Our time in the South was rushed, cramming in a lot into a short space, much like this post in fact. Heading south from the Red Centre we covered many miles of nothingness. This was in fact the most barren section of the outback that we covered, with what limited vegetation there was standing less than knee high. Gradually as we approached Coober Pedy we were greeted by loads of random high piles of dirt and ancient looking mining machinery scattered about the place. Coober Pedy claims to be Australia’s Opal capital, but I was surprised to learn that there…

I never thought I’d see my name printed in the same paragraph as Steven Fry’s. I know my writing is improving (although my spelling and grammer isn’t) but this is an honor. 🙂 What am I on about? Just another free plug in the hyperlink tennis match that Alan and I seem to have going on at the moment, alan-wright.blogspot.com and while I’m at it another free emotion 😉

Before taking a good look at a detailed map of Australia I was under the impression that Alice Springs and Uluru (Ayres Rock) were very close to each other. I was surprised to learn that this big rock was actually 500 km away, but then I suppose that in Australian Outback terms that is actually just down the road. It was well worth the journey though and the lonely barren 500k just served to add to the feeling of how remote it really is (boo to all those who fly in). Despite the fact that it is just a big…

Leaving Kakadu we figured that we could just about manage the 1300km to Alice Springs in two days if we really pushed it. The reason? To make the Henley on Todd Regatta. It was a mission of a drive and although 1300km may not sound that much, I can tell you it is in a 27 year old car (with only four gears) when you cannot drive in the dark (the risk of hitting a Kangaroo or Wallaby is just too high). Sharing the driving we made it, but not before I made a nice modification to the front end…

We entered the Northern Territory shortly after leaving Mt Isa and continued our journey northwards towards what the Aussies call the “top end”. The weather changed by the day getting hotter and hotter until we hit Darwin, where it promptly rained on us. Despite the weather I have to say Darwin is a very nice little city and somewhere I could spend some time at. In fact, this is exactly what our travel companion, Guillaume, was planning on doing having found work within two days of being here. Darwin boasts an Asian style night market with loads of decent food,…

The Outback is another one of those words that Aussie’s words that means a lot to them but not much to anyone else (take billabong or dunny as other examples). As far as I could figure out, generally it means the part of Australia that is not on the coast and not built up, and for those familiar with the geography of Australia, that means that the outback covers quite a large area. Leaving behind the beautiful coast line north of Cairns within a day we found ourselves pretty much in the middle of nowhere although not before we sampled…

It’s been a while since I’ve had a good rant, and besides I know you prefer reading about me getting annoyed than about me having fun. While on the British Defender there was one slightly crazy German on board. She managed to annoy several people including the skipper with her ways. Somehow, and I’m still not sure how as I hardly even talked to her, she invited herself along in our van as she wanted to make her way up to Cairns via Mission Beach… exactly our plan. Espe’s attempt to put her off, “there is space in the van…