A long way.

Alrighty then.

Here we are, with a wee bit of a catch up.

Our last few days have been delightful.
But that means everything and nothing coming from us at the moment, because everything is delightful.

Firstly,
we have come a long way since Uluru.





We have seen GIANT rats, big wild boars, miniature kangaroo's, wedgetailed eagles, acrobatic hawks, millions of mice pacing back and forth across the highway, wild emu's, bison, foxes, dingo's, cows (obviously), sheep (more obviously), kingfisher's, wild kittens. H is even convinced that he stepped in Tree Kangaroo droppings.

Really, australia is one big ol' wildlife park.

We have driven from the driest flats of the country, straight on into the windy mountain roads of tropical QLD. It was an incredible transformation to see.





Since Uluru, we have not done too much to remark upon, aside from enjoying our lives…
We have been driving and listening to inspiring music. Stopping and eating fulfilling meals. Spending days and evenings chilling out, reading, playing domino's, playing guitar and flute. Singing the tree's to sleep.

We've been having bucket baths on the side of the highway. Doing morning yoga to the sound of road trains and beeping horns. Buying candy from road houses and petrol stations. Singing along to Queen.

All the good stuff.

There is nothing lacking but ovens for baking and friends for playing and family for loving.

Yesterday we were lacking beaches for swimming.
But today, we woke up on the eat coast of Australia to the sound of waves crashing upon rocks and the sights of the sun rising over the water.

Bliss.

We did a couple of river cruises in the Daintree this morning and saw Dusty and Elizabeth and Barrat the crocodiles. We didn't see Scarface. He was the rumoured man of the house (river) who had many (crocodile) girlfriends. We saw a few teeny tiny crocodiles that you could cuddle to sleep if you wanted to (and were allowed).











We are now driving down south, towards the Whitsundays, where we plan to visit H's dad and get up close and personal with fish of various kinds.

I know we skipped darwin, and missed a whole state, or two. But for now we are happy to be that little bit closer to home, to tomorrow, to summer, to the future.

H is still in the process of getting into the NSW paramedic traineeship. We have so much hope that he gets in. And if he does, well, it is good to be that little bit closer for when the call comes and he must go to impress them in an interview… very good :)

So, for now… We'll kick back listening to Sufjan, eating a block Black Forest chocolate and cruising down the Bruce Highway.
And you will go on enjoying what you're doing.

Life is good. always. 'Cause God is good. always.

xo

Valley of the winds.

Today we woke early to see Uluru in the light of sunrise, and watched the moon set beside her.





H photographed her.




Then we went on an epic bush walk at Kata Tjuta through the "many heads" of rock. (Kata Tjuta means "many heads")
I think this is also known as Mt Olga but there were no signs to say so. Correct me if I'm wrong.




We walked a 3-4 hour track through the Valley Of The Winds and then a cool, shady walk through Walpa Gorge. (Walpa means "wind")




It was lovely and exhausting and it is oh so hot in the sun!
The path was very stoney and H, all shoeless and that, was a complete slow poke :) Turns out his feet aren't that tough after all ;)

Mind you, I do admire him for so nobly committing to an idea, even amidst great stoney agitation and pain.




Love, love, love!

U is for…

Uluru.

Wow. She is such a beauty and she has so many faces that every corner you turn, you're struck anew with how amazing she is.

Beautiful.






Yesterday afternoon we arrived at Uluru National Park. It's very well done. Not too many facilities, but just enough to make a day there enjoyable. They have a few toilet blocks scattered around the park, several stations of delicious drinking water, and small gems of information about the area you're in, telling Indigenous Stories and explaining the locations. But overall, the place is quite untouched. All they've done is define paths around the place so we don't accidentally do the dirty and walk across an ancient sacred site. It's all very natural.

We walked 3.5 hours around the base of her, finding some sneaky pools and gorgeous birds that sang like I've never heard before.





We were the last 2 people to do the walk and we finished at sunset and it was glorious.



Then we drove on out and camped just outside the national park on the side of the road :)

D if for...

Driving!



We currently drive a lot.



Well, H does.



I'm not all that comfortable on a rickety old manual so… I sit and crochet :)



Most of the time we're looking out the windows at all the great things that surround us. Sometimes we sing along to music, other times I read aloud to H, or just read to myself. We keep an eye out for eagles because we've seen a few and they are epic. I once tried playing guitar whilst we were driving and I couldn't even hear it! We have a very loud vehicle.

One thing we have been noting is how high the petrol prices get.

The current record is $2.20 per litre at Mt Ebenezer.

Chasing the sun!

Most of our days seem to revolve around sunrise and sunset.
And Interesting clouds, lizards on the road, birds flying into our windscreen.
And breakfast, lunch and dinner.
However, we usually have lunch so late that dinner seems purely self indulgent. Instead we just say goodnight with a few pieces of Top Deck or Marble.
Not self indulgent at all :P

Speaking of, we hit Coober Pedy and decided to stay in an underground hotel. Now, this wasn't an easy choice. We don't have much "funds" for this trip. And the money we did save last year is still saved up for our next overseas adventure and we kind of don't want to use that. So, we're being pretty cheap. Eating things like MiGoreng noodles and canned lentils and no-name pasta for lunch and dinner. Oats for breaky, always. Nothing especially fancy. But we decided that the use of a shower, a kitchen (OVEN!), a washing machine and the novelty of staying underground was well worth it. H figured that saving money by not staying in a hotel wasn't worth the countless times I was probably gonna say something about wishing we had stayed underground… 'Cause I do that kind of thing.

