the birm*

tales from the roadtrip...(this is an extended summary of the road trip. if you don't want details, read the post below for a shorter version!)
3304kms, 6 tanks of fuel, 250photos, 50 cd's, many tales, a few quiet ales and 3 states.
on the spur of the moment we had borrowed a friend's car, packed (of sorts!) and left for adelaide. the reason? cause both doorbell and i had week off and cause we'd never been there before! we had a road atlas and a recently purchase illustrated guide to australia ($5 at a garage sale). after driving through lochinvar, gees creek, denman, gungal, borambil, stubbo and gulgon, we picked up 2 hitch hikers and dropped em off in wellington, where we stopped for a kebab and some fruit, 5 hours after we'd left. we kept going through west wyalong, wheetallie, rankins springs, crossed the fruit fly exclusion zone (you have to eat or turf any fruit or veg you have in the car or pay a hefty fine!), gunbar (the furthest west doorbell had been) and made hay while the sun was shining. there we had a swim in the free community pool(yes please!), a really cool, deep and clean blue pool, niiiiiiiiiiice! we bought some bread and some old and headed outa town. we drove another 40mins and stopped at a truckstop.
we were greeted by open space and "cats eyes". as a result we slept on the ramp leading up to the toilets...which had been burnt down, but the ramp was still there. as we left in a rush and were in the middle of nowehre dinner consisted of pasta sangas...thankfully we had crips old to wash it down with while admiring the sunset. we got to bed reading "jeeves and the impending doom". the night was mozzie infested and quite noisy due to trucks stopping for the night. but we got some sleep and woke up at dawn to a sky on fire. beautiful! we drove off and past a million birds, through moulamein, tooleybuc, crossed into victoria, ouyen, galah, walpeup, torrita (we really are in mexico!), underbool, carina, panitya (saw some camels), took a photo of us peeing over south australia border (well we didn't but you can't tell on the photo!), pinaroo, lameroo, sherlock, crossed on a ferry, wellington (a different one!), past pink salt lakes, strathalbyn, ashbourne (great drive, nice to have some hills, some trees and some turns!), got to aldynga beach at 2:30 and had a swim in nice and cold turquoise water. back in the car and to adelaide. we parked at glenelg and caught the tram into the city at about 5:30pm ish. walked and walked and walked, caught the tram back past the car to the sea, bought a pizza, saw the sun set in the sea (not common for someone who lives on the east coast of australia!), tram back to the car where we slept. fantastic night sleep! up and 7, swim in cold grey sea, had weetbix, muesli and bananas on a seat looking at the sea, bought some postcards and drove off. we got to hahndorf(first german settlement in oz?) and had a great coffee and berliner at otto's bakery. so scenic and green and wet (such a contrast, almost like a mini world and climate. as soon as we got onto the freeway again it went back to dry and yellow-brown). kept going through tailem bend, lameroo, and back to ouyen. then turmed off and onto new territory. chinkapook ("red earth"), crossed 143rd east meridian at 2:40pm and hit nyah lake for lunch. good rest and lettuce sanga for lunch, bought some supplies, got ready to go when a cop pulled up AND BOOKED ME FOR BEING ILLEGALLY PARKED!!!! cause it's a town the size of my butt and there was no one and the street was the width of the sea and cause there was shade under a tree, i pulled up under the tree, parallel to the foortpath, rather than the 60 degree angle park you were supposed to do. "JUST CAUSE THIS IS A SMALL TOWN DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN DISOBEY THE ROAD RULES" he said. so there you go...i thought it was a little anal, but anyway, i guess it gave him something to do. i still haven't got the ticket as i write this...
back in the car towards swan hill, vinifera, swan hill, lake boga (where we had a great chill out near the lake, sat in the shade,read, relaxed and swam in the lake), onwards to kerang, koondrook, crossed back into nsw at 8:05pm @ barham and stopped about 20kms out for the night. watched the sun set til the mozzies got too much then hit the sack (since we had such a great night in the car we decided to do the same). cause the blood-suckers were so bad we had to devise a system to block em out, while still letting air in the car... we used beach towels). left the next day (thursday) at 10 to 8, had brekkied 1hour later in deniliquin at "the old dublin cafe", a beaut fry, very irish, except for the potato bread...checked out the place, strolled around and left for wagga. conargo, jerilderie, urand (where we stopped for lunch, had a rest and wrote some postcards). back in the car at 2pm, boree creek, collingullie and wagga wagga ("place of may crows" or "dancing/drunk man")at 3:15pm, had a swim at "wagga beach", put clean clothes on and went to lexi's house (a friend i went to uni with). we met her fiancee jeff and had great fun with her 4 and a half year old daughter juliette. so funny! we had a great time chatting, playing with the cat malibu and just chillin. great sleep on a mattrreses on the floor and up with the very loud "quiet" voice of juliette :) went to visit wagga a bit (the museum and the botanical gardens, where i got spat on by an alpaca!). back in the car at 12:30 towards sydney. twas weird seeing traffic and busy roads again!
got to sydney at 5:30 and went to Chris and Jen's house, hang out with them and their 2 and a half year old harrison. chris showed me his very nice holden FX, mint condition! we had a great dinner cooked by jen (indian) and went to peter and cheryl's to stay the night (just round the corner). twas great to see them again, i love those guys (they were missios in africa and used to come to our Church before they moved to sydney, so i don't often see them anymore...). great night sleep but up at dawn to go pick up tallman from the airport. we got him at 6:40, had a great chat with him on the way back, a quick coffee at the caltex and back to our front door at 10 to 10, 5 days after we started, 3304kms later... what a great trip!
we only needed to wash the car before we returned it...and try to remove the smell of fart from the seats...