Help Desk in the Hills

Have just arrived in hilly Spalding after traversing 50 kilometres of somewhat unkind terrain and found a nice little shelter with some lighting, cooktop and power points. It's like they knew I was coming and set it up just for me. Am especially grateful considering it's been raining all day and I was soaked.

So figured I might hang here, charge all my stuff, cook up some food and dry all my clothes out. And while that was happening I figured I better make myself useful as well. So have decided to post the answers to many of the questions I get asked. This is not to stop people asking me them, as I enjoy answering them. Any human contact is always gratefully accepted! This is more for the people who don't want to ask, but kind of want to know.

How long have you been going now? As of today- 2 months and 23 days
How many shoes have you gone through? Still on my first pair. Good choice on the hiking shoes.
How many kilometres do you do in a day? Usually 35-50. But it varies. For instance I did 54k's yesterday but will end up only doing 25 today. It can't be planned. And towns, especially their eateries, slow us down quite a bit
When are you finishing? Although I've got some ideas, I still can't give a proper date. I have to be back in Brisbane by the 14th July for university, so some time before then!
Do you realise you're walking on the wrong side of the road? (as asked by a lady in the middle of the Nullarbor. She must've thought we parachuted down as there is only one road across the Nullarbor) Yes, we do realise we're walking on the wrong side of the road. Walking into oncoming traffic is much safer for us as we can see what is coming and then just veer off the road when needed. The trailers are much wider than bicycles so it'd be unfair and unsafe for cars to swerve around us.
You're Crazy. Well, thats more of a statement than a question
Are you on drugs? No, not that I know of
How did you come up with the idea? Well, I'm sorry to say it wasn't my idea but James'. I just happily tagged along.
Why are you saying us and we? Isn't it only you walking? Yes it is, bad habit sorry. Spent so long with Sam and some answers get so automated that you imediately answer it the way we used to. Still miss the guy to be honest. Just dont tell him, because he doesn't read the blog.
How much has it cost? Well, I couldn't tell you exact numbers, but not a lot! The only ongoing cost is food. Accommodation is free and tyre tubes are quite cheap so it's just food. Oh, my phone bill has gone up for obvious reasons.
How heavy is your trailer? Depending on the amount of water, from 110-170 kgs. Feeling every kilo at the moment with all the hills.
Where do you sleep? I've got a swag, so wherever there's room to roll that out, I'm not fussy. Usually 15-30 metres off the road.
Would you like a cup of tea? Yes please, I'd love one. Only thing we didnt pack that I wish now we did was a kettle. And cups. I drink all my drinks out of a powerade bottle I bought on the first day of the trip, it's starting to look it's age.
Who is Kim? And are you really getting married? Kim and I don't need official marriage certificates to prove our love to each other so, no. The numerous love letters sent in my absence prove that instead, and Austalia Post must be very grateful that we have such a magical relationship. But like all kinds of magic, it is only real to a very select few. And those few are usually crazy. By the way, I just sent you your next letter and although it is nowhere near as amazing as the one you wrote me I hopefully made up for it with the size of it. You are amazing.
Have you met some interesting people? Yes, definitely. But it is usually us who are the 'interesting' ones who people meet. By interesting I mean slightly odd, and have gone just that little bit wrong.




Tried to find the most helpful photos, thereby fitting in with the theme. But unfortunately none of my photos are very helpful at all. Although they say a good tradesman never blames his tools, in my case it is totally the cameras fault.


Where I am now. Free electricity, public toilets, shelter? Jackpot. It's like a caravan park without the exorbitant site fees.








Sam will know this spoon well. Having bought four plastic spoons in Perth three quickly disappeared and then one day while eating his weetbix the fourth one broke. Instead of buying more at the next town we instead taped a fork handle onto the spoon and shared it. That spoon is still with me, although admittedly I did go and buy 10 more spoons when Carly arrived for 89 cents. You can see why we were reluctant to buy any.






