Back Home !!

Yesterday we enjoyed the area we were camping in.  We had a nice fire in the afternoon and then went to the Tavern for a delicious dinner.  

Today we drove all the way back home but when we saw the city we felt different.  As soon as we got to Ferntree Gully we went straight to my nan and pop’s house to surprise them.  After I hugged and said hello to my nan and pop we left to go to my other nan and pops house to surprise them too.  It was great to surprise them then because 2 aunties, 2 uncles, 2 cousins were there as well as nanny and poppy.  We stayed there for dinner, I was so happy to to see them all again.  I also had a great surprise from my friends when I got home too.   

I had a great trip and was quite sad but also happy to come home to the cold weather of Melbourne.  The trip was the time of a lifetime and I wish that I could do it all again after I see all my friends and family.  I’m now filled with knowledge of European Settlement, Aboriginal Culture, Nature, Animals, and about our magnificent country Australia.  Thank you all for following me on this magnificent trip and I hope you enjoyed it. 

                                          The End.

Waikerie to Mildura

Yesterday we did nothing but drive to a town called Waikerie and to get there we had to go across on a ferry.  We drove onto the platform to cross the Murray River. After we floated across the river we drove through to the town which had spectacular wild flowers on the side of the roads.  We set up our 2nd last camp for the trip next to the Murray River.  We had a look around town and went down to the long lost river.  Then we went back to the caravan for the rest of the afternoon.  

Today we left Waikerie and drove all the way into our home state, Victoria!  We drove through Victoria to the place where we had officially started our trip, Mildura.  It was great to come and camp at a very familiar place next to the river.  When we got there we noticed that the river was a lot higher than normal so we had to camp in a different spot.  We spent the day collecting wood, playing on the beach in the water and later on in the afternoon we started a nice warm fire.

 

Mount Remarkable

Yesterday we spent most of the day driving.  We spotted over 31 emus on the way and we also saw something we hadn't seen for a long time, the beautiful ocean!  We had come through the centre of Australia and finally reached the bottom.  We drove down to an intersection and saw where we had turned off to go to WA 6 months ago.  

Today we started driving along the already travelled road to our stop for the night at the beautiful Mount Remarkable National Park.  We parked our caravan and went to the beautiful and peaceful creek to have a look.  Then we did a nice walk on a trail through the hillside and saw lots of kangaroos.  From the top we could see the Spencer Gulf which was pretty.  Today we slept in for the first time in a long time.  After we got prepared, we set off on a mountain hike.  It was a beautiful but strenuous walk.  Once we had climbed up the 480 metre tall mountain we looked out over the beautiful landscape and ocean.  After we climbed back down to the bottom we spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing card games.

Coober Pedy and Kade's Birthday

Yesterday we spent the whole day driving and driving until we came to a rest stop for the night.  We also had an ice-cream.  You may remember in some of my very first entries, that I wrote about us searching for a South Australian only ice-cream called a Giant Twin.  Well as we were driving we stopped at a roadhouse and finally found them, here in the N.T.  So we bought some to put in the fridge and have later.  It was a honey flavoured ice-cream coated in a thin layer of chocolate and it was delicious.  After we had bought the ice-cream we crossed over into SA for the 2nd. time.  We also watched a movie called Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.  

Today is Kade’s birthday.  We gave him his present, which has already included the helicopter ride over Uluru and the early birthday present we had given him a few weeks ago.  Then we had a short drive to Coober Pedy.  

As we approached Coober Pedy we saw thousands of large and small dirt mounds, belonging to places where miners have dug holes to find Opals.  A unique thing about Coober Pedy was that a lot of the the towns residents and shops lived underground.  The weather was so extreme that it was hard to live above ground.  In winter the temperature gets to -2 degrees, in summer it got up to 55 degrees and between those times it was very windy.  We first went to an underground opal gallery and display house to do a tour.  We walked into the side of a hill and found ourselves in a beautiful underground house.  We first watched a little clip about the discovery of Opals and then walked down into the mine where they had searched for the Opals themselves.  We walked through the first style of mine house underground and then through the modern day house.  I found learning about opal and the construction of the underground housing interesting.  

