I hopped on a bus and made my way to Bendigo where my friend Jess and her husband live. Jess and I met back in Ireland. I hadn't seen her since St Kilda fest back in Feb so it was great to see her again. I used my time here mainly to just relax and catch up on my blog while Jess and Steve were at work. Jess and I did a bit of shopping on the weekend and she even took me to a candy shop that sells chocolate and candy from North America. I got very excited for that! Was really nice to spend some time with Jess and Steve one last time before I head out of Australia for the last time for who knows how long.... read more

I hopped on yet another bus in the morning and headed out of the Northern Territory and down in South Australia. I got to Coober Pedy at 6:30pm. The hostel I was staying at came and picked me up from the bus station. I decided to stay at Radeka's underground hostel. Because of how hot it normally is in Coober Pedy a lot of the residents live in underground homes. It can get upwards of 50 degrees during the day and underground it stays a nice 24 degrees. In the winter it stays a nice 24 degrees as well so it's the perfect place to live. So I got checked in and headed underground. So cool! All the toilets, showers and kitchen are above ground but the dorm beds and some private rooms are all down ... read more

We were all woken up really early so we could get to our viewing spot for the sunrise. We drove to our spot in mainly darkness and took a short walk up to the viewpoint which you can see Kata Tjuta and Uluru as the sun rises. There was a few clouds in the sky which made the pictures even more amazing! I think that the sunrise was even better then the sunset. We ate breakfast and then headed into Kata Tjuta which is another rock outcropping in the area also known as the Olgas. The hike in the area is called the Valley of the Winds. It's a beautiful valley. The hike isn't the easiest to do with broken ribs so me and the tour guide only did the walk up to the second lookout ... read more

On Sunday afternoon I hopped on another bus and drove down through the middle of Australia past Tennant Creek and finished up in Alice Springs the next morning. It was a really long journey and once again I didn't sleep much. I was picked up and taken to the hostel where I stayed and waited until my room was ready. The hostel has a dog name Roy roy and he was my buddy all morning sitting down at my feet and loving the attention I was giving him. Once I was able to check in I put my stuff in my room and headed off into the town center. First stop, the post office. On my way I met quite a few aboriginals who might look a bit scary but they just wanted to say good ... read more

Happy anniversary mom and dad!!! I hopped on another bus and arrived in Darwin in the early evening. I walked up the road to my hostel and was able to get some help getting my stuff up the stairs to my room. The next morning I headed off into town. There are some nice old buildings in Darwin. A few had been rebuilt after the bombing of Darwin city and the cyclone in the 1970's. My first stop was down by the waterfront. It's a really nice area with a netted off beachy area. It's netted off for crocs and stingers. The convention center as well as an outdoor wavepool is also down there. The wavepool looked like so much fun but not exactly ideal for someone with broken ribs. There are some WWII oil storage ... read more