My Christmas Present to me!

, originally uploaded by ladyhedda.

Today we were up at the crack of dawn being fitted with crampons and issued ice axes. That's right, someone knowingly gave me an axe, and then they took me onto a glacier to climb massive walls of ice.

There's a certain knack to swinging those axes into the wall. It's a bit like a hammer swing, with a flick of the wrist, and then they grab the ice and you stab your toes into the wall and use the legs to push yourself up. It's hard work and a strange feeling standing on a near vertical wall of ice, on just your tippy toes.

Being on the glacier itself was fantastic (and bloody cold) - I am now ready to get warm, where are the hot springs when you really need them?

Our hut in the woods......

, originally uploaded by ladyhedda.

This is where we spent Christmas. It's a Dept of Conservation Hut, about 18kms from the road in the rain forest, by some hot pools... The walk up the valley is beautiful with many creeks and streams to cross - some by bolder hopping, others on wee flood bridges and some you just have to wade through, especially if there's been some rain.

And did we get rain? Of course we did. This part of New Zealand gets 5m of rain per year - that's 500cm (200 inches).... For comparison, London gets approx 58cm (22 inches) and Los Angeles gets a measly 38cm (15 inches). So if you go walking, hiking or tramping in New Zealand you stand a very good chance of soggy feet, most of the time!

The hot springs were a treat - the perfect temperature for bathing and with spectacular views of the mountains. We even got a fresh dusting of snow on the peaks - for our very own White Christmas!

Happy Christmas!

We're somewhere on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. There's no cell phone coverage, and there's a severe weather warning. We're experiencing a lot of rain!
On Xmas day (providing the rivers have fallen and the creeks are passable) we're planning a hike in the Copland Valley, with an overnight camp at Welcome Flat - by the hot pools.

I love New Zealand!

originally uploaded by ladyhedda.

I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed the Milford Track. It was beautiful, challenging and so much fun. The photo above is taken on top of the Mackinnon Pass, looking down the Clinton Canyon. The track follows the Clinton River in the base of the canyon, before climbing up over the pass and then descending on the other side.

A massive highlight of the track was the trip to Sutherland falls - the tallest waterfalls in New Zealand (580m). It's possible to get behind the falls, which is something that I would never have attempted on my own, as it's a little like standing in the eye of a cyclone... We crossed over a stream to the left of the falls and then hugged the rocks and scrambled in behind the water. At times I couldn't see shit, and the noise was so loud that even yelling was useless. Instead of returning the way we came it seemed like a good idea to keep on going and go all the way around. Unfortunately this meant we had to clamber back across a fast moving stream knee deep in freezing water.

Up up and away

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Michael is somewhere on the coast hiking with a very heavy back pack and his surfboard! He's carrying 7 days worth of food - which if you think about it is a lot of food, especially if you eat like he eats. He's also got a stove, his wetsuit, reef booties, fishing pole and some clean clothes. All of this is packed into a waterproof bag, because this is Fiordland, and it WILL rain on him. Today he will hike to his destination, which is a Department of Conservation hut on a beach, where there is a bunk and a wood stove. He'll then have 4 days to himself before hiking back around the headland, and starting the return journey. Unfortunately he won't be able to catch a plane out of there, so he's hoping to catch a ride up river before hiking the final 20+ kms out.
I have decided to take myself off to Queenstown for a couple of days - just to check it out. Today I'm hiking to the summit of Ben Lomond (1748m), the views are supposed to be amazing and the weather is good, so I'm packing a lunch and putting on my hiking shoes....

An early Xmas present

Today I'm dropping Michael off at the local airstrip. We managed to get him a seat on a 'back flight', the plane is going to pick up some trampers at the end of a hiking trail, and Michael will be hitching a ride out there for some quality surfing time. He'll have to walk back - but the backpack will be a good deal lighter by then!
I am headed off to Queenstown, and then to do some more tramping on the Milford Track. I managed to get myself a spot in the huts for next week (booked out 6 months in advance) - so Tuesday to Friday will be spent with my backpack tramping the 53kms to Milford. The walk is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the world....

