Melbourne to the red centre.....

Today's the day we start our trip that ends in Ayers Rock in 13days. The four of us on the trip leave the hostel with our guide in the bus at 7:30am to begin our journey on the Great Ocean Road. The first port of call for is for breakfast at Bells beach, this is the beach is believed that the final scene of point break is filmed at, when Brodie goes into the 50 year swirl. Such a beautiful place and a very very popular sedum destination. We then drove past Split Point Lighthouse. Then we started on the Great Ocean Road for over 200kms of it. The Great Ocean Road is actually a war memorial. The Great Ocean Road is a fantastic drive, stunning beaches and surrounding areas. There are 3 sections, the surf section, the green section and the shipwreck section, this is where the 12 Apostles are, well only 8 remain now. I saw my first koalas in the wild at one of the stops which was great to see. We reach the 12 Apostles, the queue for the helicopter is massive, but Ivan and I thought sod it we will wait, best decision ever, it's was absolutely fantastic!!! Well worth the wait! The views of the coastline from the air was awesome as you will hopefully see from the pictures. I totally enjoyed it!

The next day we had another early start to finish the last section of the Great Ocean Road. The first stop being London bridge, the middle bits collapsed in 1990, until then you could walk to the end. Apparently the couple that were left stranded after it collapsed were not supposed to be there, they were both supposed to be in other parts of oz and were none too pleased to see the film crews waiting to film them being rescued. Very funny story ( I thought anyway haha). The sheerness of the coastline is incredible, like nothing I've seen before. It was great to see it from the air yesterday and today see it from the ground. After London bridge we visited the grotto, a large hole in the ground with a cave going out to sea, very pretty spot. From there we went to the bay of martyrs, here the aboriginals were forced to jump to the deaths by their white kidnappers - a horrendous story told to us by our tour guide. From here we headed to the Bay of Islands which is similar in formation to the 12 apostles but there are just more of them. Some rock formations are due to fall over soon as they are so worn away at the bottoms. The scenery and coastline was stunning, a very very beautiful part of the world.

We then headed to the Tower Hill game reserve, which is on the site of a volcano. Whilst we ate lunch there was a koala in the tree above us and 2 emus who insisted on trying to pinch my lunch! Persistent things they are, and pretty big too! After lunch we made our way to Halls Gap in the Grampians where we would be spending the night. On the way we stopped at Logans Beach to visit the whale nursery. The beach again was stunning, the sea abeautiful blue, with two lone surfers and big waves. And then out of nowhere I saw and spray of white water come out of the water! Eyes now totally fixed on the water, I the saw what looked to be a fin of a whale!!!! Very exciting! Our tour guide thought it might have been a shark jumping out of the water, but I'm sticking with whale! Whilst driving to the Grampians we see loads of smoke, there's planned burn going on, to reduce the amount of fuel that can make bush fires worse. As we drive through the part that's on fire we suddenly have 10 kangaroos jump across the road in front of us( you'll be pleased to know they made it across safely). Once we arrive at out hostel in Halls Gap we head straight out on our walk up to The Pinnicle. After climbing up steps, footpaths and rocks for 2.5k, we reach the top. I was (for once) lost for words again, the views were incredible! After this we headed back down and it was to be a traditional Aussie burger for dinner... Yum!

