluru changes color as the sunlight fades.

 Waputi or Desert Thryptomene.

 

 I was there!

 Uluru is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara Anangu, the Aboriginal people of the region.

 Sherrie and Jim with fly nets.

 And without fly nets.

 Good night Uluru.

 We'll see you in the morning.

This concludes our adventures for today.

A Land Down Under - Day 10 Snorkeling

December 26th

 Today we went snorkeling.

 I'm pretty much out of commentary on fish and coral at this point, so now onto facts about the Great Barrier Reef. 

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Dan chases a spotted fish.

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest reef system.

I'm not sure what these fish were doing.  Either they were looking for food or having sex.

And next to the suspicious fish was this guy, a Barracuda.

OH MY GOODNESS!

It's a Porcupine fish!

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

The Great Barrier Reef is composed of 2,900 individual reefs.

You can see the Great Barrier Reef from outer space.

The Great Barrier Reef is about the same size as Italy.

Ah, there's the Barracuda again.

Oh wow, look how vibrant this Giant Clam's mantel is!

If you get too close, they retract.

Spotted yellow fish.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Fish always look like you caught them doing something they weren't supposed to be doing.

Dan chases striped fish.

And then there's this guy.

The Great Barrier Reef only grows about half an inch a year.

The reef is home to over 1,400 coral species.

It's home to over 1,625 species of fish.

This fish looks like it has a fancy mustache, but it's another fish.

Snorkeling!

Pink coral.

This guy, has a funny dorsal fin.

See?

The reef has an average in shore depth of 35 meters.

A slightly gothy clown fish in some very pale anemones. 

I've run out of reef facts.

More lemon spotted fish.

I was happy to get to see so much snorkeling.

I was concerned it wouldn't be as good as some of our dives.

Fish butt!

One fish, two fish, orange fish, blue fish.

We caught some people doing an adventure dive with a guide.

Another Porcupine fish!

I want to hug one, but I don't think it'd like it.  Also....I don't think I'd like it.

This one's getting its teeth cleaned.

Purple coral.

The sun hit this butterfly fish just right.

This fish looks bored.

Fishy fishy fishy fish.

Woah, these are some big guys.

This one was chilling on the seafloor. 

Time for lunch!  It was amusing to see all the fish that would gather under the boat.

Back in the water!

 Sometimes the visibility wasn't so good.

It's hard to see, but there's a very large Wrasse rolling in the deep.  Adele would be proud.

 Humbugs!

Two spotted fish.

I still feel bad that Jim didn't get to dive, but thankfully the snorkeling is just as good.

If I were a clown fish, I'd be this one.

It's so pale.  In a pale anemone.

Chomp chomp chomp.

Oh cool!  Do you see it?

We spooked the ray.

This is a blue spotted ray.

Go blue spotted ray, go!

Ah! Another fun spotting!

A whitetip reef shark!

These guys don't usually get bigger than 5 feet in length and about 40 pounds.  They're little sharks.

This sea star looks like it just robbed a bank and now it's hiding from the cops behind a pillar. 

These fish are SO BRIGHT.

Fish.

I tried to get a better photo of this bright orange, purple tailed fish, but it kept darting away.

So manybutterflyfish.

I don't think we've seen one of these yet.

I sent Dan down to be a scale reference for that Giant Clam.

Three little orange fin black fish.

One of those dudes a little closer.

Goodbye Great Barrier Reef!

Sherrie and Jim hold hands whiles snorkeling so they don't drift apart.  They're like sea otters.
It's adorable.

This concludes our adventures for today.