In March 2006 I got to go to a scientific meeting in Sydney to present my Ph.D. research. Below are a few pictures from Sydney and some from my vacation to the outback of South Australia.

For my vacation I flew from Sydney to Adelaide, where I rented a car and headed into the outback. Adelaide, state capital of South Australia, has a population of just over one million people. South Australia is about the size of Germany and France combined, or about one-and-a-half-times as large as Texas, but has fewer than 500,000 people outside Adelaide, mostly concentrated in a few mid-sized cities. So, there's obviously a lot of open space, which is what I was looking for.

From Adelaide I headed north to the Flinders Ranges National Park, where I spent 2 nights. After that I drove up to Marree, the small town at the start of the Oodnadatta Track. From there I headed west on the Oodnadatta Track to William Creek. After spending a night in William Creek I went to visit Lake Eyre North, before returning to the main highways at Coober Pedy and heading south towards Adelaide.

To help orient you before you look through the photos, I've included a couple of maps. This map of Australia has the areas I visited marked in red. Australia is almost as large as the continental US, but has less than two-thirds the population of California. The shortest distance from Sydney to Adelaide is about 1150 km (710 miles). There's also a map of South Australia with my route highlighted. I followed the highlighting from the south to Port Augusta, then counterclockwise back to Port Augusta, and finally back to the South.