Another early start, 7:30am departure, we were so very nearly on time! It's not happened yet, and I'm not convinced it ever will happen! We depart halls gap for another lookout in the Grampians called Boroka lookout. Amazing views you gets from these places. The suns rays beaming down on the fields below, it is like what you see on tv documentaries. We then left for Reids lookout which looked out over dense forest, the ground being a sea of green. From here we went to the cultural centre to see a film about aboriginal people and creation. From here we started our journey to the seaside town of Robe. After a brief lunch stop at Wannon Falls which was lovely we were on our way with my playlist in the bus so I was happy! Not convinced anyone else was though. As we drive through Hamilton, sheep country we have beautiful rolling hills with huge mounts of old large tress - reminded me a bit of the English countryside. We drive through the wine region, beautiful autumnal colours in the vineyards, gorgeous reds and oranges. We arrive at Robe, dump our stuff and head off to walk round by the Obelisk, a beautiful walk but a touch windy. The colour of the sky a mix of shades of orange,pink and eventually turning to purple. And a rainbow even made an appearance. We are staying in a lovely little pub tonight, I had the most amazing prawns for dinner, and very shortly after a car hit a power line and the whole town had a power cut. So I sat at the bar with my kindle,a nice glass of red next to an open fire.....bliss

We left Robe at 7:30 am to start our journey to Adelaide where we pick up another three people, so the group has now become seven. We had breakfast at a place called the Ranges, another beautiful beach. We arrive in Adelaide just after lunch and head out to explore. I went off the Botanical Gardens which was great, such a huge range of plants, flowers and trees and a lovely glass house, then I bumped into Volker and Ivan. The gardens had an autumn feel about them, the trees leaves were red and orange, but it felt a bit weird as it was over 20 degrees, not a temperature I would associate with autumn colours. We left the gardens to explore The Northern Terrace and went to the museum which was very impressive, a mix of aboriginal history, Australian animals and artifacts from the pacific islands.

The next morning we left Adelaide to head to Wilpena Pound, we drove through 100s km of vast green farm lands, on the way to the wine tasting we had to help someone on the roadside change a tyre. Well I say we, our tour guide Stuart, we did haven't a clue! . We were on a single carriage way that went for miles.....continuous green fields either side of us and the southern flinders ranges in front of us. Just stunning! We arrived at our campsite in Wilpena Pound, tonight we will be sleeping in a swag. Basically a big canvas bag with a roll mat in the bottom. After dinner we lit a campfire had some marshmallows then went to bed. I had a surprisingly good night sleep, although did I freak out at one point, I thought I had a spider inside, on closer inspection once I had put my glasses on realised it's was a bit of fluff! Such a doughnut!!!! We also saw loads of stars, including the Milky Way and the Southern Cross.

This morning we got up had breakfast and then left for a 3hr walk to a lookout in Wilpenda Pound. Miles and miles of greenery with a mountain range surrounding the place in a circle - hence the name pound. After lunch we headed off to Beltana sheep station, the biggest sheep station in oz I think. On the way we went via Brachnia Gorge, some stunning scenery and we saw some yellow foot rock wallabies, I think my favourite so far of the kangaroo variety. The colours of the rock formations we saw were amazing. We also got our first taste of the outback and the flies. The road was dusty and bumpy, the land dusty/sandy, flat and with a bit of greenery that at times was a bluey grey. We had a brief stop at Parachinkia pub and then made our way to Beltana Station. Lovely lovely place, and I had my first full roast dinner since I left the UK. Oh my god I was in heaven! Best roast lamb ever!!! And we have a lie in tomorrow- we don't leave till 9am. A great day!

Today we left Beltana Station after saying bye to the puppies to make our way to William Creek, where we stay at the pub which is incredibly remote, I hate to use the words like in the middle of nowhere but the nearest town is hrs away. We had an incredibly bumpy ride through the outback. The earth is very reddy and orange, we stopped to view the old Gahn railway in a place where only 30 people live on the Beltana Station. The scenery and the colours are just amazing, I'll be honest I've been quite overwhelmed by the outback so far, what I'm seeing is just amazing and it just gets better each day...... After a quick toilet stop in Lyndhurst we went to see Talc Alf, a long bearded guy who talked us about the meaning of names and his views on the Australian flag and also showed some of the artwork he has produced, it was very good stone carvings. From here we headed to the Ochre quarry which is a site of significance to the aboriginal people. It is used for the painting, the colours were amazing hopefully you'll see from the pictures. Whilst travelling today we saw some Red kangaroos, emus and sheep. We stopped for lunch in Marree and were descended on by loads of flys!!! Flys are not my friend, bloody things, I've since bought an attractive fly net to go over my non existent hat - It's a great look! Marree is also the town where a scene from the 2nd inbetweeners films was filmed, they land a plane on the road we were on. This journey has taken us down the famous oodnadatta track. Along this track we also visited lake ayre. A salt lake that only fills every 25 yrs and take 8 months to fill with the floodwater from Queensland. The track we were on was 12m below sea level. We finally arrive at William Creek, where the is literally a pub, campsite and mobile accommodation and a mobile mast that still doesn't work, oh and a shed load of flies! Where's my electric fly swat!