One question that gets asked a lot. How many tyres do you go through? Answer- A lot! Here's me fixing four tyres at the end of one day. Recently have been getting on average a puncture a day, but haven't had one for three days now! Oh and apparently it helps to fix the tubes if you are shirtless.







Another big question: What's been the highlight of the trip so far? Well, it's hard to explain to people that you aren't really in it for the highlights- it's just the enjoyment you get of doing the daily things. But most memorable part so far would have to be arriving in Ceduna- The end of the Nullarbor. Here's a photo of me pretending to read a newspaper in Ceduna when I am actually trying to get a sneak photo of my brother.









Internet reception is not all that great sometimes in the middle of nowhere and you need to search around for the optimum spot. Hence this photo of me doing some mild tresspassing to use the computer.








The walkers life is sometimes a very bland affair. But once every hour or so we get a signpost
to look at. Two days in and Carly was already as excited as I am about them.





Ok, hopefully that has enlightened you somewhat. It is still raining here, and I have no intention to do anything else today other than go over the road and buy a pizza, then eat it in my swag.

Bye!

Goodbye, Main Road. And Carly

That below is why Carly has had to leave a couple of towns earlier than she hoped! You could put that up as one of those shock posters against highway walking, like they do with the smoking packets. Enjoy. Have a good look at that, then I'll write a few more comparitively mundane things after it.

And this is what remains of Carly's little toe. As you can see it has got just that little bit littler. With some imagination it looks like a new little toe is sprouting out of her old one, kind of like the aliens do out of the Aliens movies. Note: This doesn't look anywhere near as bad at it actually was. And please note that she went on to walk another 40 kilometres with that and numerous other blisters on her feet. Absolute trooper!






Ok, so Carly left today for obvious reasons. That means I'm again going like one of my favourite kinds of soft drink, Solo.
Coupled with that I am about to leave the main highway for the first time since Perth so things are about to get interesting. If there is anyone who has a few weeks off, currently near the Adelaide region and are handy with a map let me know, I could use you for a bit!
We made it to Port Pirie today and after farewelling Carly have set up camp at the local roadhouse, more well known for its famous resident "The Tin Man". Well, it's meant to be, but I've never heard of either of them.



Once again today was a bit of an unexpected blog, but I just thought there would be a few people interested to see the above photo, especially Chris (Carly's mum!). Not many would be as interested to see the others below, but I'm going to post them anyways.









Oh, you know, just a standard camp site. Check out the view.





Me with my head stuck in the trailer. Or could be fixing a tyre. Not sure, both happen quite a lot.










The Tin Man of Mobil Roadhouse, Port Pirie. Happy fella, but I'm guessing he wont be so happy when he realises I'm going to set up an unpaid therefore somewhat illegal camp tonight right in front of him.









Bad place to be sleeping, Skip. I need to walk there.







That's all for now, if I dont post in the next few weeks it just means I've taken a wrong turn somewhere and will post again in Alice Springs.


Bye for now
Leigh



Oh and Kyle, been thinking hard on what I'm going to spend that $5 on. I'm thinking I'm going to invest it in the stockmarket and see it improve. Kind of like what the New Zealand soccer team needs to do before it takes on the mighty Socceroos again. But once again, cheers for the free money. Let me know if you ever want to place another bet on an Aus-NZ match.

Blog 22

Have to start by saying Adelaide was great. Anybody I've spoken to and burdened with my Adelaide issues in the last week will know how much I enjoyed it. So much that I may never need to return.

On a slightly different note- A huge thank you to my aunty and uncle who put me up for the whole time in Adelaide, even though it was only meant to be for one night! Not only with a place to stay, but also with guided tours of Adelaide and some of the best curries I've ever tasted.
Hearing of how Sam and I enjoyed the buffet meals at Ceduna, Jane and Niels took me to a curry house that had an all you can eat special. This time, as with every other time, it was noted that it was all you can eat, not all you feel like eating.
The thirty minute walk home was painful.