Wet? Just a little

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We've just returned from an amazing kayak trip on Doubtful Sound. We decided we wanted to get away from all the cruise ships ploughing up and down, and find our own spot of tranquility on the water, so we opted to do an overnight trip with Fiordland Wilderness Experiences.
The trip was everything we had hoped, and more..... They really care about the environment, with one of their objectives being to put the environment before profit, which is something that is so important in an ecosystem as fragile as Fiordland.
We got up with the sun, dismantled our soggy tent and bundled our necessaries into a bag and headed off for our 6.30am pickup. The first part of the trip was a boat journey across Lake Manapouri to the West Arm. The journey took just under an hour and gave us time to appreciate the distance that we were travelling for the privilege of spending a night in the wilderness. After the boat we had a short ride over Wilmot Pass for our first sighting of a very grey and rainy Doubtful Sound. There were a total of 8 of us, including Adrien our guide and the only experienced sea kayaker among us!
We took some time to pack the boats - in go the tents, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, food, wine, cooking stuff and a change of clothes. The boats were fantastic sea kayaks, with dry storage areas for our gear and a rudder in the stern.
We'd been told that Fiordland 'comes alive' in the rain, yeah yeah yeah.... Well, it does! The volume of water descending over the land into the sound was incredible. The sounds are saltwater, but due to the immense quantities of rain that fall there is a freshwater layer of a few meters floating on top of the salt water. This freshwater layer is dark with tannins from the earth and prevents light from penetrating far into the saltwater layer. This makes the sounds unique as lots of deep water species live close to the surface - the majority of life is only 20m deep.
We saw penguins, and a playful fur seal who can only have been a year old. He was so friendly and curious - swimming on his back right next to the boat, ducking under us and popping out the other side. I could have reached out and touched him.
At night we slept in our tents beside a small river and listened to the calls of a male Kiwi. My own little slice of heaven.

They call it tramping down here

We've spent the last week in and around the fiords of Southern New Zealand. We were lucky enough to get out onto both Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound, as well as fitting in some hiking on the Kepler Track.
The Kepler Track is a 3 day 60km walk through beautiful forests, around a lake, up to alpine forests, along alpine ridge lines, down into a valley and back around through forests and lakes. There are hut accommodations along the route, so no need for us to carry our tent (thank the lord), and also no need to carry the stove... We did have to carry our sleeping bags, food, clothing, water and any other luxuries we would need. Chocolate for me.
The weather was absolutely beautiful and on the day we climbed Mount Luxmore (1472m) there was not a cloud in the sky and we had panoramic views over the Fiordland National Park. The walking itself ranges from easy tramping through the forests, to some tricky descents along the ridge line, my calves have had a good workout! On the 3rd day we were chased out of the forest by swarms of sandflies (a NZ native that I could do without ever meeting again!)
Hopefully I'll find a computer that I can hook up the camera to, and then I'll be able to show you some photos.

They move fast when they want to!

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This guy gave me quite a fright! We were walking along the beach, looking for a nice spot to sit and eat our lunch, when we came across this rather large Hooker Sea Lion.
He was quite happy to pose for some photos, even managing to look quite cute and cuddly. Then, he decided that he'd had enough of us, (either that, or he wanted some of my lunch).
Time to get out of there....

Just hangin out

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Holy crap. I can't believe how lucky we were to hang out with these fellas! Having gone to Oamaru to see penguins, we headed south to Dunedin for some surf and some more wildlife spotting.
We drove out to find some waves, and Michael got to surf with a seal while the penguins watched from the rocks! It was amazing to be able to see the penguins playing in the waves, I behaved and kept my distance despite the urge to kidnap a penguin and bring him back to the tent with me.
I also considered joining this guy in a nap.

Now we're off to buy some crackers

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We're back out at the coast in Oamaru, where there are penguins and a cheese factory. The penguins are cute, and the cheese is REALLY REALLY good!
Oamaru is a cute town. Due to some particularly good local limestone/sandstone (?) a lot of the older buildings have survived and there is a lovely pocket of town that is stuck in Victorian times! I bought 3 books from a secondhand book store and when I left they had been wrapped in brown paper and tied with string.
There are two penguin colony's. The Yellow Eyed Penguin, and the Blue Penguin. We set off to see the Yellow guys first, not because we prefer yellow, but because they hang out on the beach earlier than the Blue guys...
At about 7.30pm we squeezed ourselves into the hide, where we were hiding not only from penguins but also from the rain... The Yellow Eyed Penguins we're hanging out on the bluff, considering their options. They were pretty far away, and all I could make out were these little white bellies against the green and yellow of the cliffs!
At 8.30pm we made our way to the Blue Penguins... Much like the Fairy Penguins in Australia, these guys come ashore at dusk in gangs called rafts, then they make a run for their burrows, watched by a bunch of oooing and aaahing penguin toursits!
After the penguins we escaped the rain by climbing inside our tent.