At 7am the next morning Sarah, Craig and I went on a scenic flight over the worlds largest cattle station, Anna Creek, 124,000sq km. the views were like nothing I've ever seen before, I know I keep saying it, but it's true. It was avast areas of greens to begin with, the. This then changed to an array of reds and oranges, you can see where the rivers used to once snake there way through the land. A large black area of land has been called the jellyfish as it has what look like tentacles hanging down. We the headed to the painted hills, a small range of hill only discovered about 20 yrs ago by a pilot who got lost. I have been simply amazed at the vast size of the land and I just love the colours ( I will stop going on about that now). I love this country!

Today we leave William Creek and hopefully the flies for Coober Peddy, the opal capital of the world, a mining town previously and 200km of dusty bumpy road away with no toilet stops!! Estimated travel time anything from 3-5hrs.....hmmmmmm! We stop at the dingo fence which is a very very long fence, can't remember how long but think it's about 5000km long, to keep the dingos away from the sheep. We arrive at Coober Peddy and are staying in an underground hostel tonight which is pretty cool. We went on a tour of an old opal mine and saw an old underground house, which was pretty impressive, the house was really big and remains at a constant temperature of between 20 and 25 degrees. Temperatures in Coober Peddy can get up to 50 degrees during the summer which is why a large number of people live underground. After the tour and walk around the town we went to a kangaroo sanctuary and where able to feed some of the rescued kangaroos and also saw a Joey, which was really really sweet, his legs looked way too big for his body. That was the first baby kangaroo I have seen. We then went out for dinner and we had quite possibly the biggest pizza I have ever seen, this will feed us all for at least a couple of days!

On Thursday morning at 7am we started the long drive to Ayers Rock, luckily for us we were on a highway for most of it, a nice break from the dirt tracks we have been on for the last couple of days. We are camping again for the next couple of nights at a camp site just a bit away from Ayers Rock. Before leaving Cooper Peddy we witnessed a fantastic sunrise which was a lovely way to set us on the road. We arrive at Yulara where we will be camping in our swags again.

Up nice and early again, the first hike of the day, starting with the Valley of the Winds walk at Kata Tjuta. A 7km walk through a of bush then rocky terrain which was pretty tough in the heat. It's about 30 degrees out here at the moment which doesn't sound very hot, but when trekking up steep rocks it's really hard work. Thank god for my really attractive sun hat (last min purchase, after the fly net), sun cream, water and the all important new fashion accessory - the fly net! Best seven dollars I've spent! Kata Tjuta is very different to Uluru in both appearance and rock type, Kata Tjuta is about 30 different formations. We walked to a few different viewpoints to look at the different parts of KataTjuta before heading to the top lookout, very very steep hill to climb, but the view into the valley was amazing. This walk took a couple of hours, next stop the Uluru cultural centre.