Jane and Niels- I can't thank you enough for making me feel so welcome and feel that I wasn't a burden to have for such a long time, which I totally was!
Being unwilling to accept any gifts or any form of repayment for boarding me for so long, I decided to get some photos printed for them. Which I did, then promptly left them at the camera store. So for a gift they got an empty photo frame. Perfect. But new photos will be getting sent quite soon!

Anyways, have just arrived in Port Augusta, so a new countdown begins. Around 550 k's away from Mildura, my home town and starting to get quite excited. And word on the street is theres a whole new season of Stargate to watch when I get there...

Other news- My new walking companion and old friend from Seattle arrived yesterday! More welcome company! But unlike Sam who wasn't sure how long he'd be walking for, Carly is only able to stay for a short time. But while here the weather seems to be making the most of it for her. Windy, cold, raining. She is obviously thrilled at that seeing how I've been telling her how good the weather has been lately.



Been getting told from some people that they check the posts just to see the photos and usually try not to read anything on the site if they can help it. Most of those people are from my family. So I put one extra photo on this time. Saying that, I also wrote a lot more so they'd have to sift through all the text to find them.





Me, walking down some road








Recipe from the Iron Knob roadhouse. Wasn't sure whether to ask them if they were joking. For the record, Iron Knob- Strangest town so far. The roadhouse owners smacking golf balls over the highway from the fuel bowsers will testify to that.







One way of stopping the mice getting into our stuff. Kind of like putting the cookies on the top shelf at home to stop the kids eating them. Except replace kids with mice and cookies with anything semi-edible.








The GCLT, enjoying some alone time









Here's a fresh looking Carly on day 1, equipped with Akubra.











And here's Carly day 2. One of the very few things Carly doesn't like is rain, so when she arrived I assured her "It never rains here" Nicely done Leigh. She may never forgive me.





Ok, that's all for now. Will be going off the main highway in 2 days time as I take a shortcut to Mildura. It will be the first time since leaving Perth that I've been off a main highway. So theres a really good chance of getting lost. Will let you know how it all goes.

Plagues, Punctures, Packages and Pitstops

Bus blogging this time. On my way to Adelaide, a few days earlier than planned.

Have had a tumultuous few days. The Trailer and I have been constantly at odds this week, trying to one up each other with silly pranks. After a long but fair fight the trailer ended up winning, by getting enough punctures in two days to completely deplete my tyre repair kit. That is 18 patches worth. Also, to give you more of an idea, leaving Ceduna there were the two wheels on the trailer, two spare wheels fully inflated, and in addition to that there were 4 spare tubes, all puncture proofed. And by the time I crawled into Kimba today I was down to one fully inflated tyre and the tyre on the other side I had to stop and inflate around every twenty minutes.

So in 310 kilometres of travelling since leaving Ceduna there has been 7 punctured wheels. That is not including the 18 patches I have used to fix the already punctured ones. Unbelievable. Must give my thanks to people throwing glass bottles out their window. Not.

Anyways in light of all that it was decided by the trip's executive committee (me) to leave the trailer at Kimba and go to Adelaide a few days earlier than planned, hopefully in the process securing some puncture-proof tyres, a lot of pizza, and a shotgun for anyone seen putting sharp objects on the sides of roads. That or a Taser.




Well, wasn't really planning on posting this early so have only got a few photos to share. What is lacked in quantity is easily made up for in quality though.






This is the 'letter' that was getting sent to me in Kimba. Unreal! Thank you so much Cath!!!! I am now the closest thing to a Woolworths that Kimba has! I also wont need to buy any food until mid next year. I felt sorry for the poor post lady that had to carry it over to me, she struggled to lift it understandably.... And dont worry, I will be finding a way to get you back for this Cath!





