Adelaide

Well we finally made it to Adelaide, thank you to our wonderful little van. It sure has been worth it's weight in gold, not breaking down even once. The first thing we did when we got to Adelaide was book into a camp ground right on the beach and go swimming. It was lovely. Not big waves but it was great anyway. Mike loved it, me, well im still not to confident in the sea. The next day we got the papers and rang up about some jobs. We both had interviews the next day and lucky for me i landed a job that day. I am working in a hotel (Cross Keys) as a kitchen hand. I put dishes into a dishwasher, take them out and chop up veges. And for this they pay me $19 hour. I love it. I work 3 days a week and get $400+ in the hand. Cant argue about that i reckon. Mike had a job the following day so things were just all coming together for us. We went and visited Aunty Grace. She's nearly 90, 88 i think, and shit she is onto it. I hadnt seen her for around 20 years and she knew who i was and loved to hear how the family was doing. Aunty Grace let us park the van in her driveway for a week, until we moved into our flat. And even now she lets us go around and do our washing, she's great. Well as I said we got a flat, 500mts from the beach, in a suburb called Semaphore. We love it. Its just one bedroom but its all we need and only $120 week. Quite a bargin. Now all we need to do is sell the van, so fingers crossed it sells soon.

It's a long way to Coober Pedy

Hours of driving, straight roads, no cars for miles, unbearable heat in a non air-conditioned van... And then... Spit, spit, spit, spit, YEEHAH!!! IT'S RAINING!!! Not just normal rain but fair bucketing down. On goes the brakes, off come the clothes and out into the rain we danced, all this on the main highway between Alice spings and Coober Pedy. We must have looked mad, yahooing in the rain. But who saw anyway... It was great. And from here it got a bit more exciting. We crossed the border and we also saw our first 'Big Red' kangaroo on the side of the road. Miles along the road we saw another one and got photos of it. We pass the famous 'Dog Fence', Mike couldn't resist and had to mark his territory. Then in the distance, white hills, pure white hills, yep we had made it to the opal mining capital, Coober Pedy. We stayed in a motel called 'The Underground Experience'. The Motel is dug into the earth and you can walk thru alot of the old opal mines. We stayed in a room 20m below ground where the tempature is a steady 21 degrees all year round. It is very dark when you turn the lights off so in the morning you sleep late cause you just dont see any sun come up. It was fantastic. In the town we saw 'The Big Winch', A space ship from a movie filmed there(it looked like it was out of Star Wars), and we took a look thru some of the opal mine museums. And you can even buy moon rocks, ha ha ha. We both loved Coober Pedy but once again the sea was calling so... our poor little van once again carried us on.

On The Road Again To Ayers Rock

Well we are on the road again, Ayer's Rock here we come. It was very exciting. Yet again, we got another blow out on the way. Seems rather fitting tho, since we got one the last time we tried to go to Ayers Rock as well. We got there and jumped straight in the pool at the camp ground, it was another hot hot hot day. Refreshed, we took off to see the sunset at the rock. $25 for a 3 day pass into the National Park. The Sunset was beautiful, Mike jumped on the roof of the van and got some fantastic photos. We were up early after a sleepless night from the heat, to watch the sunrise, just as nice i reckon. Then walked the 10km track around the rock. Its a big rock, but its not the only attraction in this area so we headed for The Olga's. We stopped at the look-out and got some more great pictures. By this time tho the day was getting hot and all we could think of was the beautiful beaches of Adelaide that awaited us. So at the suggestion we hit the road, well lets just say we couldn't drive fast enough. Our poor little van!! It's done us proud!!!