It really is that blue

We left Methven and the comforts of Gary's place and headed straight along the 'Inland Scenic Route' to Mount Cook. The Southern Alps rise out of nowhere. One minute you're driving through rolling hills dotted with sheep and then bingo, there are the mountains. The lakes are beautiful blue, something to do with the minerals.....
We pulled into town, pitched the tent, and headed out on a walk to Kea lookout. The sky was blue and the mountain was impressive!
One thing that quickly becomes obvious here in New Zealand is the need for good weather forecasting. It's also the first topic of conversation every day, and the first thing that complete strangers will mention to you....
At Mount Cook we timed it perfectly - the day before was gray and rainy, the day of our visit was blue and beautiful, the morning we left was gray and rainy...

How we roll

Uploaded by ladyhedda.

This is our accommodation for our NZ travels. Not quite as glamorous as traveling in Henry the Van, but it's home for the next few weeks.
Our old faithful tent, which I have been carting around in my backpack (Michael has the surfboards, so I get the tent) is finally being used on a regular basis. It's quick to put up, and even quicker to take down. As of today we've managed to avoid doing either in the rain, but I can guarantee that that won't last as we head through Southland and Fiordland - where the Roaring 40s make the weather about as changeable as is can be.

Our wheels

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Check it out, check it out... We've been in NZ for 24 hours and we already have a set of wheels - that's gotta be a record!
She's a '94 Subaru - the surfboards fit, and we can even sleep inside her if necessary!
Oh yeah, and that house in the photo, it's our digs here on the South Island for a few days. We're living it up all fancy here in NZ. (ok, ok it's a loaner from a family friend - Thanks Gary!)

We've crossed the Tasman Sea

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We finally got our stuff packed up and vacated Karen's spare room for the last time and headed to the airport to get on our flight to New Zealand. We'd collected so much extra crap during our Australian adventure that we were a little concerned about the excess baggage charges that a surfboard bag containing 4 surfboards could incur. We love Air New Zealand, they didn't charge us a cent!
I did check in a full 20kg (44lbs) backpack, which is pretty dang heavy, but I am carrying around a tent, 3 season sleeping bag, sleep mat and assorted other camping bits and pieces....
We landed at Christchurch Airport at 11.30pm, and made our way through immigration and onto customs. New Zealand has some strict laws regarding gear, and we had to declare all of our camping and hiking equipment including hiking boots. They are protecting the natural environment and want to keep foreign bugs out. Our tent was given the once over, including a vacuum and our hiking boots inspected for any nastys... Once given the all clear it was 1am so we picked our corner along with plenty of others and bedded down for the night. I got a pretty good sleep, once they dimmed the lights!

Australia. The best of

1. Kakadu National Park. Even the hellish mosquitoes couldn't distract us from the amazing aboriginal rock art, stunning wetlands and scary wildlife.


2. Uluru, Kata Juta and Watarrka. All bang smack in the middle, all worth the long drive, all unique. I especially loved dining at Uluru as the sun came up, we enjoyed it so much that we came back for lunch!


3. The Northern Territory. Driving from Darwin through the middle is one of my highlights of this trip. If you come to Australia, you MUST visit the Northern Territory.


4. Eating amazing seafood and tasting delicious wines in South Australia. Michael bought his own oyster shucking knife, and within minutes was a professional. The Adelaide market was our favorite for cheese, sausage and snacks!


5. Wilson's Promontory. We packed the tent and some sleeping bags and spent the night at Refuge Cove alone. Wilson's Promontory is the most Southerly point on mainland Australia.


6. Old Friends / New Friends. I wish I could post pictures of everyone.... A real highlight of the trip has been catching up with old friends, meeting new ones and having a blast. Special mentions go out to Brad, Linda, Amelie and Imogen (above) for putting us up on the Gold Coast. Toby in Sydney. Ildiko, Romain and Kalia at Bondi. Nicky for sharing a trip in the van. And the amazing Kazza who not only let us stay, but fed us too...