Still in the middle of a mice plague. A ridiculously huge mice plague. This poor little fella didnt quite fit out the same hole he fitted into the night before. Must've been all the muesli bars he had while in the bag expanded his little mice gut too much. Or he could've just been playing dead. If so, he did a good job at it while I kicked him 20 metres onto the highway, he didnt even flinch.







Well, the crowd keeps asking, demanding, pleading for it. So here it is, easily the most commented on thing from this trip. The beard, 67 days in. Enjoy. Notice there's no ginger in the beard at all.




Ok, so am actually taking a break for a week in Adelaide, hopefully not looking at a computer screen during that time! Then I'll be back to Kimba on the 22nd, where I'm going to be joined by another guest walker. So stay tuned!



Until then,
Leigh

Believe it or Not, I'm Walking on Eyre

Terrible song, sorry.

Well, Wudinna it is. Blogging outside the local supermarket. Blogging after cannonballing 8 Magnum icecreams in a row. I know, I have a problem, don't judge me. And Levi, indeed that is a new record. Don't try and break it, I'm not sure it's healthy.

Currently in a fantastic mood as from now I am back going through towns with roadhouses that offer free showers again. Will definitely be making a beeline towards them as have once again managed to dodge showers for around a week, admittedly not as bad as over the nullarbor but still quite pungent.

As for the walking, well, it's been quite erratic. Kind of like the person doing the walking. Since walking solo I have been enjoying 'sleep-ins', being able to stay in bed until 6 in the morning instead of 4, and although it hasn't especially affected the distances covered each day it definitely has affected the finishing times, in some cases not finishing walking until dark. But I definitely prefer that to getting up and packing up in the morning dew and cold. I don't get paid anywhere near enough for that. And as Danny Glover once famously said- I'm getting too old for that stuff.
But the walking has still been good, and the legs quickly recovered after the last blog. It was, as it turned out, a combination of mild muscle soreness and severe complaining about the mild muscle soreness.

Looking at arriving into Port Augusta in 7 days, and getting quite excited. I have been away from big towns for so long that I'm starting to forget what a Pizza Hut looks like, or a Woolworths, or anything that isn't a roadhouse for that matter. Did manage to snaffle 4 bags of dirt-cheap licorice bullets today though. The fact that they were a considerable few months out of dates shouldn't matter. Much.

Sorry this blog isnt too insightful, but unfortunately my already faulty brain is failing me further and my ability to recall events is not what it was. It could be the mice keeping me up all night by crawling on my swag. Not sure if I'd want them to leave though as it is quite enjoyable punching them off and hearing them getting launched many metres in the air. Hopefully that provides a nice mental image, and hopefully nobody reading this is a mice lover. Apologies if you are. I'm sure all the mice are fine.



Ok, here's the pick of the photos that I've taken in the last week. By pick I mean all of them. Yes, I've only taken 5 in a week. Whoops.





First town without my walking buddy. Tried a pose, but it wasn't the same.




After the loss of my walking partner, the trip could have either gone two ways. I could have become very philosophical, introspective and deliver some extremely insightful theories about the meaning of life and the sorts. Or I could take photos of my new super-toned Bob Kelso walking pins. That ones for you Jon.


A photo of me pretending to do this blog. Taken upon two milk crates stolen from the bakery next door. The computer isn't even on at this point.




The further into South Australia I get, the more proud they are of their ablutions, specifically their public toilets. Behold the Thunderdome, Wirulla's prized WC.






Minnipa's answer to the Thunderdome. Enough said.




That's it for now. By the way, if anyone knows where I can stash a trailer for a few days in Port Augusta please let me know, my number is 0419307323. Thanks! And if anyone says the tip I probably won't talk to you again.


Oh and also was almost through an audio book (which took 3 days!) when my mp3 player went flat, and I can't find the charger for it. So if anyone knows how the Scarecrow book by Matthew Reilly finishes, feel free to let me know. It's kind of driving me nuts. Wasn't even that good of a book either.


