I didn't have any doubts that today would be a fun one, but I'm a little shocked by just how much I like little Alice Springs, a speck of a city in a brown sea of emptiness. It was a long and hot 45 minute walk to a Hertz rental spot to pick up our ute (so called as it's a sport UTility vehicle and because ute is hands down way more fun to say than SUV) but having our own wheels gave us a chance to change things up on the fly without having to pray the single Ube...

I've probably never wanted to hurl my cell phone through a brick wall or into the merciless jaws of a whirring blender as badly as I did at 4:30am this morning when it heartlessly shrieked and buzzed on the nightstand six inches from my head. It was either get up then or, far worse, hike the Kings Canyon rim in a shadeless 106 degrees. This is a place that actually shuts down to visitors after 9am in an absolutely necessary effort to prevent yuppie tourists like ...

WiFi has been a bit spotty out here in the desert, and I'm kind of loving the unusual absence of my cell phone's chirps and dings, typically indicative of a work email. If you're ever wanting to disconnect and can't stand the idea of yet another boring cruise, the outback is the place to go! My fantasy-of-meat dinner (affectionately called the "Drover's Blowout" by restaurant staff) was a bit less triumphant than I expected. Of the crocodile, bison, kangaroo, cam...

Melbourne wasn't so much a destination as a passage point for me; it just happened to be the nearest city with a flight into the outback and so I reserved a seemingly generous 36 hours of our precious itinerary to explore everything it has to offer. While it's clear I terribly misjudged just how much I'd enjoy being here, even a rapidly shrinking amount of time remaining in the food and wine capital of a continent couldn't dissuade me from staying in bed until no...