7. Henry the Van. I loved every minute of our van camping travels. What more can I say...


8. The wildlife. We saw: Crocodiles (scary), Koalas (cute), Penguins (funny), Kangaroos, Wallaby, Emus, Wombats, loads of beautiful birds and more. We were harassed by mosquitoes and flies. I will be happy to forget the flies.

Delicious

Uploaded by m_hagen.

These here oysters are the most amazing oysters I have ever tasted, and we've tasted a lot of oysters on this trip. There were the Coffin Bay oysters, the Streaky Bay oysters, the Sydney Rock oysters and many more... But these guys are the top of the pile when it comes to oysters.
They're the Cloudy Bay oyster. They come all the way from the Southernmost point of Tasmania, where nothing separates them from the pure waters of the antarctic.... All that clear antarctic water makes for an oyster so tasty, that you just want to have another, and another, and another....


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He's on a new journey...

Henry has a new family. We watched him drive off towards the beach at Bondi today on the begining of a new adventure.
I was sad.

So sad so sad

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We spent our last few nights in the van as we headed South towards Sydney and a comfy bed at Kazza's place.
This photo was taken at the Treachery camp in the Myall Lakes National Park. The beach is beautiful, and the whole place is special.
I'm really sad to be selling the van - which we start advertising on Monday. Henry's been a fantastic companion on our travels in Australia he's kept us dry in torrential rain, kept us safe from mammoth hail storms, kept the mosquitoes and other tropical nasties at bay and most importantly has kept on going for kilometres and kilometres. I'll check the odometer, but I think we've covered 13,000km - or 8080 miles.

Membership is booming

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We took our time as we headed North stopping off at assorted beaches and National Parks along the way. I loved Myall Lakes and Yuragir in particular.
Finally we crossed into Queensland where we headed straight to Brad & Linda's house on the Gold Coast. We spent a fantastic 10 days hanging out with them, and the girls - Amelie and Imogen, who are the two newest members of the Michael fan club. They join Margot who, at 4 is the oldest member of the club and still refers to Michael as the Monkey Face Man, because he taught her how to pull a monkey face.
Fortunately Michael didn't feel inclined to teach Amelie and Imogen the same tricks!

A Tiger

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This is a 'Tiger'... It is:

Gravy

Mushy Peas

Mashed Potatoes

Meat Pie

Delicious

A burger with 'the lot'

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This is a burger. A burger with 'the lot'.

From the top down:

Chilli & Garlic Sauce, Fried Egg, Cheese, Bacon, Fried Onions, Pineapple (yes pineapple), Burger, Beetroot (yes beetroot), Tomato, Carrot, Lettuce

Did I forget anything?

Beachin' it

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We've been travelling up the East Coast from Sydney towards the Gold Coast, slowly but surely making progress... The last few days have been spent at the beautiful Angourie Bay. The beach is spectacular, the water clear and I am still amazed at how few people there are! I guess if you consider the population of California was 36.5 million in 2006, and the population of Southern California makes up for about 24 million of those people - all living within striking distance of the beach! The population of Australia is just over 21 million, in the whole of the country..... No wonder the beaches are a little less busy here.

Is it raining?

Last night we were up at 3am pushing the van 10 feet forward out of the range of a sprinkler!
Now a gentle sprinkle would have been appreciated, as the lil white van is in dire need of a wash, but this sprinkler was not a gentle sprinkler.
I was woken up by the sputter and tell tail sounds of sprinklers starting up, which was swiftly followed by a power hose type blast in through the window and onto my pillow. Wet, but laughing, we jumped out, released the handbrake and pushed until we were out of range.

California

We're thinking of everyone in California..... Michael's Aunt & Uncle have been evacuated, as have other friends & family. Fortunately everyone is safe and well.

The Blue Mountains

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We packed up the van, made Toby leave work early, and headed out of Sydney for the weekend. The Blue Mountains are just inland, and an easy 2 hour drive for our lil white van. We pulled into Katoomba in the dark, and I jumped out of the van with the tent, table and chairs to set up camp. Michael and Toby headed into town to grab some beer and maybe a little something to eat.
We were woken by the sounds of an early morning cricket game - 'four'. We were camped in between two cricket pitches. That's the problem when you set up camp in the dark, you never know where you'll be in the morning....

