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!!!

Days 1 and 2

So I decided to combine the first 2 days of our trip to the Northern Territory....why, you ask? Because all we have done is drive and drive and drive some more...

Since we haven't hit any major historical, geographic, etc landmarks I've just included a couple pictures of places we've been through on our drive...

Click here for another map that shows you how far we've gone and where we are now!

Let's start at the beginning again...

After lots of help from Sam's family and a late night (4 hours of sleep for me, none for Sam) we finished packing everything we owned and starting out on our adventure. At this point we were stressed about leaving because we had no information about the company picking up our stuff and shipping it to our new house...but we decided to just take a deep breath and go.... so that's exactly what we did!!!! Here's what happened on our resulting trip.....

This is our final pile of boxes to be shipped to NT at some unknown date and time...

The car is completely loaded down, minus room for the dog in the back. We even have Sam's 'girlfriend' Zoe (his mountain bike) and our solar panels on the roof.

Some place we've never been before! Sam and I drove over the great dividing range. It was beautiful, even with the burn off and the resulting black and white trees...

Trying to get Snoopy to rock climb...

Success!

End of Day 1! We stayed at a caravan park...complete with showers, water, and toilets....not roughing it too much!

All we did on Day 2 was drive and drive some more.... we found a fabulous free caravan park with electric BBQs and public toliets! AWESOME! If you ever stop in Lameroo check it out!!!!

More to come in the next post! Hopefully we will do something more exciting soon! ha ha!

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Okay...I know I am WAY behind with the blogging...I'll do my best to catch up!

So here's the low-down on how Sam and my New Year is starting off. I guess we should start at the beginning.... Sam and I have been considering places we would like to work and live for several months as we looked forward to Sam's graduation. After considering all our options we decided that our first choice for a teaching job for Sam would be in the Northern Territory. Several things led up to this decision.

1) We were ready for some freedom and adventure

2)Sam studied Aboriginal education in undergrad and feels a strong desire to teach in an Aboriginal community. Northern territory has a huge population of Aboriginal children and is therefore the perfect place for Sam to try his hand in an all Aboriginal school

3) The NT has GREAT benefits! They provide us a fully furnished house (rent free), all utilities, free transport for us and all our stuff and more freedom in Sam's teaching program

When we looked at all the benefits we decided it was the place for us.

Sam had several job offers but in the end we accepted a position in Wugularr (Beswick) a very remote Aboriginal community about an hour SW of Katherine. It is going to be a huge change for us. We will be immersing ourselves in Aboriginal culture and living in a completely different (and HOT) part of the world! Despite the challenges we will face, we are excited to immerse ourselves in this new community and grow in our appreciation of a different and beautiful culture of people.

Here's a map of the journey we are about to make from our old home in NSW to our new home in Beswick, NT. We will be updating you on our progress as often as possible! (Yes, we are already on day 3 of our journey but I am getting updated...promise)

To celebrate our new job and say farewell to friends and family we had a farewell lunch at church and a farewell BBQ at Sam's parents in the days before we left. I've posted some pictures of all the people who have supported us and been our great friends this past year!

Our friend Josh holding our little niece Hayley at Wallagoot lake

Okay...my nephews are going to kill me for posting these but they went swimming nude and I thought this picture was adorable! This was the swim we went on before the BBQ at Sam's parent's house

Sam in the new rashie I got him for Christmas

At the BBQ...Sam's dad, Mark, showing Liam how to count to 7 on one hand... uhhhhh.....does that work?

With our great friends Jasmine and Josh

All smiles with Sam's nan and pop

At the church farewell (put together by Bev...THANKS BEV!) with Sam's other nan

Sam and Adam

Louise Nadin (I love her), me, and Frank Gillies

With the fabulous and talented Mandy Wright!

Danielle Nadin ready to dig into the pavlova

Me with Halen, one of my adorable primary kids

And last, but certainly not least, with Louise Wright, who is one awesome girl!

I already miss our friends and family back home! Thanks for the great farewell! We love you all!

Next post I'll update you on our travels thus far! Thanks for checking out our blog!!!!

Christmas - A belated update

Yo yo yo! I missed the Christmas season to put up pics so here's some from Sam and my first summer Christmas in Australia. We opened presents with Sam's family on Christmas morning, went home and opened presents from each other, and then went over to Christmas day dinner at Naomi and John's. It was a busy day but we loved the chance we had to chit chat and hang out with Sam's family! Enjoy the pics!!!!

Mikey and Brea

Toby giving Sam his present

Hannah and Mitch

Cymmon and Chanel

Stick um up! Me in my new hat from Sam!

John cooking Christmas Day dinner

The Chandler family