UnNamed

It has been suggested to me that I should write down just what it is that I expect to see and do during this trip that we are about to undertake to the outback of AUSTRALIA, (the we being my son TOM and myself) And as I sit here it strikes me that it is harder to do than say. Having never been further than WHYALLA in SOUTH AUSTRALIA, and that was when I was about 16years old, and seeing as I am now 55 years old, the memory is not that reliable. However I shall give it a go.

I suppose the first things that most people think of when they contemplate long driving in the outback is just that, long boring roads stretching out in front of you. And I was certainly not the odd man out in that respect.

The excitement of seeing things that I have only read about or seen in magazines or on T.V (Tom who has been out back before) tells me that the night sky is very much different to what I am used to seeing back in the city, so that is one thing that I am looking forward to seeing, the chance to see AYRES ROCK (ULURU) in all it�s glory, the experience of camping underground in a tent (I kid you not) at COOBER PEDY is another thing to look forward to, but the most important thing will be the chance to spend the next 2 weeks with my eldest son, as he takes me to all the places that he has seen before ( and some that he has not) And I am sure that he will enjoy showing ( the old bloke) the interesting places along the way.

The hardest part of the whole trip will be the thought of leaving my beautiful wife, and the rest of my family behind, CHRIS (who was going to come along with us but unfortunately could not get time off work) MARIA, JOANNE and TERRY JNR. The girls of my family are just not interested in roughing it so to speak; I will miss them so much while we are away. I hope that if I should not return for some reason (maybe we will be abducted by aliens out in the desert) that they all know that I love them very much.

Anyway we have been planning this trip for about 18 months now; TOM has said that it will be a good experience for us and that it will build memories for us (for once I think he could be right).

Tom has been preparing his TOYOTA LANDCRUISER for some months now, stocking up on food, equipment, clothes and all the essential things that he feels we will need for our journey, especially plenty of water.

We plan to leave the city of MELBOURNE on the 21ST APRIL 2001 and will return if all goes well in the first week of MAY.

I have placed some photos of some of the places that we will be seeing as we go along (I will add some more as I do more of the trip) so please feel free to have a look at them. It will take me some time to complete this journal, as I am only a one finger at a time typist, and mistakes will occur in places, if you spot any please let me know by e-mail.

NOW LET'S BEGIN OUR JOURNEY.