Sydney to Alice Springs, Australia

Our next stop was Sydney, a big and busy city with towering skyscrapers crammed together and its world-famous harbour. We spent an enjoyable couple of days there doing the usual tourist sights: walking across the Harbour Bridge, the Rocks, the Opera House, the Botanical Gardens, art galleries and the bustling Paddy's market where we stocked up on cheap fruit and veg to keep us going in our self-catering hostels. We also met up with two of Jess's uni course mates, Ben and Ali, who are backpacking here for a whole year, lucky things! It was great to see them but a bit strange being thousands of miles from home, when they'd last seen each other at graduation. One of the highlights of Sydney was when we decided to have a daytrip out and took one of the local ferries to manly, the popular seaside town. The view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House from the ferry was brilliant, especially when we returned after nightfall and got to see the city lit up in all its glory. We made a day of it, having a picnic on the beach, a quick swim, and going to see Spiderman 3 at the cinema, something we'd been promising ourselves since we'd seen billboards for it in Kuala Lumpur!

One of the highlight for her so far, and something she'd been eagerly anticipating since planning this trip, Sara finally got her wishes granted and we went to the famous Bondi Beach to learn to surf. We stayed in a really friendly relaxed hostel close to the beach in this chilled-out town that is all about surfing. Each morning the crescent-shaped beach teems with dedicated surfers of all levels: old-timers perfecting their stunts, learners out with surf school instructors and little tykes with their miniature boards putting us wannabes to shame! We signed up for a lesson with one of the schools based there and had a really great time. They were really attentive and enthusiastic instructors and did a good job of teaching us what we were SUPPOSED to be doing - in reality, it's a bit harder to put into practise once you're in the water and everything's happening so quickly! Sara did really well though, and was standing on her board, surfing the waves by the end of the lesson. Jess needs a bit more practise and is looking forward to having another go when we get to Noosa on the Queensland coast.

Leaving New South Wales, we got an overnight Greyhound coach to Melbourne. It's a lovely little city full of cute little alleyways and quaint side-streets lined with coffee shops and patisseries that always have a lot of customers; lots of fashionable high-street shops and department stores; interesting architecture and art galleries, museums and things to do; and the fantastic Queen Victoria Market where you can buy anything from simple fruit and veg to gourmet delicatessen ingredients, handmade sweets, souvenirs and even work boots and hardhats. It short, it's a very 'liveable' city and we loved it, despite the cold - the temperature of 19°C was a bit of a shock after tropical SE Asia, and we quickly learnt to wear a lot of layers! The locals were all bundles up in winter coats and scarves, something you never see in Neighbours (filmed near Melbourne) where winter apparently doesn't exist? we had a great couple of days riding the free old-fashioned trams around the city's sights, laid on especially for tourists, and soaking up the atmosphere.

Now for a change of pace and a totally new experience - we went out to Colac (of Neighbours fame) to go to stay with Nola's father on his cattle farm at nearby Warrion. What and experience! We had the time of our lives, being shown around the area by Nola's family, doing a spot of baking and making Mr Richens's favourite rock cakes for him, getting the chance to milk a cow, feeding calves and helping to roll out huge bales of hay for the cattle in the mornings over the weekend. For us it was a novelty and all good fun, but we could see how it becomes hard work, even aided by a tractor, when it's something you have to do early in the morning every weekend, week in, week out, come rain or shine. One evening Mr Richens took us down to the Town Hall for the 'church tea', held every couple of months, so we got to experience local community life - there's a really close-knot and friendly community spirit at Warrion and everyone was very welcoming to us. We spent the day with Nola's brother Bryan and his wife Glenys driving along the stunningly scenic Great Ocean Road and taking in the breathtaking rock formations such as the Twelve Apostles and the dramatic wave-pounded cliffs. It was great day out, spending time with people who made us feel like part of the family, picnicking, admiring the views and koala-spotting. A really memorable part of trip so far.

We know we keep saying this, but it was really hard to leave, and we had to reluctantly drag ourselves away from the farm for our next part of the trip - we loved it there so much, and we could easily have stayed indefinitely, helping out on the farm. It just makes it harder when people are so kind and welcoming to us! But we had to move on and see other parts of this huge country. We said a sad goodbye to Bryan, Glenys and little Kade when they dropped us off at Ballarat station and we got onto the coach to Adelaide, our next stop on our ay to the 'Red Centre'. It was a flying visit, only spending the day there in between coaches, so it was hard to get a feel for the place but we did see a really interesting Aboriginal cultural exhibit at the museum and a few other things. We left that night for Coober Pedy, the 'opal capital of the world', a small opal mining town in the middle of outback Australia. An interesting thing about this tiny place is that most of the homes are underground, 'dugouts' hewn out of the rock. Even the hostel we stayed at had its dorm beds underground, which made it quite cosy and the cave-like rooms noticeably warmer than the crisp, cold night above ground. There wasn't much to do in this eerily-quiet town where we half expected to see tumbleweed blowing down the street, but we did a little historical walking tour, visited the many opal shops there and just enjoyed being there for the novelty of staying underground.

