Adelaide

Our journey to Adelaide is the last on the bus and our second day in the panoramic front seat. On the way we stop at a salt lake where the earth seems to be as white as snow before our lunch stop is at Port Augusta. Our final stretch on the bus takes us past countryside that looks as though it has had a healthy dousing of rain during the past few months and we see the fruits of many farmours labours as the harvest is in full swing. Our arrival in Adelaide takes us past the Oval as cricket supporters are spilling out at the end of the first days play in the second test. It's quite a celebration for us getting off the bus for the very last time (and probably for our fellow passengers too).
Some of those supporters in full costume make their way back to the hostel we are staying at overnight and we have a quick clean and change before heading over to the nearest hotel for drinks with those who want to come and celebrate our last night on the bus – even Rickadile Dundee comes along.
The following morning we are entertained to a busking-style song of the journey from Matt and Allen before we wave off the bus and those who are taking the final two days to Sydney – many of whom we have shared our lives with for the past three months. It's mixed emotions and quite odd to see the bus departing without us or our luggage.
An hour or so later we are collected from the hostel to be taken to the second days cricket by the family and after a blisteringly hot day in the sun we make our way to Port Willunga to hook up with the rest of the family for Summer down under. Over the next few days we 'enjoy' carols under the clouds, stormy weather and lots of family fun, food and fizzy red.
So we made it. Overland - over 3 months with several highs and a few lows, but both intact. Definitely a little older perhaps even a little wiser. Met some interesting, funny, lovely and also some less appealing folk along the way.
Now it is time to spend Christmas, the New Year and a little more time with the family.
Hope you've enjoyed at least a couple of the blog entries along the way and keep an eye open over the next couple of weeks if you don't think you've seen enough pictures as we should be uploading a couple more links to the many places we visited along the way.
David & Helen

Coober Pedy

For the first time on the whole trip, we decide to check out the front seat and are treated to a panaroma landscape of central flat Australia – the big sky you only get to witness in the Fens in the UK, but without the people. Another long day of travelling (200 kms + just to get back to the Stuart Highway). We arrive in Coober Pedy late in the afternoon and are treated to a tour of an old underground mining cave and given information on the Opal mining that the area is still famous for. The area has also been used as the location for a number of films because of its appearance including Mad Max and Pitch Black). Our hostel is underground which means a steady temperature all day long to overcome the outside day temperatures that can often been in the region of 50 centrigrade and way, way down overnight. The majority of accomodation in the town is underground because of this reason with folks using mining equipment to create extensions to their properties (although town centre extensions are banned now in case of knocking through to the next house!). After dinner we spend our penultimate night with some of the group having a nightcap under the stars.

Uluru

Our first night on camp at Ularu entertained us with shooting stars. The following morning was an early start for some of us who went to see the sun rise at Ularu. To be totally honest the view of the sunrise was far more entertaining that staring at the big rock during it. Later in the morning though we took a healthily paced walk around the big lump of earth and it's hard not to be impressed by it. Sunset was a more impressive affair perhaps assisted by some Australian bubbles at the viewpoint with Uluru as a grand backdrop. When we returned to camp for dinner we were entertained by Debbie who had written a verse or several to sum up the trip so far – it was very entertaining. It made us mindful that Agatha Christie would have had plenty of material for a murder on the London to Sydney trip.

Kings Canyon

On our way to KC, we stopped off for lunch where the rest of the passengers were 'entertained' by a singing and piano playing dingo – we decided that the excitement of it all might just be a tad too much to cope with and when our fellow travellers returned to the bus we were thankful that we had missed exactly what we had anticipated. We did however get to see some emu's running around a sleepy 'roo. In the evening it was back to camping, but this time 'upgraded cabins' – which in reality meant that we had proper beds, duvets and pillows – the additional bedding was very welcome though as the temperature plummetted during the night. Our walk around Kings Canyon was a stunning 3 hours the following morning before it got too hot. The natural steps made it quite easy to get around nd the views were great. At our lunch stop on the way to the next destination we came across a very hungry dog.

