Sleeping on Picnic Tables - Live from Alice Springs

An email sent yesterday by Laura from her tour of Uluru (Ayer's Rock):

JP and I made it back from the The Rock tour a few minutes ago. We had a great time! It poured rain and was 13 degrees the first night and instead of seeing the sunset at Ayers Rock we saw waterfalls!!! and then today it was 43 degrees in the shade as we hiked Kings Canyon. To make things even more interesting our bus broke down and we had to spend 3 hours waiting for a replacement to be shipped in from Alice Springs. It was a looooong day and I am looking forward to sleeping in a bed tonight.

We slept in a swag outside on top of a picnic table last night as there were scorpions roaming freely on the ground! One of them made his home in the entrance to the ladies toilet so that made a trip to pee a bit of an adventure!!!

We are ready to sleep now and will be off to Adelaide tomorrow.

Jonnymoon SW - Day 2 AM - THE BEST BEACH IN THE WORLD

Well, Laura and JP have flown off to Alice Springs on their Australia tour. They are heading to the heat of Uluru (Ayer's Rock). Go figure, but it gets scorching in perth with 34 Celsius today, and kinda muggy. Anyhow, will continue to update the SW west trip over the next few days, and in two weeks will catch up on the Jonnymoon in Sydney.

Middleton Beach

After the thunder and Lightning of Wednesday night, we woke up to a beautiful morning at Emu Beach/Middleton Beach in Albany on Day 2. As there was nice warm shower back at the cabin, I took it upon myself to go for a swim in the Southern Ocean. Disaster struck before I even got to the beach as my swim trunks ripped while sitting down in a chair. Thus, it would be those shorts' final swim! The water was a little chillier than Perth water, but not horrible. The local we talked to said she never puts her feet in the water even in the middle of summer in February. What a wimp!

Ripped shorts ... booooo

Heading into the Southern Ocean

That same local gave us a tip. 40km to the east was "the best beach in the world". JP liked to say that line over and over again in his best attempt at the australian accent. Still not very good. I have a lot of trouble picking up the accent, as you just have to shorten words, and say them fast (ex. Water = Wata, How you going = owyegoin'). The beach was called "Little Beach", and it IS safe to say that it's the best beach in the world. It was packed. A total of 3 people were there (including us). The water was so extremely turqoisey, the sand so white. The beach was dominated by two large pegmatitic boulders in the centre. The weather was still a bit chilly, and the seas a bit rough, but in the middle of summer with 25 to 30 C weather, this is definately "the best beach in the world".

Heaven (aka Little Beach) below: more pics here

Enjoying the scenery

Coming up: The Gap ... and I'm not talking about clothes