Will try to post again in Kimba (Halfway across Australia), just so I can upload a picture of a dirty old galah there. Might even get one of the Big Galah as well, but that might be a bit too touristy. Will of course be posting after I check the local post office for a much waited-upon letter from Melbourne. Thanks Cath in advance!

See ya!

The Eyre from the Air

Another day of forced rest, so another blog.

Like I said before, so much has happened in the last week that there was no way I could possibly have fitted it all in one blog. So this is the rest of it!

I brushed pretty quickly over it in the first blog from Ceduna, and a couple of people asked how I got the awesome shot of the Eyre Highway from above or if it was copied from somewhere else. Well, all these photos have been taken from my $100 Pentax, and it no longer has a viewscreen. Or any reliability. So that is my excuse for the quality of the photos.

But anyways the photos were taken only because Dad took us up for a flight, taking us over where we had walked as well as getting a brilliant look at some of the cliffs of the Bight, something very few people are lucky enough to see from that perspective. So having a Dad who has a pilots license definitely comes in handy sometimes!

Anyways, the few who commented were pretty impressed with that shot, so I thought I'd post a few more that I took. While I was up there I took 350, unfortunately only around 10 came out really well as just after wer left it became really cloudy. That plus the photographer was a dud.







But here are some of the better ones, and even they do it no justice.






Ceduna from the air. If you squint you can see the hotel we stayed at. Or maybe not.







Yep, very flat. To get here in the plane it took 35 minutes. To walk it took 3 days. Bit disheartening really.







One of the many shots of the cliffs we got. Unfortunately some of the really good shots were ruined a bit by the weather.









Planning on claiming this Island. Found one for Sam too, unfortunately his was underwater. Wouldn't expect the situation to improve for him either, you know, with all this global warming.









Just so you know, this is the kind of quality the rest of the 350 shots were like. Well, they can't all be gold. Or even silver.


I said it before, but these photos dont do the views any justice, especially given Sam and my attachment to the area we have gained in the last month.

I also said this before, but this last week has been just fantastic. My legs haven't liked it at all, but for the sake of a few days of being crippled it has been worth every bit of pain. It definitely gave us a great perspective on what we just completed and made the trip so far a lot more memorable!

So thanks a lot Dad! I'm pretty ordinary with words, but hopefully you know how much we appreciated the whole time. Especially that pavlova. And I will hopefully be seeing you again in a month or so, although at the rate I'm currently walking you might want to add a few more months onto that.

Oh, and I guess it was good seeing you too Shaun. Download some Stargate for me.



As for me, this time of enforced rest I might be able to do a few things I havent been able to for ages. Like read that book Brock gave me that I'm still only halfway through. If he asks though I'll lie and tell him I finished it ages ago, just to see if he reads this. Because he probably isn't.

Ok, well now I'm going to try and stand for the first time in 24 hours. Wish me luck.

Slammin Good Times

After fooling my legs into walking with half a tube of Deep Heat and some really loud rock music they quickly saw through the deception and realised that they were still, as my Aunty delicately put it in an email, cactus. So have pulled up lame again at Ceduna Airport, around 3 k's out of town. Planning on staying here for a few hours, plugging the laptop into whatever power point I can find and doing another blog before putting on the rest of the tube of Deep Heat and fooling my legs into getting a couple of more k's down the road, at least to the point where there are no more footpaths! Still don't understand how the human body works, I have been nothing but good to it and it is throwing me lemons at the moment. Might have to even bite my lip and spend a few more days resting, even though it was the rest that did this to me in the first place!

Anyways, enough about me. I enjoy whining way too much and would do it all day if I had someone who would listen to me. It's another problem I'm working on.

This blog is for Sam.

It's not going to be a big one, but just a bit of a review and a few embarrassing photos, as he is no longer here to stop me posting them.

