For the first time Ray and I travelled thoughout the Australian Outback.  The RED CENTRE is a hot and dangerous place during most of the year, so, we chose to travel during the cooler months.  At the start of the trip it was quite cool during the day but by the time we crossed into the Northern Territory it was warm days, and freezing nights.   We were away for 10 weeks and almost half of the time was in true desert.  We also spent 4 weeks on the Queensland coast with warm sunny days and mild balmy evenings.  The following map shows our trip, leaving Melbourne on June 2, going through Adelaide to the Flinders Ranges, then Coober Pedy, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Alice Springs,  then across the Northern Territory and into Queensland on a 4WD track (about 800k's - 450miles), then through Queensland to the coast.  We arrived home on August 10.

Hope you enjoy seeing Australia as much as we did travelling through it.

The Flinders Ranges is a spectacular area with an number rugged ranges surrounded by flat desert

This area was undulating, covered with "Porcupine Grass".

The area abounds with wildlife especially emu's and wallabies.

The next main stop was at Coober Pedy.  This is a famous outback town where Opals are mined.  As the summers are very hot, most of the town is located UNDERGROUND.   This is a photo of the main street in the distance.  We are standing on top of our motel.  Only the front doors and car parks of most of the buildings can be seen.  Note the air vents. 

 The next photo shows our underground motel room.  It was cosy and dry.

Here I am at Uluru (Ayer's Rock).  Although not the exact centre of Australia it is very close.

Just getting there is like a pilgramage for most Australians. This photgraph was taken at mid-day.

This photograph was taken at Sunset, 5.00pm on the shortest day of the year.

Note the change of colour that Ayres Rock is famous for.

Standley Chasm, is a very narrow chasm found about 50k's from Alice Springs, in the West MacDonnell Ranges. This photograph was taken at mid-day as the sun was directly overhead.

This is outback Northern Territory.  Heading east from Darwin to Central Queensland. 

As Ray says  "If this is not the middle of nowhere, we must be very close to it."

Same road about 400k's further along....

Now thats an Anthill.................

And every now and again we saw country like this.

In fact, the scenery seems to change every 30 minutes.  It certainly was not a boring drive.

Ray and I have been married 10 years (2nd October, 2004) and we love to travel.  I would like to share some of the interesting places, we have visited.

After the hussle and bussle of Christmas, Ray and I decided to go on a country holiday, with the aim to unwind, relax and do nothing much else.   We chose to travel for 3 weeks, and stayed at 3 resorts in different locations.

Week 1.  Numerkah

This is in the north of Victoria about 300 kilometers (180 miles) from home.  It is a fruit growing area and is a tiny town with not much happening.  Not far away is Shepperton which is "the big" township in this area.  We arrived late Friday and rested and relaxed on the weekend  and Monday.  The weather was warm and pleasant.  On Tuesday we decided to stay in all day as the temperature reached 41C.  A great day to read in air-conditioned comfort.  Incredible winds bought a change overnight and the next day the top temp was 11C and it rained.....rained.....and then rained.  Thursday was more of the same.   This is summer in one of the dryest areas of Victoria and it was cold and wet.  No problem for us.  We went and played the Pokies (slots) and watched the weather in comfort.

We actually enjoyed the week because we did very little except relax and relax....objective achieved.

We drove to Eucha and crossed into New South Wales and drove to Mulwala via Findley.    This is a very dry part of the country bordering on desert.  Everywhere there was water.  We even had water flowing across the road, and  much to Ray's delight we were able to do "water crossing" in the 4WD.  Here we are just north of Mulwala.

Week 2 - Mulwala (New south Wales)

Having survived the big wet, we spent a week overlooking Lake Mulwala which is part of the Murray river.   On the other side of the lake is Yarrawonga.  Ray managed two rounds of golf and Halina finished two books.  We did spend a day in Rutherglen, sampling a number of wines.  We even managed to do the daily crossword.  By now we were very stress free.

Week 3 - Mansfield

Mansfield is about 120K from Mulwala and is located at the foot of the high country by Lake Eildon.  To our surprise the lake was 50% full and there was water near the resort.  We spent a day in nearby Benalla, Ray played another round of golf and Halina finished another book.  We also did a 4WD through the high country, complete with real water crossings and very steep and rocky terrain.  We had a picnic near the top of Mt Stirling at "Craig's Hut", made famous in the film, The Man from Snowy River, and then drove across the top to Mt Stirling.  The steep and rocky decent was exciting.  Here are some photo's of that day.

This trip was just fantastic.  The flight from Melbourne to Los Angles took us 24 hours as we stopped for 2 hours in Auckland, New Zealand.  When we arrived in LA, Ray's Luggage arrived but mine was lost in transit.  We hired a car and drove to San Diego.  My luggage arrived 2 days later.  Well, that meant I had to go shopping....and, it was all paid  by QANTAS.   Here I am in San Diego, recovering from the shock of having no luggage, and planning my SHOPPING trip. Marguarita's really help the planning process.

We spent 4 days in San Diego, then drove to Las Vegas and had 4 more days of shopping and visiting some of the Casino's.  We saw the Rita Rudner show and generally just had fun.  We returned to LA and flew to Anchorage, Alaska.  We spent 4 days touring around Anchorage, then went to Denali National Park for 3 nights.  We saw Brown and Black Bear, Moose and Caribou.

Here is Ray having a discussion with a stuffed Polar Bear at the Anchorage Museum.

Here is a photo, from our hotel window in Anchorage, taken at 10.00PM.  It never got really dark.  Even at 1.00am it was more like dusk for about 2 hours, then bright again.

Then to the highlight of our trip.  A week on the Coral Princess sailing from Anchorage (Whittier, Alaska) to Vancouver, (Canada).

Here I am checking out the scenery

Now relaxing at one of the bar's.....One of these drinks does not contain alcohol!!!!!!!

At anchor in Glacier Bay, standing on our private balcony, and that Glacier behind me was actively spawning.

After the cruise we spent another 9 days in Canada, mainly in a resort at Whistler.  That was a very relaxing way to finish a fantastic holiday.

We drove from Melbourne to Cairns (equivalent of Boston to Miami) taking our time driving about 330ks (200 miles) one day, then staying for 2 or 3 nights before moving on.  Although the straight line distance is about 3600ks (2200miles) we actually covered over twice that distance.  Here are some photographs of us, with some locals.

Here we are just out of Cairns at a place call Kuranda.

Yes, thats a real live Koala that I am holding.  Isn't it beautiful?.

Now getting close up and personal with two of the local parrots.

We drove further north into the York Peninsula, going through the Daintree Rain Forest with 5 river crossings on a 4WD only track and stayed in Cooktown overnight before returning to Cairns.  The following photo's show the Far North Queensland outback.

Typical Termite Mounds......

Now here is a road sign that you will find only in Australia......