Through a Rainy Bus Window

If you fly into the Ayer's Rock, Australia airport, chances are you will stay at the one nearby hotel and camping complex.  For travel around the area, it is possible to rent a car—or a camel—but it's quite likely you'll sign up for one or more organized tours.

We found ourselves looking out of bus windows through the unusual rain during several tours.  Some of our guides had worked in the area for decades said they had only seen rain once or maybe twice a year.  So if you are lucky enough to be in a bus in the rain in the Australian Outback you take photos, right?   All of the following were taken through bus windows.

As we approached Kata Tjuta, an outcroping of rock similar to Uluru, the sky lightened temporarily, turning the rain on the rock into silvery rivers and waterfalls.  Not a common sight.

As we arrived closer to Kata Tjuta, the waterfalls became more distinct.

Kata Tjuta from a distance.

It was into one of these polka-dot puddles that my straw hat fell.  It took an hour of scrubbing to remove the orange stain.  Had I known it would take so long to clean I would have immersed the hat completely and kept the new color.

These may border on what some would consider odd images but I like the shapes and colors; they were taken at one of the hotels in the complex as we waited for more passengers.

As the sky lightens and we wait for the rain to slow a bit more, the view through the bus window is softened and smeared.

Back on the bus, ready to head home to the hotels, we get a brief view of the sand road  illuminated by another bus.