Once again, things worked out really well, with Jess able to spend many hours with her school friends, both in Alice Springs and at Ularu. On both occasions we camped about 20 metres from them, allowing easy interaction when their timetable allowed. Both Jess and Maddy were able to attend a 'Reptile' display in Alice, with the school at the camping area. It was organized by the school for the tour kids, but it only cost Jess & Maddy $2 each to participate as well. Assorted deadly and not so deadly snakes along with some very tame lizards were displayed and the not so deadly ones handled. One of the highlights was a 3.5 metre python. All the kids were grouped in a tight circle and the python crawled (snaked?) its way around their shoulders and necks, encompassing at least five kids at a time!

We left Alice Springs the day before the school group, travelling to Ularu (Ayres Rock). We managed to get the camp site closest to the bus camping area, immediately adjacent to where the school group would be next day - Jess' birthday. By the time the bus arrived, Marg and I had checked out the dinner options and I fronted up to the head teacher and asked if I could borrow a couple of the girls for the evening… Jess didn't know anything about this and as she exited the van and opened the car door, 2 grinning school friends (Stacey & Beth) were sitting in the back seat waiting! We went to one of the eateries and after all the talking-eating-talking-drinking-talking, we brought out a birthday cake alight with candles. Jess had been convinced that we didn't have one - we'd even stuck a lighted match in the top of her breakfast and sung Happy Birthday, just to keep her convinced. (The cake and a huge bag of smarties that Maddy was giving her had all been stored in the fridge, wrapped in a plastic bag with 'Maddy's Science Experiment' written on the bag - it had been enough that Jess didn't even bother to poke into it for a look). The whole evening was a success!

and a walk up the gorge. The next day had similar weather and I was becoming concerned about getting the opportunity to climb. The school kids were really disappointed as they had to head for home on the third day - we extended another night and the climb was opened at 10:00am on the day they left to head back to Moe.

Right: Maddy, Stacey, Jess, Beth & Marg celebrating Jess' birthday at Ularu.

Above: It's a Looooong climb up from the car park, up the chain - and there's a cairn at the top!

It was a big achievement for Maddy to climb it as she was so scared, due to her uncomfortableness with heights generally. She took it slowly with me not too far below - I thought it was great, as it allowed me to go slowly too, with frequent stops, so I didn't get as puffed as I otherwise might have! Coming back down was the hardest part on my legs and I had a very stiff calf muscle the next day. (The girls were OK though - Ahh.. Youth!) Maddy had a grin for the next week and walked round saying things like "Dad, guess what? I climbed Ularu!!!"

Kings canyon was hot! The girls did a walk along the floor of the canyon while I climbed the rocks for the 7.5km walk around the rim. The walk was good for my calf - I seemed to walk 'through' the stiffness and actually felt better at the end of the walk than I had before I started - tho' I was starting to feel the heat. I set out at about 11:00am and completed it about 3:00pm, so walked in the hottest part of the day.

Marg stayed back at the van. Unfortunately the infection from bites (wets?) received from the sand-flies in Darwin had taken their toll. She had become so bad at Ularu that she had to go to the doctor there. They gave her some antibiotics, steroids and anti-histamines as she was suffering from not only the bites and subsequent infection from scratching them, but also a rash from shoulders to toes. It was all super itchy and very uncomfortable. It required two more visits to the doctor when we got back to Alice Springs. Even as I write this, nearly a month later, she is still only slowly recovering.

Our return to Alice Springs, whilst without fanfare, was not without 'pomp and ceremony'! The Alice Springs Festival was in full swing. This is two solid weeks of activities. Busking, competitions in the streets, Art and Body workshops, displays and performances every day, mean there really is something for almost everyone.

The Araluen Theatre in the Alice Springs Cultural Precinct was obviously designed by the same architect as the auditorium we are used to in Warragul. We purchased some of the few remaining tickets and went to a Wearable Fashion night, hosted by Jeanie Little.
Let me tell you, it was Aaabsolutely Faaabbulous Daaarling… Well, it was DIFFERENT anyway!