Another early start, something we're becoming accustomed to, and we left Coober Pedy excited at the prospect of getting to Alice Springs and going to see Uluru. Our driver on this trip was great, a really friendly jolly bloke who made it fun and interesting with his informative commentary and chat along the way. He was really helpful and when we went to have a chat with he was able to offer advice on the best way to get to see Uluru and Kata Tjuta on a budget, confirming a scheme that we'd been turning over in our minds beforehand. As soon as we got to Alice Springs we made the necessary arrangements and the following morning we got the Greyhound express service (driven by Dean, our friendly driver from Coober Pedy) to Ayers Rock Resort, just outside the National Park. We pitched our tent at the well-equipped campground and then caught a shuttle bus out to the famous landmark. Seeing Uluru lived up to all our expectations and more. The rock is more than just that, and has a real presence, with amazing colours and textures close up. We walked the 9 km circuit around the base and then went to the viewing spot to witness the sunset. It was truly magical experience, seeing the rock seem to glow from within and the full moon rising from behind it, and it must have been quite romantic for the people sitting having picnics and drinking wine before such a well-known, stunning view. The following morning (having survived the freezing cold night in our tent) we saw the same moon behind us a s we watched the sun rise next to Uluru, a quick viewing stop on our way to another famous landmark, Kata Tjuta. We did the 'Valley of the Winds' walk, taking in the amazing vivid red rock formations, the breath-taking views and even stumbling across some rock wallabies. We figured out why the walk was done so early in the morning - not to beat the crowds as the shuttle company claimed but to avoid the swarms of irritating little flies that plague the outback and that were only just waking up as we neared the end of our walk! The whole thing, seeing Uluru and Kata Tjuta and camping under the starts was brilliant experience.

That afternoon we travelled the 5-hour return trip to Alice Springs on a real high from our Red Centre experience. The terrain we travelled through was really beautiful, so red and scrubby, dusty and deserted with just one long straight road running through it. Travelling on the Greyhound coach in this outback area is completely different to what we've experienced elsewhere in Australia. Where else would we have to slow down for kangaroos, open fences on the dingo-proof fence, make deliveries of fresh bread to roadhouses along the highway so that they can make sandwiches for the lunchtime 'rush', and deliver all manner of freight at various stops along the way? On the way up from Coober Pedy we had made a few stops to pick up or deliver mail to the make-shift oil drum post-boxes on the side of the road. These were the only signs of life, with their red flags to show mail waiting, along with the dusty tracks leading off the straight Stuart Highway. No houses or buildings along the road, just the solitary post-box; little houses or cattle stations must be over the red horizon. We love it how these Greyhound services are more than just passenger carriers in the outback, but provide a link to the outside world for some small isolated communities.

Back in Alice Springs we were free to spend a couple of days getting to know the place. It really is a small town, pretty much bang slap in the centre of Australia. The land surrounding it is quite rocky and scrubby, and when we went for a walk we felt like we were on the set of a Western film, half-expecting to see the Lone Ranger and cowboys on the horizon! There are patches of green and clumps of trees everywhere, but it really is a dry country - the Todd River running past the town is in fact a bone-dry riverbed with a road running across it. Even the air is extremely dry and we noticed being thirstier than usual, our skin drying out and lips chapping, and had problems with crazy static hair! We enjoyed relaxing at our hostel after so many early mornings and nights spent travelling, making use of the rare luxury of a pool at the hostel, and visiting a funky and bustling Sunday market in the town's main mall.

Right night we're at Tennant Creek, another quiet mining town as we wait for the late-night coach to Townsville and the Queensland coast. We arrived here in the middle of the night and basically camped out in a quiet corner of the service station where we were dropped off, even having a shower there in the morning! We have left our backpacks in the stockroom under the supervision of the kind lady in the service station shop, and have literally the whole day to kill as we wait for our connecting coach, one of only three services to pass through town. After such a whirlwind, hectically busy couple of weeks perhaps we could do with an enforced quiet, slow day?