Sam's Stats
1855 Kilometres travelled in 52 days
36.4 km Average Walking Distance including breaks
43.8 km Average Walking Distance excluding breaks
6.9 km/hr Average Walking Speed (according to his speedo, and thats also having to slow down for me!)
1 State border crossed
1 Nullarbor Plain destroyed
153 Hills walked
153 Hills complained about being walked
21 Roadhouses attended
21 Roadhouse restaurants patronised.
2 Madura Gutbusters consumed, consecutively
79 different poses in front of signs
1 brother who will miss you being there on the trip. Oh, and even I might a bit as well.



First day! Arrived in Northam as a quick replacement for the departed Mr Pearson. 4 hours and three cramps later, he quickly worked out how tough this trip was going to be.




Sam looking refreshed. Reason being it was his first day. He quickly got to looking like me.





What Sam looks like after doing 45 k's on his second day of walking. Knackered.






Sam trying to fly into a sign.







Sam going up a hill. He's probably swearing.








Near the end of his trip, Sam took this photo to show everyone how much his beard has grown as he hadn't shaved for the whole two months. Enough said.







One last photo of Sam hugging a random sign.





Well I wish I could say more about how good this trip has been with him and less about the state of my legs, but to be fair they are quite sore!

But I am going to miss Sam more than properly working legs thats for sure. Sam, thanks for being such great company, I am really glad you came so far and would have gladly wanted you to come the whole way as well. Things are going to be a lot different now, and I cant help but feel that the trip lost all it's sex appeal at 9:30 this morning on a bus to Adelaide.



Ok, thats it for now. Will make sure to keep you all updated on how much pain I'm in. I'm sure you'll all love to hear about it.

Sam 1, Leigh 1, Nullarbor 0

Firstly, I have no idea where to start this post. It's been a huge week. Biggest of the trip. So it's going to be a massive post. Well, relatively speaking.

But we've done it! The Nullarbor has been beaten by two odd characters from the east, quite convincincly too. Unfortunately even with the easiest wins there are sometimes casualties, and in this case there are two.

My legs.

They have seized up to put it simply. Like one of my uncles old racing cars (thats for you Shaun, you know what I'm talking about). Well, either they have seized up or someone has managed to shorten my hamstrings by half overnight. And unlike normal muscle soreness, it has only got worse each day. Today when I went for my big trailer refill at the supermarket I used my trolley as one of those walking frames you can sit on so every 50 metres I could stop to take a break. Would've been hilarious to watch I'm sure. Especially seeing that the supermarket was only 150 metres down the road. But my sense of humour is limited to other peoples pain, so havent really had a good laugh about it yet. The people of Ceduna have though, and probably will even more when their newspaper comes out on Thursday and they see how far I have left to go.

But to be honest that is not the main news of the last week. Not even close.

Will put a separate post up later just for it, but the big news of the week is that the guest walking stint of Mr Sam Davidson Thomson-Mathews has finished, ending here in Ceduna after a month dominating the mighty Nullarbor and another 3 weeks previous to that tearing up and down the hilly roads of Western Australia.

Right from the start of the trip I knew this time would come, because as he kept on reminding me- he was only here as a temporary substitute and was here for a good time, not a long time. Well, he ended up being here for both.
The initial plans were for him to accompany me to Kalgoorlie and head home from there, but he quickly picked up the taste for highway power-walking, roadside camping and of course roadhouse burgers.
But the lure of the real world and actually getting paid for doing twelve hours of physical work a day eventually has tempted him back to the dark side. My constant bribing with sugar, chocolate and jars of Nutella has only delayed the inevitable, especially when he remembered he could actually get all that stuff back in Brisbane as well.
As said before, I will do a separate post some other time to commemorate his journey, but his efforts over the last 7 weeks probably deserve to be posted more than once!
It is going to be very different without him, and I am definitely going to miss him. We got along phenomenally and he has really turned this trip into something amazing. Thanks my brother, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. I'll be seeing you again in a few short months. Please, send him a congratulatory message, his number is 0413076964. He left his phone in Brisbane, so it'll be really nice if he has a few waiting for him when he returns, even if he doesn't know you! That kid just loves his phone messages. And his phone. And Mandy.