Seeing the sights

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So far we've been in Sydney for three days, and done not a whole lot... We'd been on a roll for the whole trip, so it feels good to stop in one place for a while. And if that place is Sydney, where there is lots to do and see, then who am I to complain...
The Opera House and Harbour Bridge are those sights that are so familiar because you've seen them a million times in print or on the telly, so I wasn't really expecting to be 'wowed', but Sydney has possibly one of the most beautiful locations of any city I have ever visited.
So far I have taken a ferry to Watsons Bay and eaten my Fish n Chips, wandered The Rocks and lazed away hours in the Botanical Gardens.
Tomorrow some window shopping....

A bed, at last...

Last night was our first night in a bed in oh, let's say forever. We've been in Australia for 7 weeks and have camped every single night - that's 49 nights to be precise, either in a tent, or in our van.
We pulled into Sydney at 7pm, and headed straight for Toby's flat, where we had a painful few moments getting the van into the underground parking space (we have about 5cm of clearance from the air conditioning duct!) but finally we're sleeping in a room with a roof and four walls and a bed. With pillows.

Roadkill

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We're well into Wombat territory now and the little buggers are 'napping' at the side of the road on a frequent basis, we've seen two already this morning. Our roadkill viewed tally so far:

1 Horse
2 Camels
8 Cows
5 Wombats
Numerous Kangaroos/Wallabies

The majority of the larger mammals were in the Northern Territory, where they begin to look like deflated pieces of carpet littering the side of the road.
The rule seems to be if you hit it, take a shovel and chuck it on the side of the road.
We, thankfully, are only responsible for multiple moth carnage......

A hike on Wilson's Promontory

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Should we pack the surfboards?

We're down in Wilson's Promontory heading out for some overnight hiking.....

Our Current Home

The Koalas the Koalas

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No-one can resist a Koala. Especially not me. They're fuzzy, they're slow, they sleep 20 hours a day and they have tufty ears.
We've been on Phillip Island - Michael for the surf, and me for the animals.
There is a Koala sanctuary on the island where they have built treetop walkways allowing you to get up close to the fuzzy little buggers and watch them while they do not much. A Koalas life is spent sleeping and eating, which sounds pretty fantastic if you ask me!

We also saw the Little Penguins. They spend days sometimes weeks at sea feeding and swimming around, then at sunset they form a 'raft' with some buddies and float in to shore with the waves. Once on the shore they gang together and face off against the seagulls, who are generally nasty. The penguins make a run for it, crossing the beach towards their burrows, ready for a nights sleep!

The 13th member

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We've been down on the very South Coast of Victoria - and we're now driving the 'Great Ocean Road' on our way to Melbourne.
Now call me hard to please, but I don't know if I'd say it's better than the California coast in Big Sur.... But it is a beautiful drive.
The West side of the coast is much more rugged, and you can feel the power of the brutal Southern Ocean. It's here that the 12 Apostles are being battered by the waves. We visited in the afternoon, at the same time as the tour buses from Melbourne pulled in - so we decided to come back the next morning.
The morning was grey and stormy, and we drove through hail (HAIL) to get to the Apostles. Sitting in the van, we made coffee and had some breakfast. 15 minutes later the sky was blue and we had the 12 Apostles to ourselves, with a little wind to keep us on our toes....

He's outside in the tent

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We've had lots of questions about our lovely little white van. Do we have a bed? Can we cook? Where do the surfboards live, on the roof?
Surfboards on the roof? You must be kidding. The surfboards get the bed, of course. Why would it be otherwise?
Our van has a two burner stove with a grill, a small fridge with enough room for beer and milk, and a bed - with a quilt and pillows. There's storage under the bed for an assortment of fishing & camping supplies plus our backpacks, and see that thing over the bed, it's our closet. Clothes and towels live up there!
The van has two tanks one for petrol, and one for gas (liquid gas) so we can travel over 800 kms (that's 500 miles) without having to fill up at some crazy roadhouse in the middle of nowhere charging a million dollars for fuel.
We have covered 7500 km so far (4600 miles), with another 3000 km to go (2000 miles)..... Next stop Sydney.

The scale of things

I really hadn't appreciated quite how big this country is until we started driving across it! We started in Darwin (somewhere up there in Norway), headed through Alice Springs (Germany and more), down to the little peninsular in the middle at the bottom (just over Italy's boot heel), then up and around to Adelaide (Greece) and now we're down in Melbourne, which is just off the coast of Turkey.

Birthday Boy

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This is a little belated...... Michael celebrated his birthday on October 4th with perfect waves at Winkipop. Yes, they really call a surf break Winkipop. Whatever.
He got cakes for desert and see that hat, that hat is alpaca and I knitted it myself. Check out all those cable twists and everything.....

