http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2465631&id=61410081&l=31e17a88b6 link for the photos

Hello from boiling hot Darwin! Predicted temperatures of over 30 degrees all week and minimum at night of 20! So nice and warm then. I only have a day and a half in Darwin before picking up the campervan to explore Kakadu National Park. Today Tim and I will just have a look around the city before going for a swim at this Wave Pool then tomorrow is the Darwin Beer Can Regatta! I really wanted to see this but thought it had already happened so my luck is in. Its quite self-explanatory - boats made out of beer cans race. I'm warming up in case they need some damage repairs done!

I will now go back to the beginning. I left Adelaide on Monday 26 July for my ten day Outback adventure. We got as far a a lovely place called Port Germain when the van conked out (something to do with the timing belt for anyone that is interested). The van in question was a Toyota Landcruiser "Troopy" - 3 sit in the front and everyone else sits on two benches in the back. Lets just say they need a bit more padding on those benches! So our first day was cut short as they couldn't replace the part and we had to wait for a replacement to drive the five hours from Adelaide. Luckily Port Germain is home to Australia's longest jetty and . . . . that's it. It has a caravan park where we ended up staying, a shop which was too bizarre to even begin to describe (think skeletons sold next to cheese graters) and a pub. A few of us went to the pub in the evening whilst the rest of the group slept (boring). The pub was great craic as the Irish would say - full of some interesting local characters. The landlord gave us a few free drinks and some crisps. We were told how everyone just drives home drunk as there is one policeman and he is usually drunk anyway.

The next day we headed to the Flinders Ranges and camped out in the bush. We were in swags - no tent. They are bags that a sleeping bag goes into and it was actually quite warm even though that night was pretty cold. On a side note most of the group had brought thermals where as me and Tim had our pyjamas. They also all had walking boats where as we had trainers! (You didn't need walking boats though - I think they just wanted to look professional!). The next morning we headed off to spot Rock Wallabies which are very rare but lots of them live in this one spot in the Ranges, and we had a good drive down Barichna Gorge. We travelled onto Maree, home of the Lake Eyre Yacht Club. Lake Eyre is a special lake as it is normally dry but occasionally floods. This is where it all began to get interesting. We had heard whispers that there had been an unusual amount of rain and roads were getting closed etc . . everywhere we wanted to go had been flooded. We were trapped in Maree!!!! To be continued. . .

Frantic calls were made between (tour guide) Rick and head office who wanted him to turn around and go back the way we had come! Unsurprisingly we weren't impressed with this suggestion and neither was Rick. He explained that South Australia tend to panic when there is any rain and close all the 4WD tracks straight away - mainly because they get lots of "Grey Nomads" (retirees who sell there houses and travel around Oz with a caravan) and part time 4-wheel-drivers who, in his words "don't have a clue what they are doing". Head office were panicking that we would get stuck in the middle of nowhere if we carried on. Rick came up with a suggestion - we camp in Maree for the night then wait and see what happened the next day with the weather. We agreed this was the best plan. So we set up camp in the garden of the Yacht Club (much to the amusement of the locals). This enabled another visit to a pub - perhaps even more interesting than the first! There were a load of blokes in there who were doing a drive back to Queensland via the notorious Birdsville Track - three motorbikes then 6 more people in two support vehicles. They do a similar trip every year. They were completely stuck as the Track was impassable! They were friendly if merry. By far the scariest character we met was the (we think) escaped convict who kept repeating that "you can't be found" and "they will never catch me".

The next day we woke to blue skies (well it was actually still dark but you get the idea). Luckily for us the big electronic board declared the road to Cooper Pedy open! All other roads were closed still and likely to remain that way as they were totally flooded and this is meant to be the dry season! This meant we were going to miss out a chunk of the itinerary - Hot Springs, Simpson Desert etc. Nevermind. So off we headed along a dirt road to Cooper Pedy, home of Opal Mining. No sign of rain - hmmmmm.

Cooper Pedy is interesting - you can get a permit to mine for $55, peg out a section of land and start digging! Lots of people live in underground homes as the rock keeps them cool in summer and warm in winter. We stayed in one of these houses. The next morning we had a tour of an old mine and learnt about the history of the town which was pretty interesting. We then visited a kangaroo sanctuary and fed some Roos. Now we were setting off again - unfortunatley straight up the Stuart Highway as the roads were closed. We spent the night in Kulgera - or "Kaaaaaalgra" which is the local pronounciation and became a bit of a tour group catchphrase! When we pulled up to the service station and we were told we were staying here my first thoughts were not exactly positive. However Rick then drove us about ten minutes down a dirt road away from the highway to perhaps the best bush camping spot we stayed in. It was stunning scenery and there were kangaroos bouncing around everywhere. You could see so many stars in the sky it was unbelievable.

Before I forget a note on the food - pretty impressive!! I am not very good at cooking anyway nevermind on a fire but we had great meals. I suppose it helps that the trailer that carried our bags etc was equipped with pretty myuch everything you would need. Breakfast was usually just cereal / toast and lunh was sandwiched and leftovers but dinners were really good. Although there were lots of complaints that things were too spicy! We had curry on the last night with poppadoms!