Another part of the festival was the 'Desert Song' evening. Aboriginal choirs comprising 165 singers, from NT. WA. & SA. had travelled to participate in what was really a great night. A stage, sound system and lighting had been set up on the bank of the Todd River, while we, the crowd, sat in the river to listen. Ohh, I guess I should explain to those who don't know about the Todd, it hardly ever flows. Apparently if you see it flow three times, you're considered a local! The songs sung by the choirs were hymns, as they all came from missions, but that didn't matter as the hymns were sung in their local languages and we didn't understand a word. It is a shame they have lost so much of their own identity, as it would have been even better if they were singing their traditional songs. Despite this, with the sun setting behind them and the flags on ANZAC hill providing a backdrop, it was a beautiful evening.

Maddy provided much mirth to the local aboriginal children in the playground, by proceeding down a large slide at high speed wearing a skirt and hi-rise knickers - she now has a new nickname, I am however, prohibited from mentioning it here!

Above Top: Kings Canyon
Left: Songs of the Desert, in the Todd River
Center: Jess, Rachel, Maddy and Beck
Right: Battle Stations - Todd River style

Back into tourist mode, we headed for Hermansberg - the birthplace and source of inspiration for the famous aboriginal painter, Albert Namagera. We bumped into Marg's old boss, education department regional director Bruce Boucher, and his wife. We had last seen them at Ian Grants Caravans (where our van came from). From there to Palm Valley. This required a drive of about 20kms up a river bed, before the really rough 4WDriving started. At one point we had the front right wheel on a rock, the rear left on a rock…. And nothing in between! The car handled it well - the passengers…well…. It was getting late in the day by the time we arrived and we couldn't stay too long as I wanted to be back out to the river bed before dark. It took an hour and a half to drive 28kms. Definitely worth the trip, but it would have been better if we had allowed more time to walk up through 'Palm Valley as apparently the scenery got even better further up.

Another event involved cars that would NEVER have made it into Palm Valley; Hot Rods from all over Australia converged on the Alice. Saturday night was Drag Night out at the airport with amongst other things, the fastest Funeral Hearse and the coolest Model 'T' I've ever seen!

Slightly north of the town is the old Telegraph Office (that gave Alice its reason for being…) and we were able to have a guided tour from an elderly ½ cast aboriginal who had lived there throughout his childhood. It was interesting to hear his positive views of 'the stolen generation' without which he says, he would have died as a child - he had pneumonia and was almost dead when found in the river bed with his teenage mother. He was taken away, educated and has lived to a ripe old age. We took the opportunity to visit the Royal Flying Doctor and the School of the Air where the receptionist was from Dumbalk (near where we came from).

After nearly a month since we'd arrived in Alice Springs, we headed back in the general direction of Darwin, stopping overnight at Devils Marbles. We timed it well as the ranger arrived to give a fireside talk. With the evening temperature having dropped to about 35C, there wasn't much need for the fire and the ring of listeners were all well away from the fire.

Below left & right: It's an arguable point as to whether Marg and I are cracked - but many of the Devils Marbles are.
Below center: It was warm enough for Jess to sleep outside.

Next stop, Mount Isa. Not a town I, or the rest of the family would like to live in. We had been debating on which way we would proceed from Mount Isa, either up to the The Gulf (Normington and Kununurra), or straight across to Cairns.

A phone message on message bank, received shortly after arrival in Mount Isa made the decision for us and resulted in us declaring an end to our holiday. SAGE, a company I had done some work for just before last Christmas, wanted someone to go to Java to deliver a training course at Paiton Power Station.

We headed as fast as we could towards the coast, stopping at Longreach overnight to go to the Stockman's Hall of Fame. We also made sure we visited the billabong that was the inspiration for Banjo Patterson's 'Waltzing Matilda'. This was the day of Slim Dusty's funeral, a fact we became aware of from the radio, and as we pulled back onto the highway, they played Slim Dusty singing Waltzing Matilda - the synchronicity of it was amazing and really quite a touching moment.

Boyne Island, near Gladstone is a nice place and home now to Heather, Mark and their family, friends who have moved up there from Newborough (Their house in Monash Rd. was just around the corner from Marg and my first house). We had known them from Rotaract and I had known Heather at college, a fact that came in very handy as I needed someone (not family) to witness a photograph for the new passport I needed (all of ours being so neatly packed in the shipping container back in Victoria, that Marg's brother-in-law, Andrew couldn't find them!).