Practical cycling gear

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I have been really happy with my wardrobe for the majority of this trip. Especially when I consider the different activities that we have done, I have managed on a really limited supply of clothes.
Clothes for climbing a volcano = same clothes for walking around Melbourne.
However it was the Clare Valley cycling that finally stumped me. I don't have any lycra in my wardrobe (for good reason), and cycling calls for lycra, and lots of it....
I was the only person on the trail in a dress. It may not be practical, but it sure was cute.

Overheard today at the beach.....

"fair dinkum mate"

Australiana

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It's a rocking horse, and it's the biggest in the world - of course.

Australians like things big. Really big. Almost every little town that we drive through has some LARGE tourist attraction that we really must stop and visit. We've seen the GIANT CLAM, the large Koala and some kind of cockatoo, a massive miner (?) - who finds it necessary to stop and take a photo of an over sized miner. Not me. I gave that one a miss - which I am of course regretting now. Hmmm.

Not the ones in Scotland

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We just spend a couple of days in the Grampians National Park. The weather has been really brutal, with severe weather warnings in effect. We've had gale force winds and more rain than Seattle.
Rain and winds of 100 kph (65 mph) do not make for good camping. They make for wet camping, which is not always fun, at least not all the time. But the van has kept us dry and warm, there's just not that much room inside with the doors closed with Michael and the surfboards.
In between rain storms we were able to get out and about and do some walking. We made it to the Mackenzie Falls, and I amazed myself by standing on top of the Pinnacle overlooking the valley in howling winds!

At the cellar door

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The Clare Valley is known for it's really delicious Rieslings. There are an abundance of small great wineries in a relatively small area, so who are we to pass up this fine opportunity to learn a little about riesling.

There is a bike trail that leads from Auburn to Clare covering a distance of 25km (ish) each way, and a couple of additional loops that you can choose that include more of the areas cellar doors. The trail is called The Riesling Trail (inspired huh?), and we grabbed some bikes, donned our go faster bike helmets and hit the trail.

We started in Clare, from where we headed South to the Sevenhill Winery. Sevenhill is the oldest winery in the Clare Valley, it was established by Jesuit priests - to make their communion wine when supplies from Europe had run out.
Lunch was eaten at the Skillogalee winery - where we ate rack of lamb with a 2004 Shiraz. After there we merrily peddled on our way to Jenneret, Mitchell and finally Penna Lane where the winemaker gave us his open bottle of reserve shiraz to have with our dinner.
The whole day was amazing. We were on the trail cycling and tasting for over 7 hours. My legs are sore, but I'm happy.

Did I mention the flies?

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Because if I have not mentioned the incredibly annoying flies, I would be remiss in my duties.
The flies here are the most annoying flies ever experienced. And they are really dumb. Really really dumb. I open the window of the van, so that they can buzz off. Do they? No. They'd rather hitch a ride with us and buzz in my face for hours. Arrrrrgh.

Lunch anyone?

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The Eyre Peninsular is known for it's seafood. Fresh delicious and straight off the boat seafood.
We have eaten Coffin Bay Oysters, Streaky Bay Oysters, Smokey Bay Oysters and some other kind of oyster whose name I don't remember.
We've been buying them closed, and Michael has become a master shucker (that's shucker with an s)....

After coming through the hot dry middle we're now on the other side of the continent.
We drove through Port August and Port Lincoln to the Coffin Bay National Park, where there is real wildlife, not in cages, hopping and slithering and running in front of me.
Last night, when we pulled into the park it was dark, so I jumped out of the van with a mag light to search for a good level spot to park up for the night. I rounded a bush and came face to face with a MASSIVE kangaroo. I'm telling you I don't know who was more shocked, me or it. It was less than 5 feet away from me (that's human feet not kangaroo feet) eating supper. Now, I wanted to eat my supper too, but not so badly as to interrupt a kangaroo. So, I made my apologies and hopped back to the van, suggesting that we find another spot. Pronto.

Don't step back...

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We're in Cober Pedy - the Opal mining capital of the world. It's a trip here - 80% of the population live underground in dug out homes. Some of them are old mines, and some of them have just been dug out for the fun of it.
The above ground landscape is almost like a moonscape. Not that I've ever been to the moon, but it's what I imagine the moon could look like if people had been digging for opals all over it's surface.
Not being that interested in gemstones myself I avoided all the millions of opal stores in town and headed for the underground bookstore and underground church.
I also took a tour of a mine and tried my hand at divining. What can I say. I'm a natural.

