We made it to Uluru afterall!

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11 Feb
Stopped at Mon Repos Beach Turtle sanctuary. Sounds great - Loggerhead turtles are an endangered species and anything to help save them has to be a good thing. Don’t think they are going about it the right way though. We expected to stand behind a rope and have the magical experience of seeing baby turtles hatching and running down to the beach. Sadly it had been turned into a bit of a tourist circus. The baby turtles were practically dug up by the ‘rangers’, then passed around like sweets for people to prod and poke. Their finally humiliation was to have to run between the legs children to get to the sea - I was disgusted and walked away at this point. I think they should be ashamed of themselves, I don’t call this conservation.
12 Feb
Off to Town of 1770 to go on a trip to the Southern part of the Great Barrier Reef - should be spectacular, if the trip goes ahead. Lovely tropical camp site with a great restaurant run by an Austrian woman - a great cook!

13 -16 Feb
As predicted the trip was cancelled - weather too rough out at sea apparently. We decided to head south rather than wait for the weather to improve. Even if the weather turned perfect, the sea would probably be too cloudy to see anything. Stopped at Bundeberg to get our money for the trip back - and both of us managed to find a hairdressers and get our hair cut. Wonderful to get all that hair off!
Roads to Mt Isa are closed due to flooding so we have to go south to Broken Hill, across the New South Wales outback - and then back north if we want to get to Alice. I don’t think we will have time to get there to be honest, still there are plenty of other places we haven ‘t seen, so it doesn’t really matter.
The Melbourne bush fires are never far from our thoughts. Our friends live very close to where it has all been happening, and we are very worried about them.
We stopped in a campsite 7km short of Bourke, then heard on the news that the town of Bourke had been hit by a terrific thunderstorm that dropped 12 inches of rain in 2 hours - and the whole town was flooded. Missed us thank goodness! We had to drive through it the next day though, the road we wanted was flooded, so we had to do a 140km detour, and drive through 12-18inches of water on the road that was open!
Got forced off the road between the NSW and Queensland borders. Stuck in the mud in no-mans land! We had only seen about 4 cars, so expected to have to stay until the road dried out. (we have plenty of food and water on board!) Fortunately we didn’t have to wait long before 2 road trains came along and pulled us out! Another life used up.
White Cliffs is a tiny little opal mining town where the weather is so hot that most people live underground. There is a motel where all the rooms are built into the side of a hill. When we get there, the weather is wet and cold - and everyone (except us) is happy to see the rain!
17-18 Feb. 09
Now in Broken Hill, back in the sunshine. Just heard on the tele that Bourke has been declared a national disaster area - got out just in time by the sound of it! Nice place, zinc and silver mining town. We took a tour around the place and walked up to the Sculptures at the top of a nearby hill. How people go on long hikes in this country amazes me -we only walked for about half an hour but the heat was so intense.
We had all our fruit and veg conviscated as we came into Broken Hill - to help prevent the spread of the fruit fly. We stocked up again in the local supermarket.
19-20 Feb
As we passed into South Australia we had our fruit and veg confiscated again! I think there is some kind of scam going on here! ‘That was the fruit fly exclusion zone, this is quarantine’ said the man as he gleefully filled his bag with our nice new fresh produce. Hmmm. Heading for the Flinders Ranges for a few days. Lots of dirt roads and spectacular scenery. Contacted Greg and arranged to go see him on 6th March so we have a couple of weeks in South Australia. Not sure what we will do yet, Barry is hankering over going up the Birdsville Track and Ayres Rock is calling us.

21-24 Feb
Decided to go to the Flinders Ranges - a spectacular collection of mountains and gorges north of Adelaide. Spent a couple of days wandering the canyons and viewing cave paintings, then found ourselves at Hawker, not that far from the Birdsville track. Fatal. Just had to do a bit of it - upto the dog fence and back (the dog fence protects the whole of South Australian and NSW farming communities from the dingoes of the centre - and goes for thousands of kilometres. We were now ‘in the zone’ so continued up the Oodnadatta Track (worse under-wheel and just as remote as the Birdsville) until we got a puncture. We then decided, as we only have one spare and no pump or tyre repair kit, that the more sensible thing to do would be to go back on the tarmac. So off to Coober Pedy where it is so hot most people live underground. When they are not underground they are mining for opals.
Now so close to Uluru (Ayres Rock) that we just have to go there!

CAN'T GET ANY PHOTOS TO UPLOAD - WILL TRY ANOTHER DAY!

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