This morning I headed towards Alice Springs, the long way. If I had a four wheel drive I could have taken the 100km Giles road and been in Alice Springs by lunch time. Unfortunately I had to take a 240km detour to stay on sealed and passable roads so I ended up getting to Alice Springs at about 3pm. Just enough time to have a walk round. I'm so far not that impressed. Not exactly the oasis I'd been expecting. The River Todd runs through Alice Springs in the same as the Avon runs through Tewkesbury, apart from one difference. There [View Full Entry]

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After returning from sunrise I had some breakfast and heading off to Kings Canyon. It took just over three hours to get there and after my early morning I was feeling tired. This place is operated by the same resort company so yet again some very high prices. It was quiet though so I did get my own room with TV. The TV turned out to be very valuable as after dark there was nothing to do. Before dark however I drove to the Canyon and did a small walk through its base. After the previous two days walking my legs [View Full Entry]

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I was up at 6am to start my 750km journey to Uluru. With a couple of petrol stops I got there in 8 hours. Despite the very long journey it seemed to go by very quickly. Entering the Northern Territory means there are no longer speed limits on the highways so that was interesting. You certainly have to keep you concentration at 120mph!! The Lasseter Highway is the only road that connects the world to Uluru, and if it wasn't for our obsession with visiting it I’m sure it would still only be a gravel road. Along the length of the [View Full Entry]

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I headed off in the direction of Coober Pedy in the glorious sun. It's now impossible to get lost or take a wrong turning as for the next 2000km it is one straight road, with the exception of Ayres Rock. This was the first day I truly experienced the 'outback'. Just a few minutes out of Port Augusta and the land opened up into a massive expanse of nothingness. Now and again the odd dead animal would break up the driving and I'd have to swerve to miss it, but other than that it was one very long drive. I stopped [View Full Entry]

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Well the decision has been made. I will not have time to get all the way round Australia so I am heading north. The change in the weather as I headed north was amazing. In just a few hours the skies cleared and the sun was out. It was also not long before the houses, trees and everything else started to disappear. I have hardly made a dent into the northward journey but already the landscape is changing and looking very different. On the way up I could see myself heading for a very large storm. With the land being open [View Full Entry]

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The drive from Robe to Adelaide was really easy but really boring. It was basically just one straight road for over 300kms. I got to Adelaide in good time and found the hostel really easily. This place hardly seems to be a city. High rise is definitely not a word you can use for Adelaide and after looking round for a while it’s more like being in Cheltenham. On my way up here I wondered why I couldn’t find any tourist information on Adelaide, and now I know why. The place is so boring and there is nothing to see. The [View Full Entry]

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I was up bright and early unfortunately the same could not be said about the weather. Dull and overcast and as I got in the car it started to rain. As I drove down towards the Great Ocean Road the skies showed no indication of clearing up but I couldn't turn back and wait for a nice day, I had to continue. I passed through Torquay on my way to Bells Beach. It was on this beach that Patrick Swayze ran into the huge waves to his death in the film Point Break. The beach looks totally different in the movie [View Full Entry]

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This morning was a cold and frosty November morning, despite being May!! I few days ago I committed my first criminal offence, well apart from speeding. I took an apple across the state boundary from New South Wales to Victoria. Apparently you are not allowed to take any kind of fruit across the border. I quickly ate it to hide all evidence. My first stop today however was Melbourne Jail, although I don’t think it has been used for a very long time as it still has the noose for hanging people. After repenting my apple sins in a very small [View Full Entry]

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Melbourne City Centre is only 135km away from Phillip Island but the last 15km through the city took as long as the rest of the journey up here. Most of Melbourne’s major roads have a tram system cutting through the middle of them and consequently they have this very strange rule that if you want to turn right you have to get into the left hand lane and wait for…. Well, wait until the person in front of you goes than then you just follow very closely behind and hope your not going to get splatted by a tram. The city [View Full Entry]

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The rain continued to fall all the way to Phillip Island. I was starting to get down heartened and was hoping that I had made the right decision to come to Phillip Island instead of heading straight for Melbourne. Phillip Island was definitely a fine weather destination. Luckily as if by magic as I went over the bridge that links the island to the mainland the clouds began to lift and the sun started to peak through. The hostel was again quiet although a German cyclist turned up quite late so I did have one person sharing the room, and oh [View Full Entry]

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