In The Outback !!

Hello There,

Sunday 5th February

Up early today had brekky at 7am toast and coffee then on bus headed to Warren Gorge looking for rock wallabies saw one lol then back on bus and headed to Yourambulla Caves to view Aboriginal Rock Paintings alittle hike over rocks to get there was ok then yes you guessed it back on the bus and headed too Flinders Range National Park for lunch had Burgers cooked on the BBQ havent had thoses for days NOT !!!! on the first day of this tour from Adelaide the guide put us into teams 1,2,3 and 4 and every meal time a group will do something like cook or wash up it was group 2 turn to cook that was me and jane was in my group too i was in charge of cooking the burgers and onions on the BBQ yes i know you are thinking OMG do you know she cant cook and the answer to that is OH YES I CAN as lee will tell you the burgers were lovely after lunch we went on a hike in Wilpena Pound to see some great views over the National Park it was hard work it was 4km and not flat rocky but worth it great look out great views. On the way to Wilpena Pound we saw some Goats in the road and two of them where having a flight is was funny to watch we have a good video of it which we are gonna get up very soon internet in the outback isnt good well to be honest there isnt any !! lol will do a big photos blog from Sydney
in a week.

After the hike back on the bus and headed back to Quorn where we are staying had dinner at 7pm it was horrible not sure what the meat was but it was supposed to be beef stew with veg not good !!!

We have a lay in in the morning not leaving until 8.30 WOW !!!!! off to Coober Pedy and we are staying under ground looking forward to that and there is a bar under ground too at our hotel there is an under ground bar with pool table and duke box cant wait !!

Monday 6th February

A lay in this morning... yey!!!!! the alarm didn't go off until 6.45am and we snoozed it a couple of times.. after texting dad (Lee) found out that Man U had drawn 3-3 with Chelski which after being 3 zip down was a good result.. we walked our bags down to where the rest of the group were staying, had some brekky and made our lunch for the day (sandwiches)..

One of the first stops we had was at a place called Woomera which was a small Army town, we just stopped for a chill out and after 20 mins we were back on the bus... around lunchtime we stopped at a salt lake which was massive and we got some really cool photos which we will get up at some point on the blog...

We were then on the bus for a bit more and then we stopped in a small town called Glendambo .. poplulation of 30... on the drive into Coober Pedy we had a couple of photo stops and then we got here about 6pm... it is the opal capital of the world here and we are staying in a place called the Desert Cave hotel.. it's the world's only underground hotel.. it is definately the strangest place we have even stayed in...

we had dinner tonight at a local pizza restaurant which was nice and tonight we are off to the underground bar!!!! should be fun!!!!!

Tuesday 7th February

We got up at 7.15am tour guide collected us at 8am to take us to the underground hostel for brekky, after brekky we went on a tour of a Opal mineing grave which was good showed us a film of how it was founded and how over the years they have been digging it up then they tryed to get you to spend hundreds of dollars on opal jewllery and saying you will only get the geniune stuff from us everywhere else is cheaper but fake !!!! yeah yeah lol

We had free time after the tour to have alook around town didnt take long lol we went to another opal shop called Opalios had lots of nice stuff but just to expensive so i brought a peddle pet instead which is a gem stone mounted on a metal plate for legs and has eyes stuck on very cool and only cost $5 lol Lee was happy lol

after shopping we headed to a Kangaroo Orphanage saw the owners feeding them we saw Kangroos that were around 18 months old 5 of them then we saw them feed 3 smaller ones that were 6 months old and then we saw a tiny one that was only 4 months old so tiny didnt have any fur yet all these Kangroos had been taken to the Ophanage due to there mothers being killed either by cars or trucks on the roads and cos the small ones are in the porch and manage to stay unhurt people stop and bring them to the ophanage and the others are there because there mothers have been killed by hunters (Aboridgal people) and they let there children play with the babies until they look like they are one there last legs and then take them to the ophanage very sad but the people there are taking very good care of them we donated some money top help them. after that we went to meet the group for lunch we had Quiche, Salad and chips was very nice, then back on the bus to head to Marla on the way we went down a dirt track to get ack on the highway and a rock flipped up and cracked the whole on the back window behind me and lee not good had to stop and do a temp repair luckliy we are swapping buses tomorrow...

we arrive here at around 6.30pm had dinner at 7.30pm some sitr fry crap !!! and fruit cake for dessert was nice !!! and while the others are sorting out there tents we headed back to our ensuite room with tv which is about 100 years old and kettle, tea coffee and biscuits mmmmm we upgraded when we booked our tour so we have stayed in the better accomdation but that all changes tomorrow we have 2 nights of camping !!! wow cant wait NOT !!!!!

Wednesday 8th February

So we had a mammoth lay in today compared to what was coming.. we got up at 5.45am yeehah!!! We walked across to the campsite via torchlight and had breakfast with the group and then we were away by 6.30am..

We then had quite a lot of driving to get through to get us towards Uluru (about 600km)... On route about mid morning we crossed over the state border from South Australia into the Northern Territory (NT from now on).. and we went back in time an hour as the NT
has no daylight saving like the rest of Oz so we were now 9.5 hours ahead of the UK.. NT is the only one of the 7 areas that make up Oz that isn't a state and about 130,000 people live there and you can fit GErmany into it 3 times.. jeez this country is big..

We finally got to our campiste about 12.30pm and we had some lunch.. there had been a good rotation system in place on this part of the trip in that we have all been out into groups and rotate cooking and cleaning up which is good as it means that everyone has to help out Lee in in group 1 and Lucy and Jane in group 2. For lunch we had chicken burgers and salad.. some of the food is getting very samey to be honest but you need to eat what they provide..

After lunch we went to "Kaja Tjuta National Park" to look at the Olgas which is another major rock formation near Uluru (Ayers Rock).. There we did a 2 hour walk / hike with our guide Doc.. He is a top bloke and as mad as a box of frogs.. The walk was hilly in places but we stopped every 30 mins or so and he would tell us stuff about the area..

After that we went to Uluru to watch a sunset.. they laid on some bubbly which was a nice touch and we watched sunset and got some cool pictures..

Then we headed to camp (our stays in motels were over!!!)... It was actually a lot better than we thought the tents were permanent so we didn't have to pitch our own which would have been fun in the dark.. lol.... all setlled in we grabbed a shower and had some tea.. kangaroo steaks, cheesy potato bake and coleslaw.. it was actually quite nice washed down with a bottle of wine.. the water here is crap you understand!!! We finally got to bed about 10pm.. Lee took a couple of sleeping pills which did the job and apart from it getting very windy in the night when it felt that something was on top of the fecking tent.. we slept Okish...

Thursday 9th February

We were up at 4.30am what the feck!!!! Lee woke up feeling very groggy (courtesy of the sleeping pills)... We were up so early as we were going to go for sunrise at Uluru We left camp at 5.30am and after a photo stop on the way we were at sunrise wathcing point by 6am... the sun rose about 6.30am and then we were back on the road for 6.50am to drive to the rock!!!

We had a guided Mala Walk with Doc from 7-8am and we learnt some stuff about Uluru and Aboriginal Caulture. The main thing we learnt that was it was handed over to the Aboriginal people in 1985 and then leased it back to the Government on a 99 year lease so people could visit. This was under a condition that the climb to the wall remained open for the public.. ABoriginals didn't like this so they said fine in that case we don't want your geoligists studying the area and they haven't since then!!!!

After that we then walked the whole base of Uluru 10km (6.2 miles) in just under 2 hours.. frig our legs hurt.. very interesting to be so close to something you've seen as an image thousands of times... Only shite bit was the flies, there are 3 things about the flies here;

1) They are stupid
2) They try and crawl everywhere, mouth, ear, nose etc
3) They are fecking annoying

Then we went back to camp had some lunch of steak sandwiches and then headed off for the Kings Canyon.... a 3 hour drive during which Lee slept most of it..

We have stopped off at a campsite / resort for a couple of hours so I have grabbed a shower and caught up with pics and the blog.. We are off to proper camp about 6pm tonight.. apparently it is rustic!!! Lee is on cooking duty tonight and we have another 4.30am start tomorrow morning.. Christ roll on Alice Springs..

Apparently this camping lark brings you closer to nature.. well feck nature I'll have a comfortable bed thanks very much...

Friday 10th February

So last night we got to our camp about 6pm and checked in!! Well we picked our tent, same as last night though this time the camp was a bit rustic and more in the bush... We set our stuff down and then got to cooking tea... Lee was on duty, satay chicken, veg and mash it was lovely defo one of the best meals so far washed down with a bottle of wine (again dodgy water supplies here!!!)..

After tea we were in bed by 8.30pm.. sad I know but we had another early alarm call...

At 4.15am, yes that's correct 4.15AM the alarm went off and we got up and dressed by torch light difficult in a small space sharing two torches between 3 people, we got some brekky down us and then we were on our way... This morning we were hiking to Kings Canyon which include the impressive Amphitheatre, Lost City (can't be that lost even Lee found it), Garden of Eden
(apparently Adam wasn't home today).. Esssentially the last parts are all travel agencies bollocks!!!...

Nonetheless we set off on a 7km walk starting with heart attack hill (Lee renamed it heartburn hill!!!).. It was absolutely stunning, we got some fantastic pictures... and 3 hours later we were finished.. we had plenty of stops along the way where Doc told us about the area...

We were finished by 10am and now we are having an early lunch before setting off for the 500km (350 miles or so in old money) to Alice Springs (with a 6 dollar camel ride on route)..
Our tour finishes today, we've seen some incredibl stuff along the way and have some memories (and pictures) to last a life time.. Still looking forward to a normal bed and getting to Sydney..

About an hour from Alice Springs we stopped off at a farm to have Camel Rides Lee and Jane went on i didnt didnt fancy it !! the pictures tell you every thing you need to know !!! was very funny to watch !!!

Tonight group meal as its the last night!!!

Saturday 11th February

Last Night we had a meal with the group and tour gudie in a bar called Annie's Bar $5 meals and jugs of beer for $12 was good we got very drunk and both had hang overs this morning but it as a fab night...

Didit get up till 10am today WOW no more 4.30am starts lol went for a walk into town of Alice Springs small but nice little town and this afternoon just chillin doing the washing catching up on the internet today we fly to Sydney really looking forward to going back there !!!!

We have lots and lots of pic to put up going back to Melbourne will do a picture only blog from sydney !!

Lots of Love

Lucy & Lee xx