Sunday 18th May - Sunday 25th May 2008

So we set off from Port Wakefield Sunday 18th May starting the trek up to Alice Springs which is around 1500kms away. We made our way up to Port Augusta which is the main point where the highway then heads up through the centre towards Alice. However during the journey up Adam had a phone call from his mum about a relative that didnt live so far away in a place called Whyalla so we decided to head down there. It was a pretty good decision as we got free pizza and a quality cozy bed to crash on which was such a relief after so many sleep in a sleeping bag.

Monday morning came so we set off pretty early on. We had a long drive to go. During the day we headed up through Coober Peddy - an "underground town" which isnt actually that underground the houses and stuff are simply built back into the hills so it wasnt anything special so we continued driving on to the next stop which was Marla. We made pretty good progress today, plus we were only driving at 80k/hr so we could get the most out of the petrol.

On Tuesday morning as we set off out of Marla the oil warning level light came on so i had to ring roadside assistance to see which oil to put in and how much... it sounded pretty straightforwarded, but caused us a heap load of probs later on in the week...

We arrived at Ayers Rock before sunset, I floored it all the way there otherwise it would have been dark and I wasnt going to fanny around like when we were on the great ocean road. To get to Ayers rock you go down another route which is 250kms offcourse from Alice but it was definately worrth it. That night we camped outside the national park and got an early night as we wanted to get up early and see sunrise behind the rock.

On Wednesday we stayed within the National Park all day and walked around the rock. You have an option if you want to climb it but everyone warns against it as you dont get a harness or anything. Quite alot of people have died doing it so we thought against that! We also drove to a different rock called Kata Tjuta which is more impressive than Ayers Rock I thought its got more to it so that was cool to walk around. Ayers Rock itself thought is still bloody impressive, you think its just a big rock which it is but theres something about it, its cool! That night we headed back along the highway so we could jump on the road up to Alice. That night of driving was so scary though, the amount of Kangaroos on the road is unreal at night time its like a bloody obsticle course we nearly flattened at least three. You have to come to a complete stop they just stare at you, then ones that look like theyre gunna jump out of the way end up jumping the opposite way to they face so its a nightmare!! So we had to stop as it was way too dangerous to carry on, plus we were more or less out fo fuel so camped outside a petrol station.

Thursday morning and the sun rose, however the car wasnt rising to the occasion. There was smoke puffing good and proper out of the back of the exhaust and its like oh sh!t! So again I'm on the phone to roadside assistance to see what we should do, the recommend to let it run for 15mins as it may just be cold, so we did that but no joy so I rang back to the guys and they arranged for a tow truck to come and pick us up and take us up to the Wicked Camper Depot. It took them around 3 hours to head down which isnt so bad, so during that time i stuck my deck chair out and soaked in some raise, to the odd looks of some lorry drivers ha. So we got towed up there and the depot was just closing so they had a quick look and parked it outside so we could camp in it for the evening and then theyd take a proper look in the morning.

So we deciced to walk in to town and see what there was in Alice - alot of aboriginals and not alot of anything else. We headed to Annies Place which is a highly spoken of hostel up there - probs cuz its only one of two which are there. We went to the bar there and got chatting to a few people and ended up playing bingo hah but didnt win tut.

On Friday morning we sat in the garage all morning watching TV, the found out what was wrong with the van... when I filled up the oil i was only meant to fill it to the full line which should take around 4 litres max, however i decided to put the full 8 litre bottle in which I bought whoops. So there was the cause of our problem. The guy wasnt very happy as he said the tow truck only goes out for at least $1000 payment, so we cost them alot of money basically through me being dense but nevermind it didnt cost us anything so it doesnt matter :D

During the afternoon we did abit of shopping and watched the sunset over the town, then headed back to Annies place for the evening and met up with a guy from melbourne, girl from england and germany and an american guy so that was quite cool.

On Saturday we had spent enough time in Alice and it was time to move on! We did some souveneer shopping in the morning then started the long 2500kms on towards the coast. That day we drove past some impressive scenery, saw Devils Marbles which is a clump of more rocks but theyre cool! That evening we headed into a campsite and fried some more food. The amount of stars you could see tonight was immense there were so many it was great. The old people were rudely interupted though when i ended up causing my frying pan to catch fire along with the food inside it. They didnt look happy with my expleetives hah whoops. Overall today we drove 850kms so made good progress again.

On Sunday again we drove all day for 820kms, not far to the coast now...!