Hello.

Finnally the bus is over. 84 days after leaving London, 18 Countries and 37 people (27 finished) we have finished.

Since my last entry, we caught a flight from Kuala Lumpur down to Bali. We spent only one night and half a day in Bali, because ozbus decided, without really telling everyone to move the flight to Darwin forward a day early. Helpful. In Bali there was not much to do really in such little time, we were however morbid enough to go see where the nightclub bombings were.

After whinding up all the people who are scarred of flying on the plane we arrived in Darwin at 2am. We got ourselves to a hostel and slept in 100 degrees heat for a few hours before leaving at 7am. I caught the bus (first time in a month) and mike decided to rent a camping van and drive down the east coast instead with a few others for thre next few weeks. Whilst he made prgress down to Brisbane i drove through the heart of Australia and the great outback. We were now using a real bus operator who are used to driving around the country and who like to stop and look at things, quite the oppostie to the ozbus. The guy from "ozepreince", Rick, would do everything himself, driving, talking, cooking and even smiling, so it made for an easy 2 weeks.

After leaving Darwin we headed south for about 70km and then went on "The crocodile Cruise" where we sailed down the river and watched as wild crocodiles would swim upto the boat and wait for meat to be fed to them. The crew would hang meat from a string and hold if above the crocodile to persuade it to jump up and grab it, in the end this resulted in the boat commentator getting far to carried away, and instead of "pissing the croc off" it pissed everyone else off. However it was incredible to see them up so close and in their real habitat, rather than a zoo. After that we drove down the northern territory down through Katherine and Daly Waters. Camping at all places, either in a Swag (an outdoor sleeping bag/tent) or in tents.

During our drives we would stop every so often to go for a swim in a lake or go look at the Aboriginal art teachings, which were interesting to look at, but just as boring as sitting on the bus to listen about. For once on the trip we were actually doing what most people paid for, camping and experiencing the real outdoors. For some this wasnt the case, some even describe devils marbles as the "Sheffield of Austrlalia" and to be honest, Devils marbles proberly is too overrated for what it is, large round red boulders.

Next stop was the Canyon, we did a 3 hour walk around the top, as we reached the top of the canyon we were forced to make a quick descend due to heavy strom that flooded on us, it rained so heavily that the path back down turned into a waterfall. Finally we reached what everyone was looking forward to, Ayres Rock (or Uluru, if want to sound cultured) and to be honest, it wasnt as spectacular as it may seem in the pictures. We tried to watch the sunset over it, which proberly would of been beautiful, had it not been for the clouds (the weather was stormy for the entire part of middle Australia). A few of us did however go to the sunset point in the middle of the night and watch a storm in the distance, which was an experience, we were only up there for 15 mins tho as the strom made its way to our camp, and made for an interesting night camping. We set off at 4am.. the next morning so we could watch the sun rise over Ayres Rock, and we did catch it alongside the hundres of Japanesse toursits eating their packed breakfasts beside us. After the sun was up we took the 9km walk around the base of the rock, a few wanted to climb the rock, but the slope was shut due to the rain. After seeing Ayres rock, around 10 people had had enough of the outback and caught a flight down to Melbourne. i however this time decided to keep on trucking through to the end.

We then headed down to Cooper Peady, an Opal mining town, quite frankly, in my view the worst town in the world. Set in the middle of the desert with a population of 1000 (mostly drunk aborignals) who all live underground to hide from the heat. We also hid underground and stayed in a cave hotel, something different at least. We were shown the history and the exciting things in Cp by an excentric middle aged lesbian, it made for a long afternoon. However after leaving the town i will never return to again, we hit Adelaide, in Adelaide we got abck to doing normal,ie going to the cinema. However we didnt see much of the city, as per usual, we arrived in the evening and left in the morning.

After Adelaide we hit the great Ocean road and viewed the 12 apoceles (12 rock formations from where the cliff has worn away) it was good to be back on the coast, and finally the sun was shining again. In Melbourne, i went up the Eureka tower, 300metres above the city so i could see the whole of Melbounre in an instance. It did look an amzing city from that height, i would of liked to go the MCG(melbounre cricket ground), however i never made time for it, but it definately stood out from the rest 300m up.

Between Sydney and Melbounre we stopped off in the Mountains at Lake Jindabyne. There we had our final ozbus night together, and so an award ceremony was held 'Ozcars' it was an amusing night and had everyone in very good spirts again. The next day we headed of to Sydney, stopping in Canberra for an hour (only an hour becuase nobody cared for the war memorial or the parliment buildings).

...and finnally, we arrived in rainy sydney at 5pm. A few tears were shed by some with the goodbyes, even tho everyone was seeing each other that night and then on wednessday for somebodys birthday.

I have mixed views on the trip. It has been an amzing trip, and ive made good friends, but in part i feel the ozbus wasnt as the package said it should be, somebody describe it as going to the cinema and only seeing the trailers, which is true of most countries. 18 countries in 3 months, never enough time but i wouldnt want it to be any longer. Now i sit in Sydney with not much to do, hence the length of this blog.

Thanx for reading, its been a pain writing.

xx