Coober Pedy is strange, but the people were friendly.

We stayed 6.5m's underground and we're thrown out by the fact that the sun wouldn't be waking us up.



We baked brownies and cooked pizza and spent way to much money on groceries :P

Loved it.




We only stayed the one night and explored the surrounding area a bit the next day.
Deciding to give the car another go at an unsealed road, because all the websites/forums told us it WAS possible.




11km takes us a long time along an unsealed road, but we made it. Relatively unharmed, but extremely dusty, to The Breakaways.


This was probably the furthest we've been away from our car in a long time.

Anyhow, we hit the road again, and the engine overheated not long after our "off road" experience. Is it possible to shake the coolant form the radiator?? Well, something like that happened.

H fixed it, 'cause he's a strong and able manly man. And we drove on North towards some funny clouds. They reminded me of Super Mario and we sung the theme song a thousand times along the way.




Tonight we stayed at a Rest Area, all red dirt and gum tree's. Kicked back with our home made warm, spicy, apple cider, played a few games of Domino's (Thankyou Mike McCarthy for the inspiration!), saw a stunning sun set in the distance and decided we didn't really need dinner, seeing as we pretty much just had lunch :)




We're on our way to Uluru and surrounding areas.
See you there :)
xo

Since Adelaide...

We didn't fall in love with Adelaide, sorry Guy Sebastian.
But we did get what we needed from them, and that is a good thing.
We found a sneaky place to camp in the middle of the city suburbs for our last night there, instead of driving for an hour out of town. They had toilets and a river and everything. It was great. But it was even greater the next day when we left for the Barossa Valley and beyond.

We visited the Whispering Wall at the suggestion of some friends and, let me tell you, we are not immune to the novelty, that is for sure. We stood on either side, in the rain, talking to each other for AGES! It was cold and wet but too crazy not to keep playing with.




If you haven't been there, google it. It's this crazy wall. Built to hold up a massive damn full of water. But it just happens to be at the perfect acoustical angle to carry a whisper all the way along the 140m long wall! You stand at opposite ends and… well, whisper. It sounds like the other person is talking into a cheap microphone with a speaker hiding somewhere close. But, alas, no speaker. It's wild :)

After our little Barossa Visit we drove on up through the country, beeping at sheep and admiring the view.
H says,
"one day we'll be able to say that we've beeped at sheep in every state of the country!!!"



We found a hitchhiker along the way!
Now, when we were getting this van ready to go, we were determined to have spare seats for hitchers along the way. We didn't want to be that person who just drives past. So we kept the three back seats, instead of turning them into an actually comfortable bed, or some more storage. And this was the first time we got to use them.

Hitchhiker no. 1 was named Felix and was from France and wanted to go to a town called Melrose to go camping in the mountains. He carried only a backpack with him. Neither he, nor we, realised how far away Melrose was. Nearly 400km. And along a different route than I had planned [P.s. I'm the navigator] But we were so excited to give someone a lift that we took him straight there.

Then we stopped on the side of the road and camped there. Next to a huge unused paddock. Next to some old ruins. And we saw a beautiful Sunset and woke to a stunning Sunrise.




We enjoyed the sun for a while, then drove on, 'cause that's how we roll.



Now the aim was to go to the Flinders Ranges National Park, and go bushwalking for the day. I even packed a lunch for us. But… you know how I'm the navigator right…? Well, we ended up taking the wrong road and driving for 2 hours along it before realising that this was not the way… Sometimes these things just happen.

I was pretty sad because I really wanted to get up close and personal with the Flinders, I spent the drive reminiscing on my primary school project on Australian Explorers and everything! So, I spotted on the map a "main road" up ahead that was leading into the Ranges :) There are a few options. Main Highway,Main Road, Unsealed Road, 4WD only road. Well, this one looked pretty good.

It said the road was 30km's long so we turned onto it, and alas, it was unsealed. It was completely unsealed and bumpy as hell. Someone told us that when driving on a graded road in a 2wd it was best to just speed up and skip over the top of the bumps, so after going cautiously for a little while we decided to just try it.
Rev, rev rev and woah!
We were shaken like a paint tin at Bunnings.
H couldn't even hold the wheel anymore, the car was sliding out and everything on our dashboard was flying around the car. For a second, or maybe half a second, all of ours and the cars atoms seemed to separate and then come back together. It was incredible. And we're lucky the car didn't fall apart around us.

We turned around, and crept back to the Sealed Main Road, verbally encouraging map makers to be a little more specific about the state of their roads, and laughing the whole 2 hours back.

So here's what we saw of the Flinders Ranges.




Everything was shaken, except for Lego Man, who stood true and strong throughout our hardship.



We have decided to come back with a 4WD one day.