I took an eight day overland trip through the Outback from from Alice Springs to Adelaide, and our first stop was King’s Canyon, where this picture was taken. It’s another in my series entitled “Not that exciting unless you were there”, but let me try and convince you otherwise:

1. This is a full-on tree growing in desert conditions, a testament to the virlity of the Eucalyptus tree (this type is called a Ghost Gum)

2. Those rocks in the mountains in the background sure are red, aren’t they?

3. Our guide told us that this tree apparently contains a “Micro Koala”, yet another in the line of fake animals that Aussies try to convince tourists that exist. Other examples: Drop Bear (it drops down out trees and attacks you; Coconut Fish (a fish that Captains try to convince you exist, until you realize they are just floating coconuts); OohAhh Bird (it lays square eggs and thus says “oooh…ahhh” as it lays them); Acro Bat (a bat that does back flips as approches a rock or tree); Box Jellyfish (if their tentacles should happen to wrap around you while you are swimming, you’ll die within a couple of minutes – wait, this animal actually does exist here.) Anyway, it turns out that the Micro Koala is just a tiny, toy koala the guides stick in the trees sometimes – can you see the one in this tree (keeping in mind we never found it even though we were standing and staring at the tree for five minutes.)