Desert Ship Territory Log Day 5 We started the day with an organised tour which I felt was a waste of money as the tour guide told us everything I had read in the tourist bureau yesterday and all the places we went to we could have gone to ourselves. One thing I did notice and was verified by our ex Opal Miner, tour guide, who looked about 85, had a German accent and walked with an unmistakable miner's stoop, was that the population of about 2000 was represented by 45 different nationalities. So far I have not come across one Australian. In this respect, Coober Pedy is so full of juxtapositions on so many levels. Where do I start. So Australian and so multicultural all simultaneously. I don't think there is a designated dump here ... read more

Desert Ship Territory Log Day 3. We were on the road by 9.00am after a quick stop at Foodland for a few supplies. After about an hour on the Eyre Highway we turned off to hit the gravel for some hard core 4WD time. Well not as hard core as Googs Track which is even more of a short cut (the sand dunes put me off going that way). By taking the 270km gravel route via Kingoonia we were going to save 400km off our time. Do you think alarm bells should have rung when I booked our accommodation in Coober Pedy over the phone, when the lady asked where we were travelling from and when I answered "Ceduna", there was an awkward silence and she responds with "I've never heard of that before"? There was ... read more

Desert Ship Territory Log Day 1. We travel Terra Australis in the trusty Territory and 3 hours and 62 Bobby farts later we arrived in Merredin in time for sun rise where the drive improved immensely once we could actually see the landscape. I miss my cat already. In Coolgardie we fuelled up for the first time and encountered our very first 'old timer'. The toothless wonder was fuelling up her beat up old Mazda and struck up conversation with me by stating the bleeding obvious "it's a bit chilly aye?" in an accent broader than a Queensland stockman. I smiled politely and quickly sheilded the kids from her weather beaten appearance, lack of any fashion sense and shepherded them back into the car. Her car didn't look like it would make it much past Kalgoorlie ... read more

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean we skipped a day!... read more

I thought I was going to have a mutiny on my hands this morning. No one would get out of bed. I could hardly get out of bed after the big day yesterday. Brendan kept telling me how he was over it. I don’t need this right now. Let’s just go through the motions for the kid’s sake and get it and done with. I’m not so sure that we are supposed to be feeling like this at the happiest place on earth, but we are. Our despair brought on by excessive tiredness was instantly forgotten when after we entered the gates our early bird status paid off when we saw Mickey Mouse come out of nowhere with absolutely no one mobbing him for pictures! This was our big chance to be photographed with the legend ... read more