Jan 2nd- In To The Oven

Since we've last updated the blog we've put the van into hyperdrive and manage to hop from Victoria, through South Australia and all the way to the Northern Territory. Now this wasn't our intended, and as it turns out foolhardy, plan but after thinking ahead and counting our dwindling funds we decided to omit Western Australia from our travel plans, much to our disappointment. We also slashed Kangaroo Island from our itineraries ($400 ferry and limited booking space, booo!) so that left us no where to go but up!

Enough about what we didn't do, let's talk about what we did do!

From Portland we crossed over to South Australia, or tried to! What we didn't know when we did our grocery shop that day was there is an interstate quarantine on all fruit and vegetables. We reached the quarantine bins and couldn't bear to part with our mangoes and apples so we turned around and camped right on the border and ate a lovely fruit salad for dinner. Our mood was dampened somewhat by a huntsman spider hiding in our trunk, but we managed to carry on undeterred. We hit up Mount Gambier where we saw the Blue Lake and the Umpherston Sinkhole. With Christmas hot on our tail we picked up the pace and made our way to Adelaide, stopping over for a beautiful evening by Lake Alexandria.

The stunning blue waters of the blue lake, near Mt. Gambier.

Umpherston Sinkhole, a beautiful oasis.

Holly really outdid herself with the Christmas cooking!

We booked an Airbnb in Adelaide for Christmas, giving up the van life in exchange for an oven and Wifi, long distance Christmas essentials. Adelaide was a beautiful place to spend Christmas. Adelaide is a lovely city with an interesting downtown open air market, and we got a proper Australian Christmas with a lovely 30 degrees and sunny skies. Stuffed full of chicken and cookies we headed back to the van and onwards.

Unsure of what to do next and keeping and eye on the heatwave we dawdled around the coast heading to small towns like Port Pirie and Kadina, enjoying beautiful scenery. We made it to a small town called Moonta where the temperatures and beautiful beaches lined up perfectly and Holly was finally warm enough to shed her 63 layers of clothing and go swimming. We waded into the water, enjoying the refreshing waves and after about 5 minutes promptly got out and rushed back to the car as Holly had been stung 3 times on the behind by a jellyfish. Needless to say she's not very impressed with the ocean, though is willing to give it another go, decked out in a full wetsuit obviously!

We then found ourselves around Port Augusta, still deliberating whether or not we would attempt to cross to Western Australia or not. Weighing our options, we made a tough choice. Instead of waiting out the heatwave by the sea as we had planned, we grew restless and decided to change course and head to the middle of the outback. What we were thinking? I don't know, but we drove up.

Our first desert storm! Video slowed down to show the lightening, a truly beautiful thing to watch.

The outback is as hot and deserted as they say! Bright orange sands line empty highways scattered with an alarming number of roadkill (lizards, birds, wallabies, roos and cows (yes, COWS!)). However, we were surprised by the amount of grass, shrubs, and trees that make up the outback's flora. Looking on the map, we were alarmed by the lack of toilets and shaded areas and learnt quickly that stopping at roadhouses (gas stations/motels) were going to be key if we were to beat the heat.

We made good time and quickly arrived at Uluru/Ayer's Rock after three long days on the road. We stood in awe before one truly spectacular sight after another. A notable stop along the way was in the outback mining town of Coober Pedy. Feeling the onsets of heatstroke, we drove as fast as we could and are now in Alice Springs in a nice cool hotel room as we try and figure out what we are going to do next.

The "opal bug" of Coober Pedy, a tribute to the town's mining
heritage.

Parts of the town are embedded into the rock formations, helping
to keep cool.

Uluru, AKA Ayer's Rock, one of the greatest natural landmarks in all of
Australia. Over 450 km's from Alice Springs, it was well worth the trip!

In case you didn't believe we made it!

Just as impressive up close!

Kata Tjuta, or the Olga's, another prominent outback rock formation
a mere 40 km's from Ayer's Rock.

Also seen along the way, Mt.Connor, sometimes called "Fool-uru,"
since at first approach one might mistake it for Uluru. Sure fooled us!

The view of Mt. Connor from the highway-side lookout, sans-zoom.

On the other side of the highway, over the dune, a vast dried salt
lake bed.

After another draining day's drive, we finally arrived in iconic
Alice Springs.

We are in a bit of a predicament and aren't entirely sure what we are going to do next. Like we mentioned, we made this trip at the worst possible time, in the middle of summer and during a heatwave where it is 45 degrees outside for most of the day. We want to get out of the outback as fast as we can, but camping is near impossible with the temperatures this high. Moreover, we want to head towards Cairns but Cyclone Penny is threatening to make landfall and there are thunderstorm forecast for the next 2 weeks, something we're not looking forward to camping in either. Truly stuck between a rock and a hard place, we are proceeding cautiously.

Tomorrow we leave the sanctity of our air conditioned room, most likely heading towards Tennant Creek where we'll splurge and pay to stay at a roadhouse to get out of the sun. Looks like we'll be literally paying for our silly mistake of trying to challenge the outback! Never mind, it'll all be a good story at the end!