Saturday, July 16

No internet, no worries, Mate. We are in a place called Georgetown, population 3OO. We left Cairns yesterday after picking up our 3 camper vans -- Winnebagos -- and one of the Hoovers' old friends, Sammy. Sammy took us to his nephew's Italian restaurants before we headed out.

Let me tell you -- driving on the left side of the road, in a winnebago, add in a standard transmission with the stick on your left, in a strange city and you have a ton of fun!!! Oh -- and then we had to start driving over the mountains. More fun.

We spent the night in campsite in a national park, cooked burgers and called it a night. Madie and Meredith loved sleeping in the bed above the drivers cabin. After a good nights sleep and a full brekky of eggs, bacon and biscuits we were off. OK -- I forgot to share that I almost knocked down a cabin trying to back into our camper site. No worries -- nobody hurt. Just freaked out the cabin's residents a bit. Dumb Americans.

So today's drive was both harrowing and spectacular. Tough to describe, really -- but let's just say that after driving on what they call the The Kennedy Highway (not tongue in cheek but in all seriousness) you start to question how Australia can be considered a "developed" country.

For the most part it's a 1 lane road for both directions. When you come upon a vehicle driving toward you, both of you must put 2 wheels off into the red dirt and hold on for dear life. Oh and you're doing this at 1OO kilometers per hour or about 7O mph. Sounds like fun, huh? It's actually not too bad unless the other vehicle is a semi. Semis apparently don't care to shift over an inch for anyone let alone 3 crazed campervans.

Though you see thousands of ant hills, hundreds of the sorriest looking cattle and, sadly, dozens of deceased kangaroos (Australian roadkill) the drive of about 6 hours has been quite enjoyable.

So now we are perfectly content to be sitting outside our campervans drinking Victoria Bitters, preparing homemade chili (thank you Jeannine and Lisa) and personally excited to crack open a box of fine Aussie red wine before calling it a day and starting off in the morning for day 3 of the drive to Alice Springs.

I hope to have the rest of the clan post to the blog this evening via the Head Bloke's Blackberry. With a few drinks I hope they'll be somewhat entertaining. You'll at least get some different perspectives.

G'day from a very different Georgetown!
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