A Nice Desert Tan

Welcome to 2011 my fellow martians! To kick off our new year, Caleb and I ate Singapore noodles, drank some wine, played chess (at which I dismally failed) and fell asleep before midnight in Alice Springs. No doubt most of our friends and family saw in the new year before we did (actually, quite literally, by about half an hour).

Yes, our car, although ever so trustworthy needed some maintenance in Alice Springs, and due to the festivities of the ending of a year and the beginning of a new one, not to mention Christmas and public holidays, we were forced to hang round Alice until we could get our brakes fixed. Which we have. (now we have one more thing to cross off the car maintenance list for a while - tyres - and then we will have the next best thing to a brand new car!)

Once we got our car back, we took off and drove into the night, down to Uluru. Now, for those unaware, Alice is basically the middle of the desert and although backpackers and tourists go to Alice and go see Uluru it is actually over a two hour drive (WITHOUT a caravan...) But we made it to the red centre, discovered our nation has a heart of stone, but it does change colour which is a good sign I think. We walked 10km around the base, saw the sunrise there then whisked off to the Olgas down the road (or Kata-Tjuta) and did another 7.5km...in the heat of the day (which that day was pushing 40). This is really stunning landscape and you can see why people flock here...to see a random rock in the middle of the desert. It was also really interesting to learn that the centre was really the last frontier of Australia in terms of colonising - some of the Aboriginal elders here did not see a white man until they were teenagers. Imagine how their world has changed.

After this little jaunt which lasted a day (we wanted it to only last a day) we drove into the night, yet again until we hit the border. It would have been rather an emotional moment, had I been awake to see it....hang on, I was the one that drove to the border!! Yes, it was momentous, however tarnished by the late hour (and it got even later due to daylight savings) and we litterelly pulled up at the rest stop, jumped in the van and slept.

Now, in this tired state, it had not struck me that we had been in the Territory for quite some time, seen some pretty special places and met some pretty, special people (oh no, Russel Coight alert!!) I thought it was fitting to do a small tribute to the Territory, where we learned a great deal about its people, its landscape and generally had a blast. I think the song is appropriate, as even though we are having a great time on our adventures, we do miss our family and wish you all could share this experience with us. Here is one way you may be able to...

Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

And now we move on to South Australia....

As you travel and meet people where you go, you often hear different recommendations of here there and pretty much everywhere. Not so much with South Australia. I had no idea what to expect, which was good because so far I haven't been disappointed.

When you drive the Stuart Highway though, you realise just how arid and dry and desolate our country is. The first town we came across after a few hours driving is Coober Pedy. Now, this is the opal capital of the world, but being literally in the middle of nowhere (more so than Alice) and getting anywhere from 40-55 degrees reguarly on holidays, it does come accross as quite a depressing place. However, as soon as you go underground and the temperature changes, you start to think its not so bad. The best thing I found about Coober Pedy was the name - the Aboriginal name for 'whitemans burrows' HA. A really interesting place no doubt, we visited an old mine, a dugout and some underground churches.

Then it was back on the road again....Driving into the night. We came within 60km of Port Augusta. Wow. Took us a few days to do most of the Stuart Hwy...and to think what it must have taken Stuart....

But don't be fooled. Just because Port Augusta is on the coast, does not necessarily mean pleasant. The desert, arid land just comes down to the water...Different...but Oh gee, am I over the dry heat! It is here we will get our tyres, restock and head down to the Eyre Peninsula and hopefully find some green once again and hit some beaches for the first time in a very long time! It appears our SA adventure will be different to the Territory. Oh what is life withough variety?

Finally, I would just like to say happy new year to you all! Especially as many of you are dealing with flooding at the moment...we are thinking of you everytime we hear about it on the news. And every time we say 'Oh we are from Kingaroy in South East Queensland' it is responded to by 'Oh, so is your house under water?' i really hope all you out there affected get back on your feet again (or grow flippers)! Just wanted to let you all know that we are keeping track of things back home...

Until the next adventure martians, so long and peace out.