To Darwin

So I know I haven't updated the blog for a couple days...it's been a CRAZY couple days!!! So here's the update since we hiked around Uluru several days ago....

After hiking Uluru and getting some absolutely amazing pictures of the rock in the rain, we spent another rainy night in the caravan park meaning we still didn't get any sunset or sunrise pictures... but we weren't worried. The pictures we got are something we will never see again, so we were happy.

The next morning we dropped Snoopy back off at doggy daycare and headed out to Uluru's 'sister' rock Kata Tjuta. This rock is so sacred the stories surrounding it are only passed to worthy elders of the Aboriginal people, but we can see why they see it as an important spiritual place...it is breathtaking! The hiking paths are limited around this sacred place so we didn't get many pictures, but hopefully the one below will give you a slight idea of it's beauty.

Sam getting ready for some serious mountain biking around the rock

A new little friend...he was as curious as I was!

After a quick hike around the rock, Sam and I picked up the dog and headed out to Alice Springs. And that's when things started to get interesting...

We arrived in Alice Springs at about 6:45 or so and headed straight to the only caravan park that allows dogs. It was closed. At 6. No after hours check-in. Not impressed.

So Sam and I called every hotel/motel/caravan park in the city...no vacancy. Granted I am not pregnant with the Savior of the word but I can somewhat relate to how Mary and Joseph must have felt when they were forced to sleep in a stable because there was no room in the inn.

Instead of a stable, however, Sam and I found a church parking lot. That's right..you heard me...church parking lot. We are talking tent on asphalt. Sweet.

Needless to say it was a hard night. We were awakened by drunk people several times during the night and the morning just didn't seem to come fast enough. However, despite our trials, this experience has actually taught me how to better put my trust in the Lord. The next morning was Sunday and we waited in the parking lot for someone to open the building so that we could get ourselves fixed up and ready for church. Both the branch president and the Darwin district president arrived 2 hours before church and let us in. We met some amazing people at church and by the time church was over at 1, we had some new friends to console us about the fact that all the roads north were flooded and we weren't going to be travelling anywhere.

This is where learning to trust comes in. The branch president, President Ford, invited us to stay with him and his family until the roads cleared! It was one of the greatest experiences I have had on this trip. The Ford's were amazing! They have a huge family and great family dynamics. We were served an amazing dinner and were able to take part in their family home evening filled with music from their family's many amazing singers. If we had never had to sleep in the parking lot and been flooded in we would have never experienced the kindness and charity of the Ford family! This experience has taught me to have more trust in the Lord. He is aware of our individual struggles and despite the hardships our stay in Alice Springs turned out to be a memorable 2 days where we were blessed in countless ways. Many thanks to the Fords who shared everything they had with a couple of travelling strangers!

One of the 'puddles' we went through because of the rain

(yes, I got out of the car so Sam could turn around and drive back through it to get a good action shot! ha ha)

Here's pictures of the awesome Ford family!

(This is President Ford's kids, their spouses, their spouse's siblings, etc)

Another blessing we encountered was that the rain stopped on the 11th and the roads were clear for driving on the 12th. Since we had to be in Darwin by the 13th, we had the perfect amount of time to get there. Here are some things we saw on the way to Darwin...

Welcome to Wycliffe Well...the UFO capital of Australia...

stopped for petrol here and just had to get some pictures of the local 'residents'

We stayed overnight at Daly Waters on the night of the 12th. The local pub had some of the craziest decorations we had seen...here's some of them....

Did I mention that there are termite mounds...and I mean HUGE termite mounds EVERYWHERE in the north of NT. Here are just a couple of them I took a picture of while we getting petrol... but there were bigger mounds everywhere!

And finally, in Australia they have huge road trains which are semis with 3 or more trailers attached to the back. This was just one we saw. This one was a double decker for cattle...crazy!

We are now in Darwin staying at a super ritzy hotel. We dropped the dog off to be watched while we are in Darwin (poor thing...he's having trouble with all this)

Sam has training everyday but I've been just bumming around...not bad! ha ha

Here's a map showing the locations we stopped at during the last leg of our trip. Enjoy and stay posted.... we'll post photos of our fancy new digs here in Darwin! Peace out!

Days 6 and 7 - NT and Uluru

It's official! We have crossed into our new home state! We are now in the Northern Territory!

