Beginning of a Great Adventure On the road for a year with Nik, Dunc, Maeve (6) and Ella (4): 8 months in Oz with 4wd and Campertrailer, 6 weeks in NZ and 3 months in Asia.

After a couple weeks and close to 1000kms, we are off the dirt roads. Rosie handled everything though she was running a bit rough by the end, while Reg, our trusty campertrailer, is in perfect condition still. So many beautiful sights i really cant begin....Galvin's gorge...Manning Gorge....Bell gorge...El Questro gorge....Zeepedee hot springs-google them and check them out All I will say is that the Kimberly's (especially the Gibb River Road area)is a truly majestic, magnificent part of Australia that you should all try to visit. I really enjoyed El Questro, a million acre cattle station....there a Baz Lurhmann movie comming out soon that was filmed around it, and I can imagine it wll become pretty well know around the world pretty soon (if the movies successful that is)....We'd read that it was stuck up due to the luxury 1000 dollar a night homestead accomodation where Nicole Kidman stayed, and that all they cared about was making money with no time for the humble camper.....what a load of crap!!!! It was a Lovely camping area at 30 bucks a night-no charge for kids under 12, beautiful gorges, swimming in crystal clear water, and lolling about in to die for natural thermal pools, we had 5 days there. The Saturday evening we took part in the BBQ and i played harmonica with the bloke who plays music there every weekend....he had a dobro, 12 string, and acoustic, and we really clicked.....sometimes you play wth people and they just have a different sense of timing ( or simply cant keep time....harsh but true) or when they go on a tangent or improvise, you can't follow, not because someone's right or wrong or better or worse, just because your not in “harmony”.....not this time....it really was a great night of music making, and the crowd were increasingly appreacative as the night went on. Must have played for 2-3 hours and they were begging for more at the end. Bliss! We are spending a couple of days in Kununarra before heading off to Perululu (bungle bungle ranges), and then probably down the Tanami track to Alice, though we may stay up north and take the Buntine highway through to Katherine, and skip Alice and the rock.....either way it will be a back on the dirt roads, which we all love. Rosie had a service which she needed....new oil and air filters, grease and oil change and she's purring like a post coital multi orgasmic kitten. Unfortunately, we are now seeing more of the aboriginal problem here.....its a world away from One Arm Point.....its not really terrible, but there are aboriginals here that are clearly terribly down and out...staggering drunk at 10 am, passed out on a bench...... but then again, i can see the same thing in Amsterdam or London or Paris if i hang around the central station.....there will always be some for whom the cracks of life are yawning chasms.....in someways its the shutters on the windows and the fact i cant buy more than one 2 litre cask of wine at a time, that indicate the level of problems that exist here. Anyway, hopefully alll who read this are happy and healthy....I have a new Telsta mobile number....it is +61 (0)458 463 457.....we also have the sat phone....+61 (0)147 160 0127.....Feel free to drop me a sms or call...and if we can meet up along the way, then let me know. Not sure where we will be for Niks 40th birthday on the 28th of August, or my 42nd, which is the day before....i think Alice or somewhere near it, so if anyone has the time and money to get across for a party in the red center, sms us your travel times and we can work around them. Go on...Carpe Diem:)!!!! Peace, Love, Happiness to all. Nik, Maeve, Ella, and Duncan