AUSTRALIA: Perth, Uluru and the East Coast

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Chris & Anto Round The World Trip Back to normal civilisation! Life seems so easy in Oz, compared with what it was like in Africa. Everyhting works, and feels safe! It's almost too easy...

We flew into Perth on the west coast of Oz where we were greeted by Chris' friend Shannon, who let us crash at her place for the few days we were there (thanks a million Shan!). Unfortunately though, we didn't do a great deal in Perth apart from some getting some much needed rest, and then some more... It was soooo good to be sleeping in a bed again! Not that the tent was that bad or anything... Well, we strolled the city, checked out some of the magnificent beaches along the coast and even dropped into the famous Little Creatures Brewery for a cold beer one sunny afternoon.

From Perth we flew to the red centre, Alice Springs. Such a change from Perth! It's so dry and, well, red! Beautiful though... We had a car booked for the few days that we were going to be there, a little 4 cylinder bomb that should've got us to where we had to go nice and cheaply, but upon arrival they advised us that our new car would be a 4WD! Great! although it did drink a bit much petrol for our liking, especially when you're paying over $1.50 a litre for it. Great for the extra comfort though. So after an eventless night at the Alice Springs Caravan Park, we headed off to the main focus of our stop here, Uluru. The first thing you notice once leaving Alice Springs is the amount of kangaroo's along the road. Unfortunately though, the roo's aren't alive. Every couple of hundred metres or so, we found a dead Aussie Icon on the side of the road, courtesy of a road train no doubt. Sad really... Well Ulura was spectacular as expected, along with the Olga's. unfortunately for us though, we didn't get to see it glowing red during sunrise due to a continual cover of cloud that seemed to be following us since our arrival in Oz. Next stop was Kings Canyon, which was also quite spectacular. We did a short hike up and around the canyon then back through it. Well worth the extra few hundred kilometres of driving!

Next stop, Chris' home. Melbourne. The mission was to buy a car for our trip up the east coast, so Chris was stuck with this duty while Anto did the sight seeing. Within a week, the car was found. A red Toyota Camry wagon, perfect for the adventure ahead! The car needed a test run to assure it's reliability for the impending journey, so a trip down to Healesville Sanctualy to visit some of Australia's native fauna was planned with Chris' mum, and his friends, Andy and Kez. Gladly the car survived it's test and the next day we were on the road, bound for Far North Queensland.

The next 2 months were spent cruising at a very lesurely pace up the east coast, stopping at all major destinations, and some not so major. Some of the activities we did included hiking in the Blue Mountains, a 3 day 4WD trip on Fraser Island, which was fantastic as we both got to drive all around the island, where the beaches are the roads, and also runways for planes, got to swim in water so fresh you could drink it, and watch sharks feed from a cliff above. We spent 3 days sailing on the Whitsundays, which was also another great experience. And aslo spent 4 days on a dive boat out of Cairns, 2 days of it as guests, and 2 as 'hosties', where we actually had to do some work for the first time in ages. the ezperience as guests was wholey a much better one, but for 3 free dives a day and free food and accommodation, I guess we couldn't really go wrong. Some of the dives were fantastic, especially the night dives where Giant Trevally's follow you around with your torch, waiting for you to shine your light on a fish. Unfortunately for the fish, the light was usually the last thing he saw as the GT's would then strike in a flash before the unsuspecting fish had any idea of what's going on. Reef sharks were also quite curious as to what the light in the water was all about, and would occasionally come up and give it a nudge. Antonella also completed here advanced dive certification while on the boat. Congrats!

Our trip ended just past Cairns up at Cape Tribulation and then it was a mad dash back to Melbourne, which took us about a week of solid driving, to sell the car and have a quick catch up with friends and family before flying out to Santiago de Chile, with a brief stop over in New Zealand.

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