Paddling in the Desert

My my my, what a past week or 2. yes, i have absolutely no idea what day of the week it is. Since i last wrote we have been on an 11 day tour from Melbourne to Alice Springs. there is no way to tell you everything that happened in the time but i will do my best.

it started with a half hour walk to our pick up point at 6.15 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeesh. over the next day and a half we went along the Great Ocean Road which was absolutely incredible. we stopped every 10 minutes or so to take pictures of the views and awesome rock formations suchg as the 12 Apostles, or the Sow And Her Suckling Pigs as the Aborigines called them!!!!!!

We saw KOALAS!!!!!!!!!

we also drove our tourguide Chris insane by being obsessed with cheesy songs and dancing along to anything we could!! (think surfing USA and ANY dance moves that go along to it!!! along with the obvious YMCA and las ketchup song!!!)

the next day and half to Adelaide we were in the Grampians wihc involved a whole lot of hiking up maountains in 30 degrees. thats fun let me tell you. our last night we stayed in these little huts in a tiny town called Hall's Gap and there were kangeroos literally in our back garden!!!!! it was amazing. we all loved Hall's Gap and could've stayed ther forever. little did we know but after that was a different tour!!!!!!! the organisation for this trip was fantastic. this involved a free day in Adelaide sop we went to the beach :D!!!!

We got to see the opening ceremony for the Adelaide fringe festival that evening also and it was amazing!!! fireworks off buildings in the centre of the town!!!

the next morning it was up early again to leave for our onward trip at 6.20am to alice springs. We met our tour guide Ilse and were off!! We met some lovely people and ended up continuing our bus aerobics and singing and recurited a few more poeple to the cause!!! We stayed in quorn, i know quorn like the food! but none of the places sold quorn and thought i meant corn!!! oh well we have to educate these australians sometimes!!! We did a few short walks but it was soooooo hot that Ilse decided that we would have to once again be up before sunrise to do our nice long walk up dutchmans stern!!! joy oh joy!! but we made it to the top and it was worth it!!! a kangaroo hopped across the path 2 metres in front of where i was standing!!! AMAZING!!!!!!!!

We then had a roadtrip day!!! YAY!!! 10 hours on a bus half full of fun people and the rest of people who really didnt care to join in! oh well amy and i made up for about 10 of them in enthusiasm!!!

We finally arrived in Coober Pedy and had a really fun night out at the underground bar where Aileen (irish girl) managed to chat up some miners and got a free drink out of them!!! Clever girl!!!! The next day we got a lie in!!! only left at 7.20am!!!! to go noodling yes noodling for opals which basically consisted of searching though a pile of rubble for any rocks that might contain a piece of opal and I FOUND ONE!!!!!! amy did too but mine is way cooler!!!!!

on our way out of coober pedy the next day we found out the van was broken so after waiting around in the rain for it to get fixed ( it shouldn't rain in the desert!!!! apart from when you're there Rach!!) we finally set off for our first night of camping!!!!! well it was meant to be camping under the stars but ended up not being so as it was chucking it down!!! ever slept in a tent with bunk beds????? i have!! its weird!!! any way apart from there being a 1 hour time change from heading a bit further north that day was rather uneventful!! except for the mouse in my tent that i saw twice on aileens bed and ended up on mine eating an empty crunchie bar wrapper!!

Once we finally arrived at Uluru (Ayres rock to those of you less educated) it was still raining!!! As a result of the rain about half the group left a day early!!! ( none of the brits though we're all way too hadcore from D of E to go home because of a bit of rain!!!) After they left we walked around the entire of Uluru in the rain, well not walking so much as paddling (Amy paddled in sacred mud) and jumping from tuft to tuft due to the amount of water there! Anyway I'm soooo glad we didnt leave as we got to see the most amazing sunrise the day the tour ended!!!!!!!

In Alice we had a farewell dinner with everyone that made it to the end of the trip and Ilse had a bitch about the people she didin't like!! Quite funny!!

We spent all of next moring in HOSPITAL!!! I'm fine!!! I just managed to get a rash all over my arms, legs, tummy and back!!! I think its the cheap soap at the hostel!!! Anywhoo we arrived safely in Cairns this evening and can't wait to go diving on monday!!!! Great barrier reef here we come!!!!!!

Lots of love Sarah and Amy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

There was also one about not taking cats on hikes!!! these australians are odd!!!

Amy walking/paddling aroung Uluru

Rain at ULURU!!!!!