Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Menindee

From Broken Hill we travel south east to Menindee. What a beautilful spot to camp for the night- right beside the lake. We toast marshmallows around the campfire and reflect on our last two years. Smiths Aussie Adventures is coming to an end and we chat about what we've loved, what we learnt, what we'll miss (as well as what we won't miss!), what we're looking forward to at home and what we're worried about. Such a great night praising God for all that's happened in the last two years!! From here......we head towards YEOVAL!!!











Monday, November 28, 2011

Broken Hill

We have crossed our last border and are now in NSW!!! First stop is Broken Hill. We stay here for a few days and have a look around. Broken Hill is full of art galleries and we visit 4 different ones including Pro Hart. It is a much bigger town than I thought!!
We'll be back sometime in the near future as good friends of ours move here next year to lead a church.












Silverton

We go for a morning drive 25kms out of Broken Hill to Silverton. Silverton was a bustling silver mining town in the 1880's. Today, the area is best known as the iconic outback base of this country's movie industry. Many movies have been filmed here including Mad Max 2, A Town Like Alice and Priscella Queen of the desert.














We took a picnic dinner out and enjoyed the outback sunset at the desert sculptures. They are huge sandstone sculptures sitting up on top of a hill with great views all around.





Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy 6th Birthday Lucy!!!

Happy 6th Birthday to our baby girl!! She's been counting down the days for a month now. What a blessing she is to us! Love you sweet girl.





Lucy was so looking forward to this day and she had a ball!!! She really wanted to play pass the parcel, so we had a mini game with her sisters. It was a no schoolwork day for her so we went to the park and had a look around Port Augusta.



















While in Kings Canyon we were given a ripstick by the people who were camping next to us. We haven't had a concrete path for a while, so Bridget takes the chance when we get to Port Augusta. She has great balance, so has got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Lake Hart

Snow in Outback SA????? No, of course not! It may look like it, but the girls are actually riding on a salt lake. It was so cool!!!
This was at a free camp where we stayed the night somewhere between Coober Pedy and Port Augusta.



Coober Pedy

We really enjoyed Coober Pedy. So different from where we've been and what we've seen before. Lucy even cried the night before we left saying that she didn't want to leave.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy is such a different and interesting town. Our first 2 days were extremely hot and then we got 2 cooler ones. We were prepared for the heat, although the cool change was nice. The outskirts of town are surrounded by mounds of rock and dirt and these danger signs as people are hoping to strike it lucky by finding opal. Chris rests up and has daily visits to the hosptial to monitor how his spider bite is going.





As Coober Pedy is all about opal mining and underground living, we decide to head underground and see what it's like. It was fascinating!! 70% of people here live underground, and with temperatures in the high 40's in Summer, I don't blame them. It was so much cooler down there. We also went to the Anglican Catacomb church on Sunday.











Around town we visit a kangaroo orphanage. Claire is excited to see some red kangaroos here as she has a little red kangaroo figurine called Ruby. The girls enjoy patting and feeding the kangaroos. We also get to see a demonstration of some mining machinery. Here the girls are holding rocks to see how they are sucked up through the blower. That is one powerful vacuum cleaner!!





We go for an afternoon drive just out of Coober Pedy to see The Breakaways and the Dog Fence. The Breakaways are colourful low hills which have 'broken away' from the Stuart Range. The Dog Fence or Dingo Fence is the longest fence in the world. It was built to protect sheep in the south from the dingo and is 5614km long.





Friday, November 18, 2011

Goodbye NT Hello SA

Aaahhhh! We really are getting closer to home. We have now crossed yet another border and are in SA. We are moving quickly today as Chris has some kind of bad infection on his leg and we need to get to a hospital. Today we drove 600kms to Coober Pedy.

Outback Sunset

From Kings Canyon, we are now heading South and East on our way towards home. We stop at a roadside rest area for the night and are reminded of God's majesty as we enjoy this sunset!

Kings Canyon!!!!!!!

From Uluru, we travel to Kings Canyon. WOW!!!! This place is amazing!! Our first afternoon we look at the canyon from ground level and the following day we do the 6km rim walk. It's a steep climb up, but absolutely worth it!!! As with Uluru, a real highlight for us.





Soooooo beautiful!! I was going crazy with the camera. I couldn't put it away, around every corner was another spectacular view!





Bridget is looking over what's called 'The Lost City' The rock formations really do look like the Bungle Bungles. We also have morning tea down in the Garden of Eden. It is a little oasis amongst all the bare, dry rock.





I think we're rating this as one of the best walks we've done around Australia ( and we've done quite a few!) The whole three hours was just spectacular! Everywhere we looked was such an amazing view.





Sunday, November 13, 2011

Ayers Rock - Uluru

We are so excited to be here at Uluru. We spend 4 fabulous days exploring the area and enjoying all it has to offer. It was a real highlight for us!!





Riding Around Uluru!

The alarm goes off at 5am and we hear the sound of rain on the roof. We decide to get up anyway to see the sunrise. As expected the sun was hiding behind the clouds, but we weren't the only silly people getting up at that time, the viewing area was packed. Once everyone leaves, we cook up some pancakes and coffee and enjoy the view. The best part of the day was cycling the 10.6kms around Uluru. It was such a fantastic thing to do....we loved it!!! Beautiful!














The Moods of Uluru!!













Climbing Uluru

We were very keen to climb Uluru and jumped at the chance when the climb opened our first day here. It was very steep and it took a lot of encouraging, but we all made it! We were so proud of the girls, they overcame fears and just kept going. On the way up, as well as great views, we saw green grass and flowers (which surprised us on what looked like a dry, bare rock).





WE MADE IT!!!! Top of Uluru!!

Yippee!! We are sooooo excited to reach the top. It felt so great to be up here on top of Uluru. We'll all remember this moment for a long time!!