Cyclone Season

Well I've made it through Northern territory and come out of the rain. However here in Western Australia like the East coast it's the middle of Cyclone Season. There's currently one of the North of WA. It's named Cyclone Glenda and like a women is at the moment proving a bit difficult to trace due it's unpredictability. It's currently a category four but had thought it would rise to a category five soon (highest category for a cylcone).

Thought I'd put this on in case wherever you are in the world it makes the head lines like Cyclone Larry in Queensland.

If you want to check it out the web link is http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDW60279.shtml

Top End

I've now made it through the centre and appeared on the beach at the other end...hooray to see the sea again, although luck would have it that it's stinger season here so no swimming.

Well and truly hit the wet season but luckily managed to avoid the Cyclone which hit Queensland. Kakadu was amazing and we saw heaps of animals from a cruise we did. Darwin was a get back to the city so checked out the museum and the waterfront. Then into waterfall heaven in Litchfield National park before hitting the outback again to get to Broome. Where we currently are.

Wet season wasn't too bad it's not unlike a bad day in Scotland except you don't mind going out as the rain is hot. Since I hadn't seen rain for a very long time it didn't really bother me too much but I must admit it's good to be back in the dry, hot sun.

Now our travels are taking us to the West Coast and exploring Western Australia.

Hopefully have more pictures in a week or so.

The Red Centre

Uluru at Sunrise and Kings Canyon

Coober Pedy

Welcome to Coober Pedy the town where there's heaps of dust, opals and a bit of underground camping!

Funny sites in Kakadu

This is one we saw on a boat cruise as i'm sure you can see the water had risen quite a bit since the summer.

The Red Centre

Having left the citrus farm a week and a half ago we've managed to drive to the centre of Australia having lots of fun on route.

Our first stop was Adelaide which I loved. It's a really leafy city and with the help of Victoria, Paul and baby Olivia and Jane we got to see all the hot spots from a local angle which was fantastic. It was great to catch up with the guys and between the two we managed to leave with a ton of chocolate much to Sil and my delight and lots of good memories. Guys we still haven't quite managed to eat it all, as it's still taking up the entire bottom row of our fridge in the van.

From Adelaide we headed to the Opal Capital of the World aka Coober Pedy. It's the strangest place I've ever seen. For some of you who may know the mad max films that's where it was filmed and I don't think it's too dissimilar. I got a great story from a local involving explosives and police cars but unfortunately too long to blog. We did a tour of an Opal mine but unfortunately didn't strike it rich with Opals so moved on.

The next stop was The Red Centre..... ie Uluru (Ayers Rock). Seeing it for the first time was like a dream. I couldn't quite believe I was really there. It's an amazing site and we managed to see it at two of the best times, sunset and sunrise where the colours change constantly. Also close by we went to the Olgas which are more fabulous rock formations. Here we were able to do a 7km walk through the Valley of the Winds. Both places are really spiritual for the local aborigines and the stories are fascinating.

From here we headed to Kings Canyon a very mini version of the Grand Canyon and again another 6km hike around the rim. The steep cliffs were a bit scary, wriggling to the edge on our stomachs to see the vast height. In the middle they have a Garden of Eden which is a tropical oasis, how anything grows in such heat I don't know.

We're now in Alice which is great we're in the city again which was funny at the supermarket last night with so much choice. It took about an hour to work out what to have for tea. (Ok so the supermarket was about the size of those back home but we hadn't seen one for a while)

Our plan is to stay here till the weekend and celebrate Sil's birthday on Friday with a few beers, then head north to Darwin.

Sorry for the lack of pictures I'll add a few in soon hopefully.