Then onto the main event - Uluru! We were to walk around the rock, all 11kms worth at the hottest part of the day (to avoid all the other tour buses) which was apparently going to take just 2.5hrs.......hmmm, 30 degrees heat, could be interesting. We start at 1pm, it's soooooo bloody hot and we are already being attacked by flies again. Armed with cameras, more sunscreen, more water, hats and the all important fly nets we set off for the 2nd walk of the day.....I've been looking forward to this for the last few days. The first thing that struck me is that it wasn't sandy, and the second thing was the number of contours and caves that it had, and that it was a lot lot bigger than I'd imagined. I had always thought Uluru was simply oblong in shape and equal-ish depth at each end and middle, we discovered quickly this wasn't the case when we looked at the 'you are here' map and saw we had a lot further to go than first thought. I was totally amazed at the sheer size as we approached Uluru on foot. A beautiful sight. Some parts were in shadows of other parts of the rock and other part being lit up magnificently by the suns rays. After about an hr and a half I was beginning to struggle a bit in the heat, and it was only 30 degrees, sod doing this in the summer! They do close the walks when it's too hot - I can see why. The walk in total is roughly 11km, I have to admit I thought this will be a piece of cake, oh how wrong I was. I didn't envy the people that had decided to climb it, although, they do ask they that you don't actually climb it out of respect. We saw about 10 people start the climb. Much of Uluru are sensitive sites that hold high importance and significance to the aboriginal community so they request you do not photograph specific bits. It's really difficult to describe such an awesome and important place. The colours were astounding (sorry I'm going on about colours again!) and the various formations in the rock looked amazing, the waterhole was basking in the sun shining in, a magical place. The walk was hard work but I'm glad we finished it, a lot of the other groups opted for the mini walk.

Afterwards we headed back to the campsite and after the worlds quickest shower before he headed back out to see Uluru by sunset with champagne (well, sparking wine of some description). As the sun began to set the colours of Uluru began to change, from the red you see during the day through to a purple as the sun reaches the horizon. Stunning! The perfect way the end the days activities. Then it was time for food and beer! And to continue the England v Switzerland & Germany pool rivalry! We are currently losing, however that will be righted in Sydney if Craig and I can't beat Sarah and Ivan before the end of the trip!

Having watched the sunset at Uluru yesterday, we left the campsite at 6:30am, nearly without Ivan who was still asleep to got and see the sunrise. The sky was full of beautiful blues, yellows, oranges and pinks with Uluru a dark silhouette to the side. A great way to start the day...,,again :)

We departed Yulara and travelled for 3hrs to Kings Canyon for a 3.5hr hike. I think its getting hotter each day! We start our climb to the top of the Canyon, the first part consists of a very steeps steps which proved pretty tough going in the 30degree heat, not a cloud in the sky today, the sky a lovely constant blue. Having reached the top of the climb we start to explore the canyon. It's massive! The sandstone a rich orange colour, with fleks of black running through it and various cracks, gaps and all sorts of vegetation. The walk is very rocky, and the views into the valley just stunning at the top. We eventually arrive at eden garden for our lunch, the garden is situated at the bottom of the canyon, a lush garden of trees and flowers await us. There is also a lovely lake at the bottom which lookedvery inviting. Having had lunch we then have to relocate Ivan who got lost and ended up on the cliff above us. Volker was none too please as Ivan had his lunch, Volker was with us at the bottom! Half way through the walk now, we begin to make the second part of the walk, the scenery just gets better and better which hopefully the photos will show. Very hot, covered in flies, and a bit pink we head back to the campsite for our last night of camping in our swags and our final campfire. And then I started to suffer a bit from the sun and was really sick :( I've managed the whole time I've been away without suffering from the sun, just proves how strong the sun can still be in australia even in winter, which is now over here. We have a five hour trip to Alice Springs, for our final day of the trip.

The trip has been awesome, I now feel like I've really seen australia! And there's still so much I haven't seen. The outback has been incredible! And on the last night I did actually have a real spider in my swag.......and I'm still here so that's a result!!

Next stop sydney for winter shopping and reclaiming the pool title!

Next update will probably be from Rugby country if I'm updating this at my usual pace!

Over and out for now

Crocodile Wood xx