29/11 - Coober Pedi

Hi All,

well, it is freaking HOT here in Coober Pedi, that is probably why half of the town's population live underground.
temperatures here during summer (which is now) can easily get to 40-45 degrees under the shade, and as funny as it gets, there is no shade here... it is very rare to see here trees. now you can imagine why we are spending our time in the air-con library (where there is Internet access for free) and not outside.

Coober Pedi is well famous with it's Opal (in Hebrew somebody somehow translate it to: "Leshem"), which is a kind of gemstone was lying underground for the past 50 million years... some people think it should worth to spend a few thousands of dollars to get one tiny opal stone ... go figure.
yesterday we slept, for the first time, underground. that was kind of experience, we expected for more, but at the bottom line, how many times we will have the chance to sleep in a mine ?



the main street is full with opal shops, we did a guided tour in one of the mines and learned a lot about this precious mineral, which can be found here and only here.

other than that, because of it's unique scenery, this town was a set for some of "end of the world" science fiction movies such as "Mad Max", "Pitch Black" and more, you can still see some of the set artifacts the production left in here.

underground church


tomorrow we are going further away into the outback, hopefully we get to see the famous Red Rock soon.

We are still waiting for a reasonable PC with Picasa and a CD/DVD Burner to upload all the photos and movie clips (already have 2.5 GB which just waits to be uploaded), it will happen soon, so be patient.

Have fun,
Efrat & Yoni.

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Our Photo Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/yonifln
Our Movie Library: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=yonifln

27/11 - Port Augusta

Hi All,

When the 3 of us arrived to Port Augusta, we knew our ways are about to separate, Adi took a bus to Adelide while we stayed in the city looking for other lifters which would join us to the desert - Ayres Rock (The Red Rock).

Eventually we didn't find any lifter nor good sight seeing in the city, so we drove 150 km away to "Flinders Range" National Park, which described as the most touristic park in South Australia. now we can understand why ... we hiked for 4 hours, climbing on one of the ranges, the views from the top to the area were truly breathtaking.



In the "Sacred Canyon" (inside the park as well), we saw the Aboriginal old engraving on the canyon's walls and kangaroos in a touching distance.
on the way there we met a nice German guy which probably will join us with his 4WD jeep to Ayres Rock.



So, today we came back to port Augusta and we will head north to the desert, our next stop will be Coober Pedi - the underground town, but that will have to wait to our next post.

Have fun and keep in touch,
Efrat & Yoni.

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Our Photo Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/yonifln
Our Movie Library: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=yonifln

25/11 - Nullabor Plain

Hi all,

After 3 very long days of endless driving, we arrived to Port Augusta.
we passed almost 2000 km from Esperance to here, while in the middle we crossed the border to South Australia and had to shift our time 1.5 hour ahead (so now, it's 8.5 hours different from Israel).
The ride looked endless, we started the car early in the morning and shut it off at sunset time. the desert view outside the car windows looked lonely, it is just a great plain of nothing, once every 45 minutes you get to see another vehicle passing by the opposite way, usually it is a road train (huge trucks, which can carry up to 5 coaches), once in a while we got to see kangaroos, most of them were already dead beside the road.
Efrat took the chance and drove the first time in her life on the left side of the road with manual gear, well, it was not that easy for her but eventually she did it (like she had other choice ?).

Once every 200 km we stopped for a break in the patrol stations along the way, the fuel can get 150% more expansive out here.



As mentioned, we happily arrived to Port Augusta.

Efrat & Yoni

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Our Photo Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/yonifln
Our Movie Library: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=yonifln

22/11 - Great Southern

Hi All,

The trip in the south west is accelerating, before we left Margaret River we found ourselves a new lifter (TREMPIST who share the fuel and fun with us) named Adi and she is very sweet Israeli girl from Kfar Saba, although it is rarely to meet other lifters here, specially Israelis...

Augusta - the lighthouse was the only tourist attraction we visited. this is the point where you can't go anymore to the south-west of the continent. At this point the Pacific ocean meets the Indian Ocean.



In Nunnap we hiked for several hours in the bush, this small town is a very sleepy one, when we arrived from Augusta, we couldn't find a single soul at the commercial center (that was round 17:00) and all other streets. we visited a nice backpacker which is designed so unique that we felt like living in a Museum.