Owing to another bout of blatant good fortune, Shaun (my brother) and Dad had already decided to make a fly-in visit to Ceduna, even before anyone knew that Ceduna would be the SlamWagon's final stop. We were understandably getting quite excited as we neared Ceduna. The time was deinitely no let-down!
I have realised that my ability to describe good things happening on this trip is limited to two words- amazing or brilliant. I am sorry about that, it's something I'll have to work on.

But these last few days have been brilliant. Amazingly brilliant.

It was the perfect way to celebrate Sam's trip with Sam or I having not seen either of them for too long, and has made it just that much more memorable being able to properly catch up for the first time in ages. So what ended up initially being planned as a one night stopover has turned into a four day holiday at a surprisingly very nice redeveloped beachfront hotel, only ever walking to go to three things, the buffet breakfast, buffet lunch, or buffet tea. The pub was also conveniently located next to the buffet, so that was frequented many times throughout the three days.
And as though all that wasnt enough, just before having to leave Dad booked Sam and I in for another night at the hotel. I'm worried we will get used to all this luxury. I might want to upgrade my swag.


Due to the big news all the rest was a blur, so it will have to be bullet-pointed.


- Enjoying a mice plague at the moment, they were running over swags at night just to make sure we were awake. They also enjoyed many of our muesli bars. Who could blame them.

- Mice also enjoyed about half of a parcel that got sent to us at Penong, filled mainly with chocolate. Once again, who could blame them. Didnt stop me from finishing off what they left.

- Got a nice surprise at Penong. Went into store to pick up parcel and had $50 credit to spend on food, groceries when we arrived. Was paid for by a couple we had met a few days before. Just wish I had of got your numbers so I could ring to thank you! The money wasnt needed, you had already given us food the day before!!! It was definitely put to good use though, and we were very well fed for the next few days!

-Met up with two bicyclists, one from Germany and one from Canada. Sean and Johnny (I.... think) Met them twice and were great company, and shouted us pizza when we arrived in Ceduna. Not just any pizza, Bill's Pizza. We had been hearing about Bill and his amazing pizzas since Eucla, so trust me, anticipation for it was huge. Didn't disappoint, with the exception of the $5 surcharge for eating in. At Ceduna. Anyways Sean and Johnny, I hope you're reading this and keep in contact! And apologies for eating pretty much all the pizza, it'll be our shout next time, and we shouldn't be eating as much by then!


Photos. Yes, only five. I really take so few that you see most of them anyways.



Penultimate pose of the Slammer. Saved the best for second last.



Arriving at the Ceduna fruit fly checkpoint where they inspect thoroughly every single vehicle for fruit and vegetables to confiscate. Except ours. They didnt want to go near those things, and by those things I mean us, hadnt had a shower for two weeks at that point. We could've had a fruit fly farm in the trailers for all they knew, they did not want a bar of it.


This photo does these pizzas no justice, or the two guys Sean and Johnny who shouted us them! They are about twice the size of a normal sized pizza, so they logically assumed that three of them and three garlic breads should be enough between four. Well, they were wrong, dead wrong. Not sure how much they got to eat, but I know that the front one was exclusively eaten by me and the other two were Sam's domain, which he dominated. Was up to that point the most delicious thing I had tasted on the trip.

Pre-Flight posing. The weird dude in the middle is Shaun, our eldest brother.



The Eyre Highway, arial view. This view confirmed our suspicions that it is quite flat, quite straight, and there's not really much surrounding it.




Ok, well I'm off tomorrow morning after Sam catches the bus out of here. Have just put some Whitesnake to play on the way out of Ceduna to set the mood. Will be in touch again soon though, starting to actually run into reception that actually lasts for over half a day now.

Until next time,