Heather and I spent all day chasing around, with photos, forms and faxes, as I needed a new passport urgently, to enable application for a work visa for Java. The necessary paperwork was completed, with a premium paid to expedite the new passport. Express posted by Monday night, the Passport Office processed it all within an hour on Tuesday morning and had it back in the mail that day! Not a bad effort… that was, 'till Australia Post lost it! On the day I was about to head for Brisbane to get another one, it turned up, SEVEN days later. Even though it was sent registered mail, they had no way of tracking it as all passports have the SAME tracking number… Dohh!!!

We drove to Coolum, stayed a couple of nights with my sister Fran and her husband John (from where we daily commuted to Maroochydore, looking for the passport!). We relocated to Maroochydore and the van is now parked facing the Maroochy river with a terrific view and the sea is only a short walk along the sand, 100metres away.

My flight from Maroochydore to Melbourne was uneventful, however upon arrival, Melbourne turned on a HUGE storm - so bad that the aircraft unloaders refused to unload the baggage and I had to wait 2 hours before getting it. The traffic was appalling and it took another hour to do the 30km's to the tunnel and ¾ hour IN the tunnel. The plane arrived at 4:15, I got to Mt Waverly at 8:00pm!

I had managed to catch up with a few people whilst in the Latrobe Valley, but the hours I needed to put in for work didn't leave much time for socializing. The return trip to Melbourne four days later was much more pleasant, although it necessitated an early start at 6:30am. I picked up Mick, my traveling companion, a programmer from SAGE and we departed Melbourne at 11:20am.

Our arrival into Bali was late and we were already on a very tight schedule, only having 40 minutes to clear customs, collect our baggage, transfer to the domestic terminal and catch another plane to Surabuya. We spoke to the staff on the plane going to Bali and they contacted the ground and arranged to expedite us through customs… A GREAT idea… except they took our passports and that was the last we saw of them for a while… Mick and I refused to board our connecting flight until we got out passports back - the flight to Surabuya was therefore delayed whilst our passports were located and returned and we boarded the commuter flight.

I find it almost impossible to describe the traffic congestion and the trip towards the power station at Paiton. For those who have been to a third world country, let me say it was hectic - for those who haven't, let me say it is organized chaos. The three hours drive needed to cover the 140km to our accommodation was absolutely heart in mouth stuff that needed to be seen to be believed. Passing 4 wide, with traffic directions alternate (left, right, left, right,) up to 120km/hr on narrow pot-holed roads with motor bikes, cars, buses and trucks ALL tooting horns, flashing headlights, turn signals etc. Even at 140km/hr on a 'freeway', buses belching thick black smoke were flashing headlights at us to get us to move out of the way - we were holding them up! I still haven't worked out if our driver was a good one or a terrible one - despite all the traffic, we passed virtually every vehicle we saw and no-one managed to pass us. How long the drive would take at a sedate SAFE pace I'm not sure, but I guess at least an hour more!

One thing that is very apparent is that they will tell you anything, to try and make you happy. A typical exchange with our company driver was:
"Do you speak English?"
"Ohh yes sir, very much!"
"What is that crop growing in the field?"
"Sorry?
"The crop, plants, what do you call - is it tobacco?"
"Ahhm…" (blank look)
"What do they grow, the 'little' people (meaning lower class), what are the plants, vegetables…?"
In perfect English… "I am very sorry sir, I do not speak English"
(Argghhhh….)
They don't like to give you bad news, in case it upsets you…

"Salamat Baggi (good morning) do you know where our driver is, he is late and we need to be at the power station"
"He is coming! He will be here immediately" (Smiling, but obviously with absolutely no idea where our driver is.)
"Terramakasi" (Thankyou)
15 minutes later….
"The driver… where is he?
"He is coming - he will be here immediately" (still no idea of his whereabouts)
"When will he be here? We are supposed to be working now, at the power station!"
"He is coming" (big smiles of re-assurance)
"When?"
"I Will find out" (still smiling, but not as much)
The driver eventually turned up; he'd stopped off home for breakfast and it took the compound supervisor two phone calls to get some action.

Everyone we came in contact with was very friendly, and very proud of their job, from ….bike.. boy to security guard, to the workers in the power station. A 'proudness' that is even more pronounced if they are able to wear a uniform.

