Desert Roaming

We have finally arrived at Alice Springs, an urban oasis in the middle of the Australian desert Outback, and first thing we did is head straight for an internet cafe! Australian travelling photos are long overdue, plus Mike's got to register for his Electrical Engineering university courses online for his September start (and we had to assess the damage the many petrol fill-ups across the Outback has done to our finances).

So, where to catch up from...we last updated from New Zealand's South Island, from Dunedin where we were still bloated from the morning's chocolate factory tour and five story one ton chocolate waterfall...from there our final Kiwiland wish was granted and we witnessed fairy penguins surfing in from their day out at sea and scurrying into their little holes after pausing to preen themselves for our dusky viewing pleasure. Then we shot up to Christchurch to drop off our beloved campervan, and catch up with Hayley and crew again, and then back up to Wellington for a day and a half to say our final goodbyes :(
The flight to Sydney was only a few hours, and it almost felt like home to see the sunset over a huge horizon again. Our hospitality club host, Ollie, got us going in the right direction for how to do Sydney in three days, and then Tomasi (who Mike had worked with in Wellington) showed us the beach scene. We were a little disappointed (and more than a little relieved) to realize that despite having all the world's most poisonous creatures in one country, and all the frightening tales to go with it, nothing scary has jumped out and bit us, or even rattled in the bushes, or spun any webs to ensnare us. It was even a bit anti-climatic not to be chased by hairy spiders or glistening snakes, but now that we are camping, it makes our runs out to the bush to pee in the middle of the night alot less spooky. But those fruit bats dangling and climbing the trees in the afternoon in Sydney's Botanic Gardens, that was eery. Everything in this country is huge: those bats had a meter wing span. Families were picnicing in the shade, and above them were creatures that looked like they could swoop down and carry off their children! We were only visiting the gardens to see cockatoos!
So, big full moon rise over the Sydney Opera House, kangaroo pie and crocodile pizza, lazy afternoons watching the surfers on the famous beaches, catching up with friends we had met in Europe, not a bad first impression of a new land! And then we were off in our own Priscilla, Queen of the Desert campervan! (though ours isn't nearly as shiny)
First stop was to go hiking in the Blue Mountains and to see limestone caves, and then we beelined it south to meet Anne, my mom's 1977 European Contiki tour backpacker friend who I was named after. We hadn't seen each other in 28 years, but I wondered if with my head shaved perhaps I don't look that different to our last visit when I was a week old. Her husband George was an Outback tour guide so he loaded us up with maps and camping guides and planned out our itinerary for us, and told us where to get cheap fuel, and made sure we were carrying enough water for our ambitious journey through the Outback. Good thing, because we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into! Anne toured us through their goldmining town of Bendigo, filled us up with good homecooking, took us to their local pub to have a game of pool with their son, Matthew (and for us to sneak photos of the cowboys leaning on the bar), and drove us around the countryside to spy our first live kangaroos. Up until then we had only seen kangaroos dead on the side of the road, which was quite startling, but since we have seen hundreds: lazing in the shade on golf courses, hopping across our path when we are hiking, little joeys with their heads reaching out of their mom's pouch to nibble at the grass, bounding across the road in front of us as we're hurtling down the highway! In the Outback you just don't drive after dark, or not at over 30 kms per hour at least.
They sent us on our way to Melbourne well fed and equipped, where we were taken on great urban tours with more friends we had met in Europe, and then the Real Adventure began. Mike's now expert left-side driving wound us past dozens of beaches and glorious coastal cliffs on the Great Ocean Road, and what was that dense little wad in that eucalyptus tree? Yes, a grumpy little ball of fur that barely had the energy to glare at us for the photo before dozing off back to sleep, our first koala, the cutest animal on the planet! You can just imagine our delight, and two more blinking at us through the bushes down the road. We didn't dare cuddle them with their gorgeous little padded noses and tree-climbing claws, but I'm still holding out for a koala sanctuary that has tamed at least one to receive our affection. Up from the coast we hiked through the Grampian Mountains, spying emus frantically hurtling through the bush, and kookaburras singing in the burnt gum trees. The bush fires are evident in so many places, as is the acute water shortage, and we hadn't even made it into the desert yet! An excellent Aboriginal Centre had a theatre which illustrated the Dreamtime Creation stories of the original inhabitants of the area, and we drove far too far on awful, dust-corrugated gravel roads past giant termite mounds to see ancient ochre cave paintings of handprints and emu tracks.
We burned straight through Adelaide, as we had a huge journey ahead of us still, and the next day there we were in the desert, the great Outback, a flat red expanse with grey scrub, no water, a hot glaring sun but a cold wind that nearly dropped down to 0 at night (it is winter), and a big road across a continent in front of us, traversed by trucks called "road trains" which pull three semi-trailers. For hours and hours, the last four days and the next seven. Sand, lots of space for Mike to perfect his boomerang throwing skills, flocks of meter tall eagles feasting on kangaroo roadkill, once the sun beats through the cold wind the flies begin bouncing off our eyeballs, bleached bones, we've seen one dingo. We spent the first night in Coober Pedy, the opal mining town where 50% of the inhabitants live in homes dug underground, and the next day we arrived to see the sunset on Uluru, Ayer's Rock. We were glad that we organized to go on an aboriginal tour of The Rock: two guides walked us through their sacred area, and in their language (with an interpreter) told us the creation stories of Uluru, illustrating them with pictures drawn in the dust. Mike got to learn to throw a spear, and how to make bush glue and start a fire. Hopefully we won't have to resort to digging for witchetty grubs or honey ants on this journey though. Mmmm, bushtucker.
This afternoon we hauled our rattly campervan through the desert to find three meteorite craters, and had a dusty camel ride on Pebbles and Benji. We have yet to see any of the 100 000 wild camels wandering through the desert, set loose once motor vehicles replaced their necessity in the 1930's. Another week of desert dwelling for us, and we will have reached the ocean again at Cairns, for something completely different! Yay for scuba diving! Might be Teipei on July 1st when we get the precious combination of a fast internet connection and time and energy to update again!