Hop hop hop

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I've been having hours of fun perfecting my wallaby impression.

We're in South Australia now, having driven 3400 kilometres through the Northern Territory, to Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Next up the coast for some surf and then onto the Clare Valley and Barossa Valley for wine wine and more wine.

Persistent would be an understatement

Hedda gettin back at the flies....
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It all started in Kakadu National Park - up in the 'top end'. We were camping at the Merle campground and as the sun set the mosquitoes started to emerge. Holy shit, I have never in my entire mosquito fearing life been surrounded by such an ungodly number of buzzing mosquitoes.
I retreated to the van, put on my longest trousers, and despite the fact that the temperature was in the 30s pulled on a long sleeved sweater. I then covered my ears nose and hands with 30% deet. All this did was make me hot and angry. And the mosquitoes were still there, buzzing in my ear, taunting me. The van has mosquito netting on the windows, and even though I had killed every living insect in the van with a massive dose of bug spray, all I could hear was the constant whine of the damn bugs outside the van, buzzing at the windows, trying to get in and bite me.
As we've moved further south, the number of mosquitoes has decreased and the number of flies increased. And Australian flies are the most numerous, annoying, persistent of all the flies in the world. And, when we were eating a lunch at Uluru, I finally lost it and pulled on the fly hat. They may look ridiculous, but hell, they're effective. It's just hard to eat a sandwich when you're wearing one.

Dining in style

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We got up early for sunrise at Uluru, and had ourselves a breakfast of beans on toast with coffee.

As soon as the sun has risen, the coaches of tourists leave and we had the place to ourselves.

We followed our breakfast with a brisk 10km walk around the rock. Beautiful!

A walk around the canyon rim

Kings Canyon
Uploaded by ladyhedda.

We spent a night at Kings Canyon (Watarrka National Park). It's a 300km ish detour off the road to Uluru (Ayers Rock) - but well worth the extra hours on the road.
We got up early to avoid the worst of the heat, and headed out for the canyon rim walk. The first part of the walk is the toughest, with a 500 step climb. Once you reach the summit there are breathtaking views of the canyon, which has amazing dome shaped rock formations and sheer walls. The walk itself is only 6km, and we took it slowly - taking photos and trying hard not to get blown over the edge.

Woo hoo

Uploaded by ladyhedda.

I got some photos uploaded..... Click here for the Australia photos so far....

Photos to come....

I'm having a horrible time trying to upload photos, can't figure out why...... So, you'll all just have to wait until I get to Adelaide, or some other such civilized place.

Banka Banka

Banka Banka is a working cattle station, right here in the 'red center' of Australia. We learned about jackaroos and jillaroos and all you could possibly want to know about cattle farming in the outback.
Maybe a little too much information... After they castrate the bulls, they stick the 'Prairie Oysters' on the grill. Apparently they're delicious.

Kakadu is absolutely beautiful...

Right now I'm simply amazed by the scenery here in the Northern Territory. We drove to the Kakadu National Park and spent two nights there.
The first night we camped at the Merl campground - where we were attacked by droves and droves of mosquitoes. I was covered in DEET repellent and the bastards were still landing on my nose. I really hate the mosquitoes here. With a passion. They are worse than any other mosquitoes that I have EVER met.
The next day we were up with the sun, preparing coffee in our little van, then off to the Ubirr rock art site. We were fortunate enough to make it to a couple of ranger talks at the different sites, so we learned about the aboriginal kinship systems and the paintings and some of their meanings.
In the afternoon we headed to see more rock art at Nourlangie. Again, we listened to the rangers talks - which were really great, and the best way of appreciating what you are looking at! We also took a walk around the Anbangbang Billabong. We saw so many birds - really beautiful birds - (photos to follow)......
This morning we got up early (6am - that's very early for me) and took a boat ride down the South Alligator River. First thing in the morning is the best time to see the wildlife. We saw CROCODILES. I was so excited. Real crocodiles, in the wild. Yikes! (more photos to follow)
We also saw a couple of live wallabies hopping around the park, and plenty of dead wallabies by the side of the road. The roadkill here is big and there's plenty of it!