Well I feel like I have neglected the old blog once again, but to be honest I have been in the middle of the outback where there is usually only one phone per town let alone any internet access.

I have been away with Sarah on the 8 day groovy grape tour from Adelaide to Alice Springs and had a really awesome time. I actually love the outback- strangely.

The first few days the trip focused on getting us from Adelaide to Coober Pedy following the old Ghan Railway Line which was designed to transport goods from Adelaide to Alice during the early days. It was quite interesting but people are not exadurating when they say the outback is the middle of nowhere. We travelled pretty much for two days straight and only stopped occasionally at a few small townships which run the length of the old ghan railway. We did learn a lot about the old rail line though, and I really enjoyed just watching the scenery change. It is funny though how you can drive for 700km and then just randomly come across a sculpture park/ old train/ telegraph pole in the middle of nowhere. I think my favourite place that we stopped on the first few days was in the small town of Williams Creek- population 5.

This town literally consists of the William Creek hotel and camp sight and a small air field. The hotel is fab- imagine a coyote ugly style outback bar covered in memorabilia that bikers have left over the years and you are there. That night was my first camping experience in the outback which was actually really nice.We had a huge fire which, and nice leek and potato soup to keep us warm, and believe me we needed it.I think that night the temperature must have been about zero, and even with my 5 layers and woolly hat it was cold. But the stars were amazing and totally worth it. Oh I also need to give a mention to Talc Alfs house which is a tin shed style house that is so iconic that it's the only house to feature on a map of Australia. Alf is a sculptor and his stuff is really good,he is obviously a bit of an outback legend but unfortunately he wasn't there when we arrived.

The next day we were up at stupid o clock to head on to Coober Pedy - the underground town.Basically the source of most of the worlds opal. Most people who live in Coober Pedy live in dugouts which back into the mountains it's really cool. Apparently lots of these houses are mansions with pools and ten bedrooms however mysteriously none of the locals ever find opals when they are doing "renovations" on there homes - yeah right. We stayed in the underground backpackers which stays at a constant temperature of 23 degrees all year round and was a nice change from the sub zero temperatures of the night before. Coober Pedy itself is another (slightly bigger) outback town with locals to match. It hasthe usual supermarket, hotel, bar and also hasmillions of opal shops. And the opals are so beautiful, and the jewellery is stunning. You can get some really small opal jewellery quite cheap. However after doing the opal mine tour and learning about how beautiful good quality opal could be and seeing the Jewellery they had in their shop the other shops faded into insignificance. We also visited Terry's Kangaroo sanctuary there and got to cuddle baby kangaroos which was nice.

The next day we set off for the Uluru. We stayed that night and the next in Ulara, which is the resort about 30km from Ayers rock. It is more like a mini city with post office, hotel, camp ground, supermarket, bank etc and its where most visitors to the Red Centre will stay. We of course were camping again. Sarah and I managed the first night to sleep out in the swag to watch the stars however when we woke up to find ice on our sleeping bag and a temp of -4 or so degrees we decided to opt for the bus on the second night. The thing is when you sleep in your swag you need to keep you head covered anyway to keep out the cold or you will never sleep, so we decided to stay out watching the stars and playing games until everyone went to sleep and then actually sleep on the bus… and believe me a lot of other people wished they had done the same. We saw both sunrise and sunset at Uluru and did the base walk around the rock. Fortunately the actual rock climb was closed when we were there so we didn't have to go through the whole moral debate about whether or not to climb. I have to say though after seeing the sunrise at the rock in the morning and learning about why the aboriginals ask you not to climb the rock I don't think I would have done it anyway. The colours of the rock are beautiful, I cant actually describe them so I wont bother, but when we were there even though it only lasted a few minutes it made me smile lots and you realise that all the driving and cold mornings and lack of tea makes it worth while. The second morning we were up too early again and all set off to the Olgas another rock formation nearby. The plan was to do a 7km walk to try and defrost ourselves after another freezing night however Sarah's ankles began to play up just half an hour or so into the hike so we both didn't complete the walk. It was ok though because we still got to just sit and enjoy the nice views whilst sheltering from the bitterly cold wind.

That evening we stayed in Kings Creek Cattle station - ( which insidetily is where I hope to work soon). It is about 40 km from Kings Canyon and is a cattle ranch with camping, log cabins and other activities including camel rides and quad bikes. Its really awesome and we had such a good night. It was the last official night of the groovy grape tour so we all stayed up pretty late singing songs around the campfire with marshmallows and goon ( sounds corny ) but it was really nice and to top it off I saw a shooting star ( I think) . That night was bloody freezing, even on the bus. You know its been a cool night when you wake up and muscles are aching from shivering so much- believe me we were not happy campers the next morning even thought Trevor the guide made us all hot chocolate to coax us out of bed. However we did all make it onto the bus on time for out 6am departure. We headed to Kings Canyon which for me was the highlight of the trip. The tenkm walk up heartbrake hill and around the canyon was amazing, i took loads of pics but they wont do it justice. I am definetly getting into the whole hiking thing, and if I do end up going to work up on Kings Creek I will certainly be going back.

That afternoon we drove for about 6 hours to get to Alice Springs, we didn't get much chance to look around Alice which was a shame because I think there is quite a lot of aboirignal culture there and you can do lots of things like learn the digeredoo/ take aboriginal art classes. We stayed at Annies Backpackers which was where the groovy grapers all came for a $5.00 evening goodbye dinner. It was areally nice evening, some of the gang managed to make it to the legendary Bo jangles bar but a lot of us were just warn out and so opted for a warm bed.

So that was a pretty rushed summary of my trip to the outback. I haven't really stressed how vast it is, and you cant really appreciate it until you have sat on a bus on a dirt road for 800km each day, but when you get to see things like ayers rock, shooting stars and kings canyon it makes it so worth while. I am so glad that I decided to make the effort and see it, its something totally different and I cant believe that
most people who come to Australia don't bother. I will write about the other things Sarah and I got up to, but I really need to be more productive and look for a job first.

Love to all
xxx