OK so it was down to me and John to start the long journey from Darwin to Melbourne and we left it with the windows down and the sun beating down. We did not have much of a plan - just follow the one long road down the middle. We had our camping gear, a couple of i-pods and lots of food and water. First up we stopped at Litchfeild National Park - another great place with water falls and gorges, but we did not stay that long because we'd seen quite a few of those already, so we headed off and just drove. The first main place we stopped at was 'The Devil's Marbles' and we stopped off there to climb on the non-climbing signs and a few token photos. To be honest, there was not much to do along the way and the real destination was Alice Springs, so we headed for there. Along the way, we camped at a site that was famous for being the UFO capital of Australia and there were lots of strange people there! Although we did not see any aliens, they did have a shrine for King Kong there (outback people). So we headed for Alice Springs and the big rock. We got to the town of Alice Springs and there was not a lot there - mainly just a town to book tours from, but we went and got all our supplies for Uluru. Unfortunately that night the car got broken in to while we were out and they stole an ipod and the whiskey. At least it was not too much, but we were happy to leave. From Alice Springs to Uluru is about 350 kms and again we had some bad luck - about half way we broke down!! We were at the side of the road for about 2 hours in the middle of nowhere, so we had to leave the car and hitch hike to the nearest road house. Luckily we got picked up by a tour bus and they took us back - even giving us some food! The nearest garage was a long way away in Uluru, but we managed to get a tow! It was an 800 dollar tow and because it was a Friday, they would not be able to work on the car till the Monday. We got left at a campsite with all of our stuff, so it was a bit cramped in the tent. The campsite was OK though and we stayed there till Wednesday because the part for the car had to be flown in (another 1500 dollars for the car to be fixed) but we had a good time there. We became locals at the pub and met a few people and got taken out to Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon by some Aussie girls we met who felt sorry for us and our tales of woe! So we got to see everything and the rock was pretty spectacular but we were happy to get going again! The next stop on the map was Cober Pedy, an opal mining town with nothing there. It's famous for being where 'Mad Max' was filmed and because it's so hot there, everyone lives underground! So we got to stay in an underground hostel, which was pretty mad, but the tour of the town was not all that great - basically they use it for end-of-the-world type films for a reason - because it is just nothing! From there it was on to Melbourne.We were a bit short of time and money due to the break down and just wanted to get to civilisation! So we short tracked it plus we'd already been down the Ocean Road twice already, so it was just a few days in a few local type towns before we finally managed to reach our destination.....Melbourne.Anyway, I've now been here a few months and been to the Melbourne Cup, the England Australia rugby league world cup game, had my birthday, Christmas, went to the Australia v South Africa boxing day cricket at the MCG with 80 thousand people and now off to Melbourne v Sydney at the soccer tonight!