Hello everyone!!

Ok we have survived our OUTBACK experience and had met loads of lovely people and had lots of fun! It took us 15 days to travel down the middle of Australia which involved a variety of accommodations, early starts, lots of walking and some very dull long days sat on a bus getting a numb bum!!!
We first went on a 2 day trip to Kakadu National park were we visited a aboriginal centre in the middle of know where!! The way the introduce you onto there land is by getting some water from the billabong and taking a sip placing there hand on your head like a funnel and spitting it onto your head!! (it was horrid and as gross as it sounds!! Yuk yuk yuk!)
We learnt to prepare the ‘Jim jim” fan fern for weaving! The woven bags in some of my picture take them 5 months to make!! CRAZY!!! We also learnt to spear throw and play the didgery doo! We then went to Urbi creek and look at some Aboriginal stone painting! the story behind the images are bizarre but really interesting! It was so so hot in Kakadu we were melting!
We had an early start and went to Jim Jim falls were we went swimming at own risk because of crocodiles!! Then we went to Twin falls which took a very bumpy ride and then a boat trip followed by a rocky walk! We then headed back to Darwin, but it took longer than planned as the driver ran out of fuel! Still don’t know how he miss judged it so badly!!
On our way from Darwin to Alice springs our first stop was Edith falls a beautiful hiddle away water fall then we visited Katherine Gorge where we went Canoeing down the gorge me and Dale in a double was very amusing as we could not get the rhythm right!! The weather was so hot we could not wait for our swim at the other end!! We camped just outside Katherine at a permanent campsite and spent the evening next to a camp fire with marshmallows!!
Katherine to Tennant Creek – we had another early start after and extremely cold night we headed south to Mataranka were we went for a swim in a thermal pool! Which was ace as it warmed us up but getting out again was not so much fun!! The weather just turned cold from here down! It was a shock to the system!! After the swim we went to Daly waters the territory’s oldest pub for lunch then we visited Oz’s oldest airport which was used in the second world war! We camped at Tennant Creek at an outback station!
We moved on to the Devil marbles which are incredible ( according to scientists the marbles are rounded remains of molten lava eroded over time! They are called devils because when farmers brought their sheep through the area they all died as there is are poisoned plant around that they ate. And then crossed the tropic of Capricorn and headed in to Alice springs!
From Alice springs we had a 5 o’clock start. ( I am getting used to these now) we had a long dive to Kings Canyon , we did a long walk up and around the canyon . then we moved on to stay in Yulara which is a village made to close to Uluru for tourists! We had a camp fire and slept in a swag which is a a mixture between a waterproof sleeping bag and a bed!! As we had been so cold we hired a sleeping bag and used ours inside of that and had legging, pj bottoms, a vest, t-shirt and a fleece on!! I was so toasty it was amazingly good night’s sleep shame we were up at 5 for a walk around the base of Uluru at sunrise! It was breath taking just really cold!! We then visited Kata tjuta ( Olgas) which are a striking group of domed rocks clustered together to creat a small valleys and gorges. We wnet back to Uluru for sunset! FANTASTIC!!
Had a stupid o’clock start today we had to leave camp at 4.30 in the morning to make our way to Cobber Pedy which is an opal mining town! On our way we crossed the boarded into southern Australia in Cobber pedy we went on a mining tour and had pizza for dinner! All the homes in Cobber pedy are built underground in the rock! As it gets so hot there they need to be!So our accommodation was underground it was bizarre.
Then we moved on to Quarn on the way we stopped at Lake Hart which is a salt lake but as they have had rain it was water logged fro the first time in 20 years! In Quarn we had a feral dinner of Kangaroo steak, camel sausages and Emu burgers! They were all yummy, Kangaroo is like yummy beef steak!
Today we went to Kanyaka homestead, learnt about the hardship of sheep farming in this area. Then we visited Arkoroo rock where we saw some rock art. Then we walked 4 km to explore Wilpena pound.
We hiked to the summit of dutchmans stern which gave us a 360 degree view of Quorn, flinders ranges and Spencer gulf. It was a 8.2 km hike UPWARDS!!! We arrived in Adelaide in the evening and went for Chinese with the group!
We had a free day to explore Adelaide today so we went shopping for walking shoes for me as my old ones had given me the biggest blisters ever and I had been ignoring the pain but it had got to the point I could not put the shoe on as it hurt so much! But I did find some beautiful new ones!! They are even lilac! Yes yes I own some lilac walking shoes! But they were the only color in the sale!! But I cant complain as they are so light and comfy! Then in the afternoon we visited the south Australia museum and the art gallery!
We set off on the next stage of our trip 3 days from Adelaide to Melbourne first stop was the Grampians National park where we hiked up hollow mountain then visited Mackenzie falls which was 265 steps town and 265 steps up!! A killer!! In the even we chilled out and played trivial pursuits – did you know hippos sweat is pink????
We then moved on to Princetown where there is a population of 12 people!! On our way we hiked to the pinnacles, which was a waste of time as by the time we got to the top the fog had come in and we could not see a thing and it took us 2 hours!! Then we travelled along the great ocean road to bay of islands and then sunset at the twelve Apostles.
On the last day we walked in a rainforest on the tree top Otway fly. Spotted Koalas at Lorne and got attacked by birds! The best part of the day was visiting the lighthouse where ‘Round the twist’ was filmed!! Then we headed to Melbourne via Torquay to look in cheap surf clothes shops!!
Now I am in Melbourne and here for a week our plan is to visit Ramsay street but had not managed to get that sorted yet!!

wow that jsut took me and age!!! but it feels goot to be up to date!!!

hope you are all well xxxxx