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May 22, 2005

Kings Cross Car Market

Alice Springs is the driest city on earth, they haven't had any rain for 9 months...and it doesn't look like rain any time soon. We spent a couple of nights west of Alice in the McDonald ranges and got some more brilliant sunsets.
The morning of my birthday, Jim and Anna made French toast and we sat out in the desert sipping tea and watching the birds wake up. That night we celebrated by going to an outback pub and dancing the night away.

A very uneventful three day drive to Adelaide brought us to our departure from Anna; we put her on a plane back to Melbourne and headed out into the wine country of South Australia.
Jim and I hunkered down in wine country (Barossa valley) for a few days; we visited a couple of the 60 wineries in the area and tasted all types of delicious wines. The Barossa valley is famous for their Reisling and Shiraz grapes.

We then embarked on a 3 day journey across Kansas-like land to arrive in Sydney. Focused, and with 13 days we headed to the in-famous Kings Cross Car Market to sell our beloved van. We arrived late on Friday (the 13th) and settled into the market scene. It is held in the bottom of an underground parking garage. There we found about 40 other cars and vans waiting to be sold, their owners sitting beside them, some hopeful...and others hopeless. Some people had been down in the dungeon for 12, 13, 14 days and counting. The walls were covered with graffiti from previous backpackers, stories of having sold cars in minutes...and some that were not so inspiring. It was like a carnival down there, everyone doing something different to pass the time; reading, drinking beer, playing the didgeridoo, or soccer....

We were some of the lucky ones. We had a long day Saturday, many people in the market, but not many people looking at our van. Others were getting desperate to sell, and dropping their prices ridiculously low...but we held on.

Sunday was our day, a Dutch couple fell in love with our van (Missy) and after much negotiation we settled on a price and sealed the deal on Monday morning. We escaped after 2 1/2 days with our sanity intact, and 10 days to explore Sydney and plan the next stages of our adventure.

Posted by Jim & Lisa on May 22, 2005 09:55 PM
Category: Australia
Comments

It's great to see another post from you! I check the site most every day in hopes to see something. :)

So you bought the van to use while there, then sold it back when leaving? Sounds like a decent idea - much better than renting. We plan to spend a lot of time in Australia as well, so we'll have to be sure to do the same. :)

Can't wait to hear about your next adventure!

Posted by: Jason Davis on May 23, 2005 08:17 AM

too bad you had to get rid of that sweet sweet hooptie! Just kidding. I know Annie and Tessa got quite attached to Moshe in New Zealand.

The rest of your trip sounds really cool. I wish I could have french toast while camping somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I'm still totally jealous thinking about all the awesome starry nights you get down there. Enjoy them! Good luck with the rest of your adventure!

Posted by: bill on May 26, 2005 10:37 AM
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