From: Bexxoliver@hotmail.com

Sent: 12 July 2004

Subject: Email 7, Australia 2nd Update

Hi Everyone

Australia continued…

Our first journey through the outback was during the evening and took us 4 hours, our destination Port Augusta. We arrived at 22.15 on 2nd July! We only had a day here as we had arranged the night bus for the following night for 23.00!

Port Augusta was not the most exciting places to visit but we used it as an opportunity to break up our journey to the Red Center. We spent the day exploring this quiet town and that’s no joke it was dead! The highlight for us, although not a very exciting one was a climb up the lookout tower for a 360 degree view during sunset of the town!

On 3rd July we set off Port Augusta for a 300-mile journey taking us almost 5 hours to a small town called Coober Pedy. After very little sleep we arrived in Coober Pedy at 04.45, however we were lucky as Tony, our hostel owner let us check in early to catch up on sleep. Our hostel was dug out 6 meters below the ground; most of the buildings are built this way. Coober Pedy is the Opal capital of the world, it’s also a very dry place, and summer temperatures rise to over 40 degrees! To solve this inferno, buildings are buried underground by making use of old dugout opal mines! Building below helps maintain inside temperatures of 22 deg – 28 degrees year round.

Andrew took part in a 4-hour tour in Coober Pedy and learnt a lot about this opal-mining town. During the tour Andrew took part in noodling, a term used for trying to find opal miners have missed! Andrew found a tiny fragment of opal right at the last minute!

Coober Pedy is also famous for films made her, some examples of the many films are: -

• Mad Max
• Pitch Black
• Kangaroo Jack
• Mars The Red Planet

On 5th July we made a 9-hour journey to Alice Springs in the early hours. We used this as an opportunity to sleep some of the way to Alice Springs. During this early part of the journey we hit 2 kangaroo’s, which woke everyone up on the bus. Andrew woke up in time to see the 2nd kangaroo bounce off the windscreen. It must have been a big impact as the kangaroo ripped a spotlight off the bus!

We spent a couple of days in Alice Springs before our 3-day tour of the Red Center; this tour was to cover Ayres Rock, The Olgas & Kings Canyon.

We started our 3-day tour on the 7th July. Over our 3 days we covered over 800miles. Below is a brief description of our 3 days: -

DAY 1

On our way to Ayres Rock we passed a mountain called Mt Conner. This mountain looks similar to Ayres Rock from the distance. Our bus driver could have tricked us into believing it was Ayres Rock. The driver explained that a lot of people, who drive out to see Ayres Rock drive right up to Mt Conner, take photos and return home thinking they have been to Ayres Rock!

We arrived at Uluru, Aboriginal mane for Ayres Rock. We both decided to take part in the challenging 348 metre steep climb of the rock. The climb took 100% of our concentration. Once we reached the top the views were amazing and very rewarding.

We made our way to the Ayres Rock sunset viewing point and raced to find a good place amongst the hundreds of other travelers. As the sun went down we watched the rock change different shades of red, it was magical.

DAY 2

Today we went to Kata Tjura, Aboriginal name for The Olgas. We set out early and were the first tour bus to arrive just before sunrise. We walked 7.5kms around some of the 37 dome shaped rocks. During our walk around these walks we passed a Walleroo, part of the Kangaroo family jump past us. We also saw a few colourful birds including a couple of ring necked parrots.

DAY 3

Another early start, today we went to Watarraka National Park to start a 6km walk called the Canyon Rim Walk. The walk trails the rim of Kings Canyon and this was one of the most interesting walks of the 3.

At the end of our 3-day tour we returned back to Alice Springs. Andrew planned a surprise for Kathryn; it was a hot air balloon flight above the outback in Alice Springs. We had to get up at the crack of dawn for a spectacular 30 min balloon ride. We even saw a Kangaroo speeding around the bush, weaving around the trees and bushes. Part of our flight involved preparing the balloon for take off, a chance to chase the balloon, packing the balloon and pre prepared breakfast in the bush including Champagne.

See: - www.outbackballooning.com.au

Some of the other activities we took part in Alice Springs was: -

• We went to Desert Park to see some wildlife and learn about the Aboriginal lifestyle in the bush.
• We both took part in a sunset camel ride.
• We walked about 20km around Alice Springs.
• We walked up Anzac Hill to see 360-degree view of the town and MacDonnell Ranges.

We leave Alice Springs on 12th July to make our way to Townsville. We will cover about 1200 miles in about 26 hours all in one journey. Townsville is located on the east coast just below Cairns where we will head to start our journey down the east coast back to Sydney over the next 2 months.

We will email you on our progress down the East Coast!

Bye for now

Love
Andrew & Kathryn
xx