Driving south

Right now I'm at my sister and brother-in-law's house waiting to go to the airport to fly to Paris! 

Well, actually, I'm spending two nights in Abu Dhabi, then onward to France. This has of course meant I've packed up my life in the Northern Territory, and delivered a load of junk to my parents' shed.

I was able to find a guy who wanted to get his twin cab Hilux from Darwin to Sydney, but didn't want to drive. So I offered to do it for him! I hadn't been to Uluru, so I wanted to do that, and it also meant I could visit my grandparents in Cobram, Victoria, with only a bit of a detour. It also meant I could stay with my colleague and friend Caddie in Alice Springs.

All up it was a touch over 5,000 kilometres. I had my dog Bruce with me, and he behaved very, very well!

After two nights in Alice with Caddie I went to Uluru - which was amazing! This is a photo taken at sunrise. I also went and had a glass of red wine while watching the sunset, but I reckon the sunrise photos are better. You can also see Kata Tjuta to the left. Amazing.

After watching the sunrise I raced up to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). The sun was up, but the colours were still amazing. I did part of the Valley of the Winds walk, and would have liked to stay longer, but I still had a long way to drive that day.

I had never been south of Alice Springs for work, so it was great to see that part of the NT, and the South Australian outback. This photo was taken driving south of Coober Pedy. It was a beautiful sunset. The outback was so, so different to the country around Katherine, but beautiful in its own, desolate way.

One of the best bits of the drive was rolling my swag out at a rest stop about 60 kilometres north of Woomera. The stars were amazing and just the sense of isolation was pretty unique. 

After that I drove to Cobram, which was a bloody big day, but it meant I could have two nights there and spend time with my grandparents and my extended family. Given I'm about to head to Europe for an indefinite period of time I'm very glad I made that effort.

So anyway, just a quick update - the first one for about two years! I'm planning to blog here from time to time, but I make no promises about regularity!

I'd better go make sure I don't miss my flight...