Northcliffe - we just wanted to fill our Jerrycan with water and we found ourselves in the nice old Museum which tells the story of this small town when it was founded 200 years ago or so, we had a nice conversation with old ladies who grew up there as children while looking at the Museum's antiques.



Pemberton - another small town (population - around 450 people), the big attraction over there is the giant Tingle tree (kind of Eucalyptus) which proudly grew up to 75 meters high ! we climbed on it to the top to see the scenery of the rest of the Forrest from above. Efrat felt like she was falling down every step (or peg in our case) because her short size.



Warlpole - Denmark (the Australian city not the country): well, the main attraction there is "The Valley of the Giants" which is a nice short walk, 40 meters above the ground between the giant trees, it is well famous site but we felt it was very short (only 600 meters long), it was nice but we liked the climbing on the tingle tree in Pemberton better.
we also paid the pacific ocean a visit along it's great beaches, the sad part in this trip comes here - Yoni realized he lost his journal somewhere on the way, probably near Nannup. He put so much efforts to write his journal since the beginning of his trip (when he started in India, 3 month ago).





Albany - the first big city we visited after we left Perth. we hiked for several hours along the mountain near the city (even got lost for a while), there are plenty of lookouts over there. The wind farm 20 km away from the city were described in the travel guide we are carrying as the biggest in Western Australia, and truth is they are pretty big, we arrived there at late afternoon and the wind during that time of the day was super strong.



Esperance - we got to know Adi's friend from England and we walked along the shore on a nice route. Over there - was the first time we have seen an Aboriginal children which came from the desert to camp in a something like a class trip, their language was very interesting.
From here we are about to start our long journey towards south Australia while crossing the great Nullabor plain (about 2000 km of desert).



you are welcome to view our Photos and Video clips.

wish us luck and tack care,
Efrat & Yoni.

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Our Photo Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/yonifln
Our Movie Library: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=yonifln

11/11 - Margaret River Area

Hi All,

Well, we arrived to Margaret River area with our new home, passing through great scenic roads, the place here is a heaven for surfers, winery, and all other people who like to enjoy life with good style.
We already got used to cook our own meals on the way, to camp in parks, obviously, this is not that treat we got used to in Thailand, but this is kind of an advanture we will never forget.



The beaches here which coloured Blue-Turquoise are breath taking, we like to take slow rides around the many vineyards, you can easily imagine how life here is good.





One day we took ourselves to a self tasting tour, we drove around and between home-made chocolate, cheese, nuts & cereals factories (mmmm... that was tasty).

Tomorrow we are going to visit in caves on our way to the western south point of Australia,

Dont forget to visit our photo albums and video clips.

Always Happy to get your mails,
Efrat & Yoni.

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Our Photo Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/yonifln
Our Movie Library: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=yonifln

6/11 - Perth

Hi All,

We are in Perth - Western Australia, we are writing you this post from a wonderful family whom we bought our van, they are so nice, We didn't believe that when we get the car we will get much more than that, we got a great deal of help from them, for example - get the best car insurance (third party), all the bureaucratic procedures of buying and transferring the car, they gave us 2 cellular phones as a gift (by the way, our mobile number here is - 044-9568362, feel free to call), some maps, they let us park our new van in their place and sleep there, we had nice conversations while eating together, and much more ...

It is unbelievable what they did for us and we are really appreciating it.

with Daniel & Vicki (whom we bought the car)

So now you know, we bought a car, the first few days here we arranged a local bank account, and modified our new home inside the van (bought camping equipment, etc ...).

We didn't have much time to travel, but what we have seen so far was very nice and beautiful.

Perth is a very clean and well organized city, unlike south east Asia cities we have been visited not a while ago.

Today we are officially starting our journey in Australia, we are heading to a smaller town in the south western corner of the continent, it is called: Margaret River, and we are very exciting about it.

It will be harder for us now on to log on, send mails and update our blog since we are going to live in the van, but we promise, we will do our best.

our van and the equipment

Photos of Aussie land will be added later.

Best wishes,

we miss you all from down under.

Efrat & Yoni.

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Our Photo Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/yonifln
Our Movie Library: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=yonifln