Then we drove to a Kangaroo Orphanage to have a feed of the kangaroos.  These people rescued animals and brought them here to be looked after.  We fed the 7 kangaroos which either had no mum since they were a baby or had been hurt in some way.  Then they brought out a baby 5 month old joey name Seamus that we patted.  We also softly blew into the joeys face because that was the way kangaroos greet each other and know whether they know each other or not.  When I blew into the face of the little joey it kissed me on the nose.  

Then after we said goodbye to adorable Seamus we drove to where we were going to camp for the night.  We were going to take our van to where we were staying but not sleep in it.  We were going to take our tents and go down and camp under ground.  It was weird to be setting up in the middle of the day but in darkness.  After we got over that we were going to sleep underground, we went to go and have dinner at a restaurant which was also underground to celebrate Kade’s 8th birthday.  We all had a delicious dinner and Sticky-Date Pudding for desert. 

Uluru sunrise and Kata Tjuta

Today we got up early to watch the sunrise over Uluru.  It was very pretty to see the colours change on the rock.  We went back to the caravan and on the way saw two black Dingos which are very rare, only one in 60 pups are black.  

After breakfast we drove into the National Park for the last time to visit Kata Tjuta (the Olgas).  We drove up to the tall rocks and did a walk there.  We stopped at the first lookout which was beautiful, it looked out over the valley below.  For the 2nd part of the walk we walked through some gorges and came to another lookout over a beautiful valley.  On the way back we met Jamilla, Mietta and Eve (some girls I’d met before) which was nice.  Then sadly we drove out of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park for the last time.  We then spent the rest of the day at the cold pool and got ready to leave tomorrow.

Uluru - by helicopter

Wow! What an amazing day.  We started it off with going to the theatre to watch an aboriginal play called the Eagle, Crow and Cockatoo.  I enjoyed watching the act, it was set out well and it made me understand the story.  

After that we did the most exciting thing of the day.  We went out to go on a helicopter flight over Uluru.  We got picked up by a mini bus and drove to the 6 seater helicopter called Lima.  We got told all the rules and safety things that we needed to know and then we hopped into the helicopter.  Kade hopped in the front with the pilot and mum, dad, 2 other people and I hopped in the back.  We put on our headsets and then all of a sudden we were lifting of the ground.  We kept rising till we were 2,000 ft above the ground.  The view was incredible, the land just looked like it spread on forever.  The only things we could see was Uluru, Kata Tjuta, the resort and in the distance Mt Conner.  We flew forwards till we could see Uluru properly and we could see people climbing it.  Then we started to tip sideways until we were pressed against the windows so we could get a good view.  We then slowly made our way over to the airport and landed there.  The helicopter ride was just awesome.  As we were filing into the mini bus we saw the Royal Flying Doctor Service parked there helping out 2 people.  

Then we drove back to the caravan and went to the pool.  It was a really hot day so we thought it would be a good idea to have a swim.  The only thing was, the pool was absolutely freezing.  We had a few dips but that was all it took to feel ready to go back to the caravan and make dinner.  

After dinner we did the last exciting thing for the day, we went on an Astronomy tour.  We walked out into the clearing at 7:20pm to meet Adriano our astronomer.  We first got taught about the different constellations in the sky.  The easiest ones to spot were the Southern Cross, the Teapot and Scorpio.  We then looked through the telescopes at a few different objects.  First was the nebula (gas) in the sky, then the Milky Way, then a blue and orange star and then my favourite one, Saturn.   We looked into the telescope and could see the bright white planet and its rings.  We could see the planet so clearly.  Adriano has travelled the world and said that this was the best place to see the stars, here in Central Outback Australia.  We learnt some more about the rings of Saturn until sadly the time was up and we had to go home.

Uluru Base Walk

We drove to Uluru today to do a big 12 km walk around the base of the stunning Uluru.  We didn't climb it because the local Aboriginals wish that people didnt, it is such a special sacred place.  It is good that so many people are starting to really care for what the Aboriginals think because 100% of people used to climb Uluru, now only 15% do.  As we walked we saw that there was so many different formations in the massive rock.  It took us under 3 hours to complete the walk but it was all worth it.  Then we went into the Cultural Centre.  We learnt some things about Aboriginal Culture and we watched 2 Aboriginal ladies doing some traditional dot paintings.  

We also saw my friends Eve, Jamilla and Mietta again.  Then we bought ourselves an ice-cream and came back to the caravan for a little rest.  We then drove out into the National Park after dinner to go have a look at the silhouettes of Kata Tjuta, another cool rock formation.