Day 82 - Adelaide

I was going to bore you with more pictures of roads for days 78 - 82 but decided not to. The 1500km from Uluru down to Adelaide really weren't that exciting especially as we had already covered most of it on the way up and even then it was pretty boring... and we were looking forward to getting out of the outback and back into civilisation without flies and without red sand everywhere !

Adelaide didn't really look too exciting at first either and we were expecting something boring like Cairns. It was when we got to the town centre that we were pleasantly surprised.
Adelaide actually looks like it was a little bit of history (by Australian standards). You'll find quite old buildings - some from the 19th century others art deco - and not so many modern sky scrapers. It has lots of little sidestreets full of cute little pubs, shops and restaurants andit has a little bit of an Eurpean feel to it.




We met up with our friend Fred and also with some folks from the Rising Sun Pictures Adelaide office which was nice. And then we had the best pasta ever in charming little Italian restaurant.



At the end of our Adelaide stay we also went "swimming" with dolphins. A boat brings you out to popular dolphin hang out spots and you jump into the water holding on to a rope so you don't float away and hope and wait that a dolphin might come near. We did this jumping into the water about 5 times. The last few times I could see some dolphins swimming underwater quite near to us which was great. I realy wanted them to come very close and play but I think that's not what they neccessarily do.
Luke saw hardly any dolphins as he's blind. He is also pretty dumb as he paid $100 for this "experience", so he says. He wasn't happy. Here is his one and only photo that day of a dolphin tail:

Day 80 - We have jobs :)

Since we only have about 3-4 weeks left of our trip and the travel kitty is getting rather low we thought we should sort ourselves some work for March 2009.

So we applied to Weta and .. they gave us a job starting on the 16th March. Yay!
We heard that things at Weta are hectic and stressful already so we are fully prepared to be chained to the computer 24/7. Awesome!

Day Birthday :-) - 30 is the new 20!

Let's start at the day before my birthday.. we actually had the hottest night ever! The van didn't really cool down and I don't think we slept at all. We felt just sticky and minging and were looking forward to the one thing that had kept us going for the past one and a half weeks: The hotel with AIR CON!!! Luke had booked it for my birthday and it was the best idea ever!



So we finally arrived at Uluru and got our room keys, got to the room, put the air con on full blast and went: Aaaahhh! and cracked open some beers :)
Don't think we moved for a while.

Except to maybe admire the view from the room: Uluru (Ayres Rock) which was pretty nice too :)



So on my birthday we got up about 5 in the morning as I wanted to watch the sunrise over Uluru. And it didn't disappoint. The rock changed colours from dark blue over to red over to orange. It looked very pretty.
I also wanted to climb the rock but unfortunately the climb was closed due to strong winds at the summit. Boo!
6.30 am:

We went back to the hotel to get breakfast and also admire my present which I had gotten right after we got up. Luke has been winding me up about this for 2 months!! So it had better be good! Lol!
As we've already spent a little fortune on this trip I said I just wanted a nice hotel with air con and a book.
And this is what I got:

I unwrapped my present and it was an English Dictionary Book!! NICE!
When I said "Book" I was more thinking of at least a novel or something, but no such luck! Thanks Luke!
But wait: I opened the book and there was a massive square cut into the middle of it. In in the cut out was a box from Tiffany & Co.. Ohooohhh! :)
I got the box out and in there I found a lovely white gold ring :) Don't get ideas, it wasn't that kind of ring ;) Anyway, the ring is gorgeous and I love it. Spoilt aren't I?!






So then we embarked on walking around Uluru. The base walk is 9.4 km long and took us 3.5 hrs so you get an idea of the dimensions of that rock. It is absolutely amazing and definitely worth our massive detour and the millions of flies you have to endure.
The rock has so many different shapes from all sort of angles, huge crevices and caves, some waterholes and is just beautiful to look at. I think I took a 1000 pictures.



The little pests:
The flies like Luke's man scent:

After 3.5 hrs of walking the heat was getting to us even though we started at around 9 am, so we went back to the hotel for some cooling down cocktails ( it's my birthday, remember?!). We tried spending some time at the pool, but again the flies were just unbearable to take. So we just got more drunk on champagne and had a lovely dinner in the evening and then got some more drunk :)

My fingers swell due to the heat .. or maybe it was all the food and booze:

My sexy hobbit feet after the long walk:

Next day we drove to "The Olgas", which is a huge stone formation near Uluru and just as impressive. Though this day we didn't feel like much walking, so we literally just walked up, took some pictures and left back to the air-conditioned room :)



We also managed to do some clothes washing and hang it all up on the balcony .. as you do in a 4.5 star hotel. Spot the chavs!

Day 74 - The MacDonnell ranges and Kings Canyon

By this point all I can think of is the sweet air-conditioned room I have booked for Jess' birthday. We have 2 days before we are due to check in and the temperature is a contstant 42 C each day with no power to turn on our fan at night. Still, we drivealong the MacDonnell ranges and look at a few creeks during the day before staying on one of the best camping spots ever! It is just off the main road but up on a hill about 200m so you get this amazing view across the whole range. Because we are in the middle of no-where, the is no light pollution and on a clear night the sky is completely covered in stars. The milky way is really clear and the whole thing is breathtaking.

Another willy willy:


Since we were pretty much buy ourselves we thought we would set up our solar powered camp shower that we bought right at the beginning of this trip. Now, this thing hasn't seen any action since we bought it and was starting to look like someone's christmas present next year, but was probably the best showers ever!

View from our MacDonnell campsite

Solar-powered shower action!

The flies are getting worse now. Within seconds of stopping they are everywhere: in your ears, nose, crawling on your lips -it's nuts! We don't bother buying fly nets which is a mistake and go for a 6km walk around the rim of Kings Canyon. This was an incredible sight and the size doesn't really come across in the photos.

The flies start to get to Jess!
King's Canyon:

Day 71 - Finally get to Alice Springs!

The driving has got really gutty. We are covering about 600km a day with nothing much but desert to stare at. It is also getting hotter! The temperatures are in the high 30s/low 40s but drop into the 20s at night. We stop at a place called Pimba and within seconds of getting out of the van, there are about 10 flies swarmming around me. This was only the beginning! We camp with the truckers outside of a roadhouse and this bogan family rocks up with about 7 kids. The guy seems friendly enough, but Jess is convinced he is going to murder us in the night and steal all our stuff! And she still hasn't seen Wolf Creek!

"Real Aussie Chicks Drive Utes"
Cute coffee shop in Wyndra:
The endless road:
Broken Hill:
Emu's crossing:
Pimba roadhouse bar:
Ravensburg number plate from Jess' hometown:


Next day, we are still alive (woohoo!) so carry on to Coober Pedy. Coober has such high temps during the day and low at night, that 70% of the town lives underground. Not much here except a big mining community and has often been used as a location for various out movies like Pitch Black, Mad Max etc.

Underground homes:
Coober Pedy and a willy willy in the distance:

English, Japanese and ........ German?? Guess where the tourists are from!


We power on to Alice Springs and stop at a couple more places before finally arriving! I have to say - 3500km later and I'm not that impressed. It wasn't that pretty and I can't really think of anything to say except some arschloch stole my sunglasses and 2 bottles of new engine oil from us.




Brewing thunderstorm outside of Alice Springs: