Alice Springs

We made it to Alice, just in time for the 'The Hendley on Todd Regatta.This was a great day out. You get together in a team, make a boat of cardboard or anything really, cut the bottom out of it, hop in it and run a race around the dry river bed of the Todd River. Heaps of Laughs for everyone. Once again heaps of photo's taken. The next day we decided to go to Ayres Rock. About 100km out from Alice we came across a camel farm. I had to stop. They are amazing. So gentle and quiet, nothing like horses. I even touched one, ha ha ha, big deal for me. Then the van wouldnt start, so we found ourselves stuck at the camel farm, well when in Rome. Yep, an hour or so later mike and i found ourselves doing a 2 hour camel trek. I was shit scared. But by the end of it i loved it and was even kicking my camel to run a bit. We had a great time. Not risking driving to Ayres Rock we headed back for Alice, and BANG, yep, a bloody flat tyre. By the end of the day we were happy to get back to our little spot at the camp ground. We are both working at Alice Springs Resort at the moment. Mike is enjoying it. He has the handy man position, and he says its quite cruisy. I,on the other hand, am not enjoying my job at all. It is the first job that i can say i just dont like. It gives me no satisfaction at the end of the day. And sometimes i can be working till 12.30 at night. So i have decided to look for another job with a bit better pay and hours. Fingers crossed. Well thats all for now, will keep you informed on the job searching.

Another road trip, bound for Alice Springs

Yep, good-bye Karumba, we were on our way. As we drove the 500km (approx) to Mt Isa, without a word of a lie I can tell you we passed around about 50 cars, every single one of them waving at us. You see, on these roads you can drive for miles and miles and not turn or see anyone. So if you come to a turn(slight bend in the road) everybody is watching intently to see if you have seen that the road has a bend in it. And you find yourself up hard against the window waving at the car coming towards you, just for the company, knowing that you ARE sharing this long lonely stretch of road with some one. There are many towns on the way(every couple of hours) and what we found out about these is that they are usually one building with a gas pump. Yep thats it. No houses, no community, no nothing. The petrol gets more expensive the closer to Alice you get. We started buying at $1.28 a litre and by the time we reached Alice it was up to $1.60 a litre. But we did have a great time, we crossed over the border into Northern Territory. Stopped and took a couple of photos of that. That was when we got to learn about the flies, thousands of them. And we stopped for a night at 'The Devils Marbles', this was fantastic. We joined some other travellers there, made a fire and sat around drinking and playing guitar. It was great. Mirriam and Mika(dutch) were traveling together, heading north. Petra(dutch) was traveling by herself, she had a map of australia painted on the front of her car showing where she had been. And Al, he was Italian, and i have no idea where he was going. And another german couple joined us for a short time as well. It was a great night. I saw my first dingo on the way to Alice as well. Minding its own business jogging along the road. We stopped at a petrol station/roadhouse called wycliffe well, and it was decorated up like a UFO. We also stopped in at Tennant Creek and had a look at the info centre, it is a gold mining town like Waihi. We stayed at Ti-Tree the night, and had the most wonderful shower ever(well it felt like it). We stopped at the Tropic of Caporicorn, more photos. And then finally made it to Alice. Yeah!!! But before we settle in here, we are off to 'The Rock'. It has to be done. So wish us luck.

Good-bye Karumba

Well after working in Karumba, both Mike and I were very ready to leave Karumba. After some discussions on how we were going to leave the place, we decided to buy a van off Av and Howie(some locals we met). They were lovely and had dinner with us before we left at the restaurant. Finally the morning came, I was very excited to be hitting the road again. I went off to say my good-byes to Margie and Cilla at the cafe/supermarket. I had only worked there for 2 weeks but grew close to them, they are good people. Then went to find Mike and say our final farewells to Mick, Sandy and Karumba Seafoods. It was a bit sad to go, but the work had run out, we were ready to go and the excitment of travelling in our own van was just to great. So we left Karumba with big smiles and cuddles. Margie threaten to put a road block to stop me leaving town, THANK GOD SHE DIDNT. 73km to Normanton, here we come... and we left it just as fast... In fact we drove all the way to Mt Isa the first day. The roads were tarseal but only one strip of tarseal(oneway) with the large strips of dirt on the sides so you can run off when you see a great big huge massive road train coming towards you. Believe me, you nearly shit yourself. But i'm glad to say you do get use to it. So off we went heading for Alice Springs...

My Australian Driver's Licence

Well this is yet another one of those funny australian experiences that i wont forget in a hurry. I decided to get an Australian driver's licence. So after going to the police station 5 times and then finally getting hold of them when their open, i asked to apply for the licence. "Not a problem" he said, "all you have to do is fill out this form, sit a 30 question multi choice paper and thats it". So i sat down and started on the questions. Now to my surprise the road rules over here are quite different to ours in New Zealand. So I got stuck on about 6 of them. I told him i was sorry about wasting his time that there were a couple of questions that i wasnt sure of. "No Worries, which ones?" He then, to my surprise, started to explain the answers to me. "Yep there you go, you've passed" he said. He then took my photo, printed a licence out for me, laminated it and sent me on my way. But not before saying to me "There you go doll, i just saved you another $60 cause i up-graded your learner motorbike to a full motorbike licence for you, enjoy the rest of your trip around Australia.
So to sum it all up, after failing my licence, i walked away with an Australian car licence and a full motorbike licence in hand. GO FIGURE THAT ONE OUT!!!!