Completed our outback odyssey and re-entered relatively more civilised parts at Port Augusta. We entertained ourselves on the way by claiming various natural features in a land that no-one could possibly be interested in for ourselves. A number of volcano like features are now named after C’s sisters, and after a small escalation in vanity prompted by a rash rejection of a mountain as not impressive enough by me visitors to this area should understand that the lands either side of the Stuart highway between Coober Pedy and Port Augusta are travelling through the M Desert. C tried trumpin [View Full Entry]

---

---

Completed our journey to the magnificently named Coober Pedy. When this name first came up I was sure that it sounded familiar but couldn’t figure out why until C reminded me that it figured prominently in the film Priscilla Queen Of The Desert. Remembering the movie character of the town as a tough talking no nonsense mining type of place I immediately adopted a deep baritone speaking voice and refused to do any bag carrying. I needn’t have worried because there was no evidence that I would be attacked for simply looking at someone the wrong way, though the number of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Drove to Watarrka, more royally and less aboriginally known as Kings Canyon, on the strength of an impressive bit of photography we saw in the hotel magazine back in Alice. Unfortunately the reality demonstrated just how impressive the photograph was and the canyon itself was interesting but only just worth the journey. Strangely enough the only accommodation was owned by the same hotel chain in Alice. We were happy to find that the walk in rate for the room was less than half that quoted by the chain’s central reservation system only that morning. C was however less than happy to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Marked big brother’s birthday with a drive to Uluru, the rock formerly known as Ayers. I’ve never been terribly impressed with this from the pictures I’ve seen, and was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be far more impressive up close. Out of deference to the aboriginals, who regard the rock as sacred, and not at all because it was closed due to the excessive heat, we made no attempt to climb the rock. We stayed a couple of nights in the town of Yulara, a tourist complex comprising entirely of hotels, lodges and campsites for Uluru visitors. It was [View Full Entry]

---

---

Happy birthday to me! Today I turn 43. My younger brother demonstrated his lack of knowledge of world time zones by texting me birthday wishes at 5 a.m., ensuring in the process that I got to enjoy even more of the day than I would otherwise have done, bless him. The afternoon was spent mostly at 33,000 ft on our way to Alice and due to the difference in time zones I got to lose one and a half hours of my birthday which doesn’t seem fair. Just as well younger brother woke me early. To the ever expanding menu of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Although booked in at the camp site for four nights, we lasted two before heat exhaustion, lack of cooling breeze, cramped sleeping conditions and general cabin fever had us running for a hotel room in Perth. The room was basic, the aircon inadequate, the bed was uncomfortably soft, and we would have paid 10 times what we did for it. As far as we were concerned it was palatial and the three nights we stayed there were the most comfortable we had for weeks. We also got to catch up on the news, learning that a cyclone was battering the coast [View Full Entry]

---

---

Leaving Monkey Mia on the 4th January, we pretty much made a headlong dash back to the Perth conurbation, stopping only the one night at Dongarra before ending our van days prematurely at a camp site in Fremantle, south of Perth. Fremantle is a charming old town still resonant with the after effects of that fine though thankfully now largely abandoned British institution of imperialism. We made our way into town on the free bus, having been directed to the bus stop by a complete stranger who was waiting at the junction for a green light. He had noticed that we [View Full Entry]

---

---

Throwing all financial caution to the thankfully non-cyclonic winds, we have decided to book a trip on a Dugong and Dolphin chasing yacht. The boat is called the Shotover and is apparently something of a celebrity in sailing yacht circles, having won a number of speed records, some of which it still holds to this day. It is a somewhat basic catamaran, single mast, no cabin, with cockpits at the end of each hull. As we were first timers we were not allowed the opportunity to grab the best seats at the front, being instead requested to report to the back [View Full Entry]

---

---

Having enjoyed the first headache free day in Australia yesterday, courtesy of the cool and only slightly dangerous Bay waters, I woke up on Boxing day with a mouth ulcer. This caused some discomfort for three days and C will attest, I’m sure, that it makes me a wonderful travel companion. For these three days we were lured from the stunning Shark Bay region and nearly 800km north to the Ningaloo Reef area and the town of Exmouth, the journey being broken up with a stop in Carnarvon. The guide book says of Carnarvon “The town continues to battle against a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Christmas itself was spent at Monkey Mia where despite its name, there are no monkeys to be found. Having arrived Christmas eve we were able to celebrate an early start to Christmas day. This consisted of standing knee deep at 07:30 in the cool and very blue waters of the bay. It turns out that after decades of effort some of the local dolphins have managed to train the human species to stand in a line at the waters edge and feed them fish. In all, 9 dolphins, adult and young, turned up to see how our classes were getting on [View Full Entry]

---

---