Back to the trip - we set off the next morning for the big one Uluru (if you are politically correct) / Ayers Rock (if you are not). The plan was to get there with plenty of time for a look around the bottom of it and then get to our spot to watch the sunset. Another long day of highway driving. The Rock is about 250km off the main Stuart Highway so you see signs marking the turn off to Yulara (the resort where everyone has to stay) and you think you are near...but you aren't! Along the drive there were suddenly gasps of "I can see it", "is that it?", "there's Uluru!!!!!". Rick let this go one for a while before informing us it wasn't. What we were actually seeing was Uluru's less famous little brother - commonly known to tour guides as Fooluru! Eventually we did glimpse it althought the road builders were either very clever or the earth is clever as you don't get a good view until you are actually in the National Park. As I'm sure you all imagine it is a very impressive sight - it is huge and when you are up close there are lots of caves and crevices in the surface and apparently waterfalls run down parts of it during the wet. I did not climb it - I would like to say for cultural reasons but the climb was actually closed due to high winds. And there was no way I would have done it anyway!! Far too steep. Rick gave us a tour around the base and told us some stories about it and Aboriginal stories. However, "white fellas" aren't allowed to know most of the Aboriginal stories which, to be honest, is pretty frustrating. I don't really know how they expect their culture to survive if the kids aren't interested and they don't want to tell anyone about it! Anyway, that's all I will say on that matter!

So agter a short walk around the base we headed off to the "Sunset Viewing Area". I was a bit disappointed with this in all honestly. I was expecting tour bus carnage but it was even worse than I expected and the amount of dirty looks we got off the people on their AAPT day tours, sippy their champagne and eating canapes as we drank Four X and ate crackers and dips, was frankly disturbing. Plus they seem to have located the viewing area in the wrong place as you are looking at Uluru as the sun sets behind your back. I know this is so you can see the colours of the rock changing but that only lasts about five minutes! Then you are just looking at a dark red rock while, on our night at least, a spectacular sunset occurs. If you look at my photos you will see what I mean. Incredible. Almost as incredible was the speed with which the tour buses depart - I found it pretty funny. Sun down, on bus, out. Thats it - no hanging around! We headed to the campsite at Yulara which was just a campsite so nothing much to say about that! Although it was slightly amusing that they had started to rpepare the ground for some serious tree planting in one portion of our campsite (which is meant to be just used for groups like ours) meaning that there really wasn't much room for our swags and you had to be very careful of not falling down a tree hole!

The next morning we headed to Kata Tjutu / The Olgas for sunrise. Which was ok. Then we had a walk around and through the landform which was nice apart from it being freezing to start with then getting really hot then cold then hot. The section in the middle is called Valley of the Winds and I can see why! Once my knees were shot to pieces we piled back in the van back to Uluru but a different section and a walk on our own while Rick prepared lunch. There was a nice pool by the side of Uluru and the rock had naturally formed what looked like an amazing slide! But not only was it a bit cold I don't think it would have been culturally sensitive to go down it!

We then set off to our camp for the night near Kings Canyon. This looked like a nice buch campsite until we started spotting dingo footprints everywhere. I made sure I had a few drinks so I did not hear or see any in the night thankfully! Rick suggested we went for a walk up this cliff thing but absolutely no one could be bothered. So we didn't.

Another morning another walk this time around Kings Canyon. This walk begins brutally with a climb up what is basically a sheer cliff face. I was slightly concerned about this given my dodgy knees and my fears were not calmed but the sight of walkers seemingly collapsed on rocks the whole way up. As were we! I was also slightly concerned by a woman attempting to climb up it after recently having a heart bypass!!!! I am not making this up. Rick suggested maybe she shouldn't go any further but apparently she did. Madness. Within the Canyon is an area called Garden of Eden - a natural pool which would have been lovely for a dip if it had been a little bit warmer. The next places we stopped at weren't on the official tour and we only went to them as we had spare time. We were heading to Palm Valley in the Finke Gorge National Park. The 18km 4WD only road to the Valley is normally closed as it is usually flooded by the Finke River. We camped the night at the campsite then the next morning unhooked the trailer to make the way to do a walk which was nice. The Palm trees are very rare and it is like a little oasis in the middle of the desert. I should mention that the road between Kings Canyon and here is called Larapinta Drive and you have to have a permit to drive along it as it goes through Aboriginal land. It is meant to be 4WD only but we saw a few "normal" cars being driven along - explains all the burnt out cars you see in the outback!

We then headed for Chambers Pillar another area which is normally unaccesable. We stopped at an Aboriginal community called Hermannsberg which was set up by German Lutherans in the 1890s. We went to the shop to get supplies and I was loitering around when saw a chest freezer so I thought oooo maybe they have some ice cream. I opened up the lid. No ice cream. Just bags of ice and . . . . kangaroo tails!!!!!! Just chopped off the kangaroo with fur and everything still there, wrapped in cling film and $6. So we bought one. Although the Dutch girl and the French woman weren't too clear on what we were buying and got a bit of a shock when they saw it - lets just say a box of apples went flying. Back to the drive and this was quite excting as the road was awful and probably not helped by the fact it was getting darker and darker as we went along with still no end in site!

We eventually made it to the campsite but it was pitch black so we couldn't see the pillar. We had dinner and were enjoying our last night. Perfect time for the kangaroo tail! I don't think Delia Smith gives instructions for cooking kangaroo tail so here you go - place the tail in the flames of a fire, scrape off the fur (we used a stick for authenticness), keep going for ages until everyone is nearly ill from the smell of burning hair. Get a big knife and jack the tail into two. Wrap one in tin foil and put in the fire coals. Chuck the other one in unwrapped. Get out of the fire and eat. Delicious!

After this amazing experience we went to bed ready to see the pillar in the morning - it was quite funny waking up and looking around as it was about 50m away from where we slept! We had a walk around and up it in the morning before setting off on the drive back to Alice Springs and the end of our Outcak Adventure. Dinner with the group in the evening signalled the end.

Tune in next time to read about The Ghan, Darwin, Kakadu and Lichfield!

P.S. Thank you for the messages - B&B I had forgotten all about the glow worms but it has all come back to me now!