And with a new state comes new speed limits! 130 km/hr is unheard of in NSW so we were excited to test our car out at such a speed. Of course our car is was loaded down with things strapped to the top so every time a fast wind hit us we slowed right down to about 100.... oh well...it was fun when we were going downhill!

Here's a picture from an Emu farm we saw along the way! Not a wild emu but being in a cage sure makes it easy to take a good picture!

On the way to Uluru we had another interesting experience. When we hit the turn-off for Uluru Sam was asleep and I was driving. Suddenly this Aboriginal man walks across this deserted highway right into my lane of traffic and is waving me down. I freak out (thinking I am going to hit him or something since he's leaning into my lane), wake Sam and we end up pulling over. The conversation goes as follows...

Sam, "Do you need some help?"

Guy, "Yea man, we're outta petrol. Got any petrol?"

Sam, "No, sorry"

Guy, "Got any water? Money? Beer? Smokes?"

Sam, "Only water...sorry"

Guy, "Okay. Cool dog man"

How random can you get? Welcome to the Northern Territory!

We finally arrived in Uluru! We stayed at the Ayers Rock Resort...a completely posh mini town in the middle of the desert! There are apartments, 3, 4, and 5 star motels, a grocery store, an art gallery, and the list goes on and on. However, being the poor unemployed couple we are, we stayed at the campground and set up our tent along with all the other poor and adventurous travelers.

It rained the entire first day we were at the campground so all of our attempts to get a sunset picture of Uluru were in vain. Strike 1 for picture taking. It was because of this that we decided we would wake up early to get a picture of the sunrise. At this point we had actually switched our phones to the correct time zone and were confident they would wake us up on time. Unfortunately, when we plugged them into the computer, they were reset to Sydney time. This resulted in our alarms going off at 4am (although it said 5am). It was dark, but hey...it was before sunrise, that's normal right? We hopped in the car and went searching for the lookout spot to catch the sunrise. We end up getting lost and asking a tour bus driver (the tourists were loading up before sunrise...that sucks) for directions. He gives us directions and then laughs and adds, "But you may want to stay in your car until around 5:20, otherwise you may get wet". At this point we are thinking, "5:20? Didn't we already pass 5:20 this morning?" At which point we realize our phones were set to the wrong time zone! Whoops! Strike 2 in he attempt to get Uluru in all it's sun-filled glory. So we slept in the car with a wet, smelly dog for another 45 minutes before we got up to hike to the lookout. Of course we get there and it's raining so hard that there is no spectacular sunrise...strike 3....

After that whole ordeal we head back to the tent and decide that we are going to stick it out at Uluru for one more night in hopes of catching the elusive sunset/sunrise. We head back to the tent, take a power nap, drop the dog off at the office (free dog minding...sweeeeet!) and head out for a hike. It had been raining only intermittently so we cruised around the cultural center and then drove to the start of the hike that takes you right around the base of Uluru. We chose not to climb out of respect for the Aboriginal people who ask tourists to respect the rock's spiritual significance. Here's photos from our trek....

At the lookout spot

So not only is Uluru an amazing and beautiful place, we got to see it during one of the EXTREMELY rare rains. (Apparently it does not rain very much here). The hard rain resulted in gorgeous waterfalls running off the rock on all sides. It was amazing to see an we were glad we fought through the rain to see it all. (Well, Sam convinced me to go on...I was ready to give up when we had a particularly bad pour down. Ha ha) The waterfalls running off Uluru are a once in a lifetime sight so we feel very blessed to be here during this time!

Cool Aboriginal rock paintings

Note: There is not usually a 'lake' here...yea for rain

The rain created an awesome effect on the rock! The grey rain mixed with the red rock created some awesome, colorful and amazing sights.

The rain created some serious puddles...we hiked with squishy shoes all day!

How cool is this? It looks like the rock is made of caves underneath with a smooth coat poured over top. You can see these crazy honeycomb looking caves where the 'surface' has weathered away! It is incredible and amazing! The pictures don't even do it justice!

And finally...completely non-Uluru related.... everyone has been asking to see the ring Sam bought me from Coober Pedy...so here it is!!!! It's absolutely gorgeous! He's so good to me!

As per tradition here's a map of where we are so you can keep up with our travels!

Keep checking! Tomorrow we are making attempt number 4 at seeing the sunrise over Uluru and then off to Alice Springs! Catch you later!!!!

