Wednesday 12th June

We have left the opal mine fields behind us now and the terrain has become more interesting. It has felt like we have been steadily climbing and have reached an elevation of 434 metres above sea level. We have had the occasional sprinkle of rain and it's still overcast and 16' outside.

We saw a sign saying cuppa and cake for $4 at Cagney Homestead and called in there for morning tea at 10.20am. The young lady behind the counter was very hospitable. Headed off again and pulled off for lunch at 12.25pm. Glenn took some photos of a Dingo scavenging on the edge of the parking area, Roger kept whistling to him to get him to look at the camera. It was decided that we would stop about 40km this side of the NT border.

We passed a guy on one of those lay back trikes, he's got guts as the only indication your just about on top of him is a little orange flag about a metre and a half high.

We pulled into the rest area called Marrijat Creek Rest Area about 1.45pm. After putting on the kettle for a cuppa and arranging the chairs outside, Roger came over and asked me to get out another cup for another biker, a young French girl, Valarie Martin. Turns out she is cycling on her own from Adelaide to Darwin. She left on the 20th May and hopes to reach Darwin by mid-August. She has managed to take in Woomera, Coober Pedy, the Painted Desert and the Breakaways. Within half an hour the trike guy arrived and rode straight up to us. As we did the introductions and said that Valarie was a fellow biker he said, "Are you on your own with a trailer behind you?" she said yes and he gave her a big hug telling her she was a "Legend". Mike said he had heard stories about her, some saying she was a he and visa versa. He was very pleased to meet her and they exchanged some stories of their journey so far. I got Mike a cuppa and a cream biscuit, he was very pleased. We soon had the fire going and a number of other people had pulled up by this stage and we invited them over to share the fire and their stories.

We went back to our vans to prepare for dinner and I gave Valerie some pieces of my pork and a bowl of salad to go with her cous cous. We offered her Glenn's laptop so that she could send a message home to her folks and promised to forward it on when we got reception.

Both Valarie and Mike excused themselves about 9.00pm and headed off to bed. The dingoes were just outside of our camp howling and Valarie had given us her food supply for safe keeping during the night.

Thursday 13th June

The following morning we shared a cuppa with Valarie and I packed up some cream biscuits in snaplock bags and a couple of mini Mars Bars as she loves chocolate. Mike had let before we got up so he missed out. After exchanging Blogs and photos we said our good byes and saw Valerie on her way. What a remarkable young woman, her parents should be very proud of her.

We set off about 9.10am and found Valarie about 13km's down the road. We slowed to take a photo of her and she was taking one of us too. We all waved madly as the distance increased between us. We got a good photo of her on her bike so will attach a copy to her email to her parents. We caught up with Mike a further 10km down the road and got a good shot on his bike too. This we will forward to his wife and family in New Zealand.

We crossed the border from South Australia into the Northern Territory at 9.40am, even the GPS showed it on the display. We stopped to take photos even staging the Prado and Caravan so that the Prado straddled the NT side of the border and the caravan was on the SA side of the border. The countryside has changed already with lots of rocky outcrops. It feels like we are steadily climbing with the elevation now at 511" above sea level, 14' outside with just a few wispy clouds. We have now travelled over 3484km since leaving Perth and still have another 1770km to go to Darwin. The area seems to have had some good rain as everything is lush and green. I have managed to get a good photo of some eagles feeding again.

At 11.00am we pulled into Erldunda to fuel up before taking the drive into Uluru. 194.0, $166.18 and 85.66L. I followed a young policewoman into the toilets but didn't realise she had followed a prisoner in ahead of me, oh dear. Saw the poor woman being put back into the paddy wagon as I came out again. Lunch was at the second of six rest areas on the way into Yulara. It over 200kms there and back to the highway and there were lots and lots of vehicles coming and going. We past Mt Connor on our right, lots of people think this is their first sight if Uluru but instead it's another huge rock formation on the way to Yulara. We pulled up at a spot just 25km from Yulara. We nearly missed it as it just looked like a bitumen pull off but we noticed a track leading off over the dune. On the other side was a beautiful flat plain with trees for shelter. We quickly unpacked and headed out to drive up the nearest hill and low and behold Ayers Rock (Uluru) was directly in front of us, some 40km away. When we got back to camp 100yards away was a dingo wandering towards us. Roger got some great photos of him. Chris provided a Turkey roast and me Death by Chocolate for dessert. I also prepared a Brie and Asparagus Tart and Chris a toss salad in preparation for the sunset evening at the rock, before another instalment of our favourite show.

Bye for now Virginia and Glenn