Camel trekking in Australia's Red Center

A brilliant green parrot zips through the crisp air, lighting in a eucalyptus tree. A kangaroo bounces up the nearby ridge, his fur tawny against Gatorade-colored sandstone. The sky shimmers with a cloudless watercolor blue. Beneath me: Chamois, my ride on a three-day camel trek in Australia’s Red Center.

Our crew: camel driver Neil Waters of Camels Australia in Stuarts Well, an hour south of the Outback commercial hub of Alice Springs. Along for the ride are a family of four, children ages 10 and 13; a mother-daughter team from Canada; two Australian nurses; and a string of 11 dromedaries.

This is no posh adventure trip: We’ll sleep beneath the stars in swags – camp beds of foam mattresses, topped by a pair of sleeping bags all wrapped in oil cloth. We have no tents; it’s not the Outback way.

Nobody seems to care.

“It’s such a privilege to ride through this country on these animals. It’s so beautiful,’’ says Marjorie, the mom from Calgary, Canada.