Day 5 - Coober Pedy

So on January 6 we traveled from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy, SA (South Australia). Coober Pedy is the ultimate opal mining town where the only businesses revolve around mining and tourism. Did I mention that Coober Pedy is in the middle of nowhere? It is off one of the only sealed roads that go through this area of Australia and thrives on selling opal jewlery to people passing through.

Here's a map to Coober Pedy. It shows how far we've come and far we still have to go.

Just to give you an idea of what the landscape looks like in the middle of Australia, here are some photos we took on the way ....

The moon was out in the middle of the day...gorgeous! I tried to get the desert and the moon together but the moon was a bit too high in the sky! Oh well... its a cool photo anyway!

Our first wild emu sighting!!!!

And here's some photos from Coober Pedy..... there's not much in the town but I was laughing at these signs. How many times do you see that in your life? ha ha!!!!!

So fun stories related to camping in Coober Pedy. First of all, Sam and I got sucked into buying an absolutely gorgeous opal ring. It was for my birthday so I didn't complain too much! ha ha! Then we headed to the pool to cool off after a day of sweating out in the sun. Sam went to take a shower first and decided he would try and use only 20 cents of water (the showers were pay showers). Turns out he finished his shower in less time than he thought and had extra minutes of water...so he lathered up again to get an extra wash and had just finished when the water turned off. He had to run back out to the tent covered in soap to get another 20 cent piece to wash off the soap.

When I went to take a shower after the pool it was pretty late and therefore dark. The showers cost 20 cents so I started my shower determined to finish in one go and not use another coin (although I did take an extra coin so I wouldn't have a re-run of Sam's shower). Unfortunately the lights in the bathrooms are also on timers and halfway through my shower the whole place goes black. So here I am thinking 'crap!'...do I get out of the shower, run naked to turn on the lights and risk running out of water time or just shower in the dark? I ended up showering in the dark until a nice lady came in towards the end and asked if I wanted the lights on! Needless to say I will check the light timers BEFORE I shower from now on!

Did I mention Coober Pedy is in the middle of nowhere? I did? Well did I mention it was HOT??? Because whoa buddy!!!!!! Was it ever hot!!!!

And we had to sleep on rocks. That's right...there is NO grass in Coober Pedy...

not even in the caravan park! Bummer...

Here's a picture of hills of dirt from the opal mining...these are everywhere you look!

Alright party people, that's it for now, but keep checking back. Our next stop is Uluru (or Ayers Rock) and there should be some awesome pictures from that!

Days 3 and 4 - ADELAIDE

So this post is originally from Jan. 4 and 5...but since we didn't have internet, you are getting it a couple days late! Sorry!

Luckily the next couple days of our trip have been a bit more exciting than the first 2! Since Lameroo was only a couple hours away from Adelaide, Sam and I hit the road early and went straight to the Eagle Mountain Bike Park. The National mountain bike championships are at this park...unfortunately Sam will be driving during them so we stopped by so he could ride the track anyway! We couldn't let the dog into the park so here are some pictures of him riding outside the park... ha ha. (NOTE: He is wearing a CO jersey my dad got him for Christmas! Rock on!)

After a good afternoon at the bike park, Sam and I found a great caravan park in nearby Mt. Barker. Again, we had all the amenities plus electricity!!! We had a laid back evening and enjoyed chatting with other people in the park including a woman who gave us a mango and a family of Canadians who have traveled around the world (Including a trip from Florida to Australia in a yacht....Sam is inspired!)

Day 4.... We woke up early and ran all of our errands around Mt. Barker then headed to the Adelaide temple. We were excited to do some temple work but darn the luck...the temple is closed on Tuesdays! Oh well...we got some great pictures anyway! Here they are...

Finally, we jumped back in the car and headed to Port Augusta. We decided to splurge and are staying in a great little motel called Motel Poinsettia... an older motel but the owners are great and you can't beat the service! They even have little fridges with cold glasses and fresh cold water jugs in each room! How awesome is that? We even went out to dinner and had some real food (Indian food...YUMM)!! It's been a great day!

There were a lot of wind farms on our way to Port Augusta! Sam was very excited about this! Yea for clean energy!

Snoopy had to sleep in the car in Port Augusta because there were no motels that allowed dogs...he was excited....can't you tell?

Here's a map of where we are now.

Well it's late and we have a crazy long trip tomorrow. Keep posted! More to come!!!