Alice Springs

A 3 fuel stop journey sums up how long we were on the bus today.
During our trip to Alice we managed to see a number of things including a sun and cloud phenomenon quickly referred to on the bus as a 'sunbow' – but really called a halo, for obvious reasons we suppose. We also visited The Devils Marbles on route and crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn before finally arriving in town late in the evening.

Daly Waters

Another day, another national park, another walk in the heat and the rest of us followed the only two lead walkers who had maps but still managed to go the wrong way. So, we walked back to the visitor centre via a shorter loop and David managed to catch a bit of the first test on the telly (sadly whilst Hussey was showing his form). In the afternoon our driver and tour guide - christened 'Rickadile Dundee' managed to spot a frill necked lizard at about 50 metres away on a tree as we were driving past at over 100kms per hour.
We arrived at the Daly Waters Hotel late in the afternoon and were treated to an impromptu 'whip' demonstration (oo er missus) and had the opportunity to sleep outside under the stars in a swag. With the storms still threatening, it was decided that the group would sleep under the roof in the bar area, but we decided between the two of us to upgrade to a room for the night.

Katherine

It was a dull, but early start to move on to todays location (dull headwise due to the rumpus of the night before). Waterfalls and giant termite mounds were the order of the day and short walks in high humidity at termperatures of over 40C. This made the bunks in the tent feel like swimming pools during the night as more 'glowing' or rather sweating throughout the night.

Jabiru

The morning we left Darwin for Jabiru (part of Kakadu National Park) we board our final bus (a 'proper' Oz bus) of the trip that will take everyone else to Sydney, but us to Adelaide. On our way we visit the wet land visitor centre to see the lush 'top end' landscape. We also saw some (Ab)original art work on several rocks in the park and great views into the distance. Jabiru was also our first camping night in the bush. You may remember what happened a lot whilst we were camping in France; so as not to disappoint - yes on our very first night camping in Oz there was a heavy downpour. In fact, there was a storm on camp in more ways than one as the little bubble we have been living in since September 5 finally burst and there was an ugly scene in the kitchen that David couldn't sit back and accept.

Darwin

A very late evening flight from Denpasar meant that by the time we cleared immigration, quarantine and customs upon arrival in Australia, we didn't get to our hostel until around 5am in the morning, completely exhausted. Darwin was hot with extremely high humidity, and afternoon storms brewing in the distance. It was our first opportunity to sample the delights of fizzy red wine, which is always a very pleasant bonus.
Whilst in Darwin we took a wander down to the redevoped port area with it's artificial beach, outside pool with wave machine plus a trip to the local botanical gardens. However because of that high humidity you dont walk very far before you are completely drenched in your own glow, or sweat if you're a 'bloke'. We also took time to visit the museum and art gallery of which inside there's a good exhibition charting the history of Cyclone Tracy which devestated the town at Christmas in 1974. Darwin was also where we said goodbye to Jaime who decided it was too good an opportunity not to fly home to Melbourne as soon as possible after hitting the shores of Australia.

Indonesia - various (pictures in video)

Kuta

Arriving in Kuta via the ferry you might think you'd arrived in an outpost of Australia already – with the Bintang Bogan's all over the place! Happily though we re-joined Bev (and Lisa) from the intensive care option she had found herself involuntarily taking way back in Hat Yai and she was well on the way to recovering from a severe allergic reaction to penicillin. We were last in Bali two days after the most recent bombings in 2005, but that time we stayed in Ubud towards the centre. Kuta is the area previoulsy targetted on more than that occasion.
David managed to burn his legs whilst taking a long walk on the beach and Helen actually ventured into the sea on more than one accasion), We managed to while away an hour watching the sun slowly make its way towards the sea with planes coming into sight cruising into land at the airport. The sun set was looking good right until the last few minutes when we realised that a low band of cloud would stop the final visible 'plop' into the sea.