It's 100 degrees in the shade, you have a minimum of 7 flies buzzing around your head at any given moment, gas stations come every 100 miles or so... but my little sweetheart runs like a dream (since her new transmission installed in Melbourne) and I am loving it. THIS is the Australian outback!

I put up some notices on the message boards around the youth hostels in Adelaide hoping to gain some company and someone to share expenses with as I ventured out into the open outback of Central Australia. An Austrian girl ended up calling me just as I was about to shove off and decided to join me on the adventure, in broken English of course.

The outback is the biggest, lonliest, driest, harshest place I have ever been to. To drive for 3 hours straight is easy in the States, but in the Outback, every mile seems like an eternity cutting through the 100+ degree heat and non-changing scenery. You can measure your progress by how many dead animals you've passed. The roadkill is amazing. There are thousands of dead kangaroos and plenty of cows, bulls, sheep, and horses to go along. There are monster farms they call "Stations" that include the highway in their grazing areas of a few hundred thousand acres allowing for livestock to meet the 4 trailered "Road Trains" that frequent these roads (as there is only 1 paved highway in the Outback, and it was just completed in 1987).

We traveled on through the Opal Mining town of Coober Pedy, passing Aboriginees doing what they do best, sit in the shade and tell stories. It's a bit sad that these cultures that have been around for thousands of years are not really excepted in the Australian society these days on the account of laziness. This has left the Aboriginees to live in somewhat of a poverish state and beg for money from the tourists. I have tried to have a conversation with a couple, but as soon as they know you are not going to give them money, they want nothing to do with you.

We went to see the famous landmark site of Ayer's Rock, or Uluru in Aboriginee. The monolth formation is a sacred site that glows bright red at sunset and is one of the most recognizable landmarks in all of Australia. Swatting flies all day, we managed to hang around Uluru (which is 4 and a half hours from the next town of Alice Springs) to make the great sunset cooking a meal on the camp stove in front of the glowing rock. We left Ayer's Rock to enjoy free camping about 100 kilometer's down the road at an outback roadhouse (The roadhouses, though in the middle of nowhere, come complete with satelitte connections for credit cards, hot showers and drinking water- and cold Coke)

Travelling on from the roadhouse we went to King's Canyon (would have been cool if you've never been to the Grand Canyon), backtracked 165 K's and made the final 3 hour drive to Alice Springs. Normally driving until just past sunset, we'd be cruising with the windows down, Jack Johnson blaring out of my blown speakers, the red/orange sky illuminating the red puffs of dirt kicked up from the kangaroos bounding along the roadside- quite a surreal time.

The Austrian girl was good for having someone to sit in the passenger seat and share costs, but that was about it. She had the personality of a sea urchin and did not understand a word of my English slang. She is heading up North and I met a Canadian guy that is going to travel with me to the East coast. Eh?

I went for a hot air balloon ride this morning for absolutely free after winning a drawing from a travel shop here in Alice Springs (still in the middle of the outback, but somehow they've managed to make a nice town here). A lady saw me sitting in my car and asked if I wanted to come to a meeting for backpackers- she said there were cold drinks and around here that stuff is like crack. Went for the cold drink, left with a $210 balloon ride followed up with a huge breakfast and champagne. I was on e of the ulcky two people to help hold the baloon open while airplane sized propellers filled it with air and intermitted blasts from the propane heaters lifted her off the ground. We flew between 10 and 1000 feet- bounding kangaroos sped across the dusty outback with every shot from the burners which are very hot and loud. We saw the beautiful sites of Alice Springs- an oil refinery, a maximum security prison and a US Air Force Base.

Last night at the campground I stayed at there was a feeding of the local wallabies (small kangaroos) at sunset. A little Aboriginee boy gave me some special food to feed them and I sat down and was surrounded by wallabies. They eat out of your hand and then let you rub them like you would a dog. Most of the little bastards were timid, but one of them wanted no food, just was really happy to have a 15 minute butt scratch from his fellow American.

Leaving this afternoon back into the bush. Heading East to Cairns to begin the treck down the East Coast. Will most likely have 3 or so more days in the Outback of Queensland before making it to the beaches and the 'ole Great Barrier Reef.

The car will be named by the time she gets to the East Coast. Although I can say I stopped to take a picture of a HUGE dead bull on the side of the road who had been hit by some sort of big vehicle (most likely an 86 Ford Falcon). I wanted to see if I could get his horns to put on the front of my car, but that was a project the leatherman could not handle. Of course he had these big bull nuts still intact and it wasn't until an hour or so down the road I thought I should have snipped those and hung them from the back of my car and made it a "him." The roadkill I find while travelling East will determine the sex of the vehicle.

Livin' the dream...