Merry Xmas from the Big Aussie Road Tour

Merry Christmas to everyone from the sweltering-hot desert town of Alice Springs! We hope you're all having a great Xmas & have big plans for New Year's. We've been taking a few days off our hectic driving schedule to chill out (literally) in an air-conditioned villa at the Desert Palms Resort, a cute little complex of self-contained hotel room huts hidden amongst palm trees and bougainvillea. There's a swimming pool with an island in it where we spent a nice chunk of Christmas Day-- also nice. But the best part about our stay is we're away from the (a) dust (b) mozzies, and (c) flies which have been annoying us so much since crossing that invisible line to the Outback. You hear about all of this stuff prior to your trip, but it's impossible to believe how annoying life is with the combination of these elements (not to mention 40-degree heat). We made a cup of coffee a few mornings ago and before we could have a sip, three flies committed suicide into the steaming mug. Adrian especially loves to kill the flies, and will sometimes sit in the van murdering fly after fly after fly until he's got a sore arm... and then new ones just keep on coming. Dayle prefers to coat herself in Aerogard (a very strong "Tropical Grade" bug repellent) which keeps them away for a while. Some days we even wear our flynets (over our faces) to make dishwashing, etc a little less tedious!

But it's been an adventure already-- it was hard to get off the East Coast beaches but the long days of driving do pay off into some really rewarding sights and experiences! Here's a couple highlights...we've tried to recount the days since we entered the Outback (and backdated them a bit below on the blog). We'll have to leave you with a cliffhanger, as it's checkout time at the hotel-- but we'll finish and post the story of Daisy & the Oodnadatta Track in a few days. (We're heading to Uluru this morning) For now, do check out our photos on Flickr- freshly uploaded and fully up-to-date... at least you can get an idea of our last week! Merry Christmas... read on. Love D&A