Eventually we arrived at our next stop which was Kalgoorlie. This was a welcoming big town after only driving through small little places. We stayed here for 2 nights, explored around the town and had a nice long lie in. The last long drive for a week was to Perth, where we ended up staying for 7 nights. Perth is a massive city. It is very busy and reminded us a lot of home, but of course the weather is nothing like the UK. The weather in Perth was really warm and sunny. We explored around the shops, went and had a look around a motor museum, had a walk around Swan River looking at its history and also met Brayden for a lovely Italian meal in the city centre. We spent Valentines day in Swan River sipping a nice bottle of Red whilst munching on a BBQ Adam cooked for us. From Perth I wanted to head up North to a little place called Monkey Mia. Whilst driving up towards Monkey Mia we did a couple of stops. One was to a lovely national park where we spent a few hours looking around the grounds. In the park there is a Koala sanctuary which we strolled around watching the Koalas. One of them was fast asleep on a branch being soaked from a sprinkler, he didn’t seem to notice or couldn’t be bothered to move anyway.

When we got to Monkey Mia we paid to have a camping spot with a view of the beach. It was beautiful! The water was so clear and blue, the beach was private and quiet and even better was that there were dolphins which swam along the shore many times in a day. On our first day here it was so warm that we decided to jump in the pool and cool off. Whilst in the swimming pool we watched a pod of dolphins swim past, it was amazing to see. Over the next couple of days we went and watched the dolphins being feed, we were so close to them in the water that they swam right by our legs. We also enjoyed a few strolls along the beach and a couple of cold beers in the pool bar. Monkey Mia is the furthest northern point which we visited in WA. The drive back down towards Perth took us to a few little deserted spots which had interesting beaches and great camera opportunities. One of the beaches was completely made up of little cockle shells, and the water was pure and clear. Another beach was cornered off and protected as it was made up of barnacles which have been living on the shore for hundreds of thousands of years. The next stop was back down to Perth where we stayed in Fremantle. Here we had a look around the town and finally got to go and watch in the cinema Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. It was a very long awaited viewing moment for us. We also had a look at the port situated in Fremantle. Next it was off to the Margaret River Region.

So the journey began once again with a long trip back up towards the middle of Australia. Our first port of call was to visit Coober Pedy. This was just a quick overnight stop before we pushed on the next day to arrive at Uluru. We knew that we would have to pass by our beloved van Bill on the way to get to the big rock. We were unsure as to what to expect when Bill came into our sights. Sadly he had been stripped bare and also had his windows smashed. Adam found a few of our possessions still left lying in and around Bill which he rescued, the missing half of a pair of flip flops, a few books and his Spork. But not much else was left.

After we had said goodbye to Bill we finally arrived at Uluru. The sight was amazing as we drove up towards the camping area where we were going to be staying for three nights. The huge presence of Uluru is certainly felt even when you are still miles away from it.  Many many photographs were taken; sunset of Uluru, sunrise of Uluru, in the day time at Uluru, and walking the full 10kms around Uluru. It was breath taking to actually see the piece of rock which I had only ever seen before in books and other peoples photographs.

We went and had a look around the information centre at the foot of Uluru and learnt the aboriginal story which was really interesting. The best part was looking through hundreds of ‘sorry letters’, which are letters from people from all over the world who had come to Uluru and taken away a piece of the rock and then received bad luck. They had then sent the pieces back complete with a sorry letter regretting what they had done. We looked around the other parts of Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park and had a walk around The Ogres. It is defiantly worth seeing for yourselves!

On our way back south we were caught in the tail end of cyclone Yasi and it rained continuously, because of this we ended up staying in Coober Pedy for 2 nights in a caravan instead of Ted the campercar. On the first night Adam was woken up by the caravan leaking drips on him! We were upgraded to a cabin which also leaked, but not on Adams head this time. I was a little gutted about the weather as I had planned to do some more opal noodling but  instead all I did was sit inside and watch movies all day and night.

A two day drive took us over the border to Western Australia to a little place called Eucha. This little place is so remote that it even has its very own time zone. We were very confused about what the time was as the sat nav was telling us one time, the laptop another and then all the clocks we saw in the caravan reception area and toilet blocks each displayed a different time as well. Eventually though with the help of google we worked out the confusion. The weather was still wet and drizzly.

The next day took us across the Nullarbor Plain which means ‘no trees’ in aboriginal tongue. This is a very barren area and includes the straightest road in Australia. This is a 90 mile stretch of pure straight road, but with fog all around us it made for a very long and boring drive. We did however pass some interesting trees which had many objects hanging from the branches. There was a Christmas tree, a clothes tree, a shoe tree, even an underwear tree. This day was yet another 10 hour drive and after crossing the Nullarbor our next destination was Kalgoorlie.

Another long and hot drive got us to Alice Springs, taking in some huge salt lakes on the way and seeing wild goats and horses on the road. We spent a few days exploring the town including doing a tour of the Royal Flying Doctors. There wasn’t a lot more to see apart from the camel stations and over priced wild life parks. Next stop was heading the 5 hours to Yulura, the nearest resort to Uluru (Ayers Rock).

Unfortunately we didn’t make the destination because of a blow out on a rear tyre resulting in a spin off the road and rolling our van. We were very lucky to walk away with only minor cuts and bruises, but the same couldn’t be said for Bill the camper van. He was damaged beyond repair and due to the remote location was unable to be recovered. Passers by were good enough to stop and help, followed about 40mins later the police who took us off to a medical centre to get checked out. The medical centre was an experience in its self as was in an Aboriginal community not assessable to the general public.

Two passers by that stopped were an Aussie couple Matt and Lauren, they were heading for South Australia and very kindly offered us a ‘lift’. We packed all we could fit into our bags and left Bill at the side of the road. A lift sounds like just down the road but was actually a 2 day drive to Port Augusta.  From there we caught a coach back to Adelaide where Claire’s family came to pick us up and generally took care of us. We were very grateful of having such good (new) friends and family.

Down but not out we started the hunt for a new vehicle to continue our trip. We bought a Holden Commodore Wagon and fitted it out with a mattress in the back and re-bought all our cooking and eating equipment (along with lots of donated equipment from family). The next plan was… head back to Uluru!

Before we left we got to experience Australia Day, very patriotic with flags and temporary tattoos a plenty. Of course there was also much BBQ’ing, drinking and back yard cricket.