Our living conditions were rather hard to tolerate. Air conditioned comfort in a nicely furnished house (in which, like almost all of Indonesia, everything is covered with shiny white tiles) with a house maid to cook, wash our dishes and our clothes. I have come back to Australia with a new level of expectation of the appropriate duties to be performed by the lady of the house! (needless to say - SHE has a noticeably different point of view...)

I arranged for a massage, and it was performed by a 'little person' from a nearby village, arranged by the house maid of the project co-ordinator, Terry Weatherson. I duly arrived at Terry's house (Terry was still at work) and was let in by the maid, Pini, and shown to the bedroom where the massage was to take place.
"you may remove your shirt and shorts - its ok"
I removed the said items of clothing, the massage lady having carefully averted her eyes, the maid having made herself scarce. I lay facedown on the massage mat on the tiles and began to relax. The maid returned, and amidst peals of laughter:
"Mr Jim, I think you need to go to bathroom"
Ohh dear…. What's showing… "What do you mean Pini?"
Still laughing and pointing at my bottom… "Mr Jim, I think maybe you should go to bathroom… now.."
Damn… I know I have eaten a lot of hot food lately, but my stomach feels OK… don't tell me there is an unmentionable mark on prominent display….
"Pini… what do you mean, why do I need to go to bathroom?
(Embarrassed, but determined not to move from the mat… if it was as I feared, then what the heck was I to do about it?)
"You have problem Mr Jim… Pini think you should go to bathroom now"
"Why Pini?
"Because you have your inside on the outside" massive laughter from both the maid and the masseuse!
She was right, I had my jocks on inside out… it had been a late night and early start that day…. What did they expect??? It could have been worse!

The week flew past and the training went well, allowing Mick and I the opportunity to travel to Bromo, an active volcano. Pini and her friend Sri, along with Terry's driver Sarosso drove us two hours into the mountains, to where we could see the lifeless, ash strewn valley stretching before us and the volcano in the distance. A four wheel drive and driver were then hired to take us on the next hour of our journey, across the valley, up one mountain for a look and then to Bromo. We picked up a hitchhiker along the way and as there was no room INSIDE the vehicle, he clung to the outside amidst the dust in the hot sun, for over half an hour, up a very steep 4WD track,. Next, we hired horses and bounced our way up some steeper sections ('rode' would indicate a greater level of ability than was possible on a horse that seemed not much bigger than a Shetland Pony…. And I had the biggest one!). With the stirrups at full extension but my feet still uncomfortably close to my chin, I guess I still had it easier than the poor horse, and also his owner who JOGGED the whole way up the mountain beside me! Once the going got too steep, we dismounted and climbed the last 250 steps up the side of the crater to the rim. There was no boiling lava, but the 'brimstone' and sulphur gas was something that Shrek would have been proud of! We walked half way around the rim, part of which was only about a metre wide, with precipitous drops on either side. On our return, we visited the villages/families of both girls (Pini and Sri). This was treated as an honor by their families, being visited by 'experts' and we had trouble getting them to understand that we felt honored to be invited! Mick and I felt it was a very interesting and exciting day.

Left: The last 250 steps to the crater top.
Top left: A street in the housing compound - very good by Javanese standards.
Top right: Ya gotta feel sorry for the horse!
Bottom left: A 5:30am walk with the girls through the fields.
Bottom right: If you believe this, you'll buy 'this' watch....
Right: Bromo's crater - "I know brimstone when I smell it..."

I won't go into the rest too deeply, other than to mention that I returned via Bali - staying for a few days in Kuta Beach. The people there are really doing it tough, with only a fraction of the normal tourist numbers. It really upset me to see how hard it is for so many of them.

My return to Sydney (with a 6 hour wait at the airport) and then up to Maroochydore, went without drama and then it was time to settle back into caravan life. Jess and Maddy had managed to get most of their schooling done while I was away. We are now busy trying to find a business to buy - somewhere to live/work.

We have just spent four days, staying on the top floor at 'The Grand' holiday apartments on the Gold Coast, with a spectacular view. Whilst there, we met a guy who had just won Lotto the night before and looked to be possibly the happiest person I've ever seen. Lets hope it's all a good omen for our future.

To all those who have stuck with us on our adventure, and for all the emails and encouragement, a sincere thankyou… Don't stop emailing just because we've stopped travelling, keep them coming and please tell us all your news.

Please have a happy and safe Christmas!

For the last time, till next time….

Love from,

Jim, Marg, Jess & Maddy