The Red Center: Chapter 1

It's day 15 of our epic road trip through the center of Australia and I'm having the most awesome time of my life.

I'll set the stage:
We have Lara who's from Ulm, Germany and a cosmotologist by trade, she cooks a mean meal every now and again
Amy is from Adelaide and is currently finishing her nursing diploma, she loves to have us pull her finger and let it rip loud and clear so everyone can hear
Baptiste from Paris, France has a certificate in wildlife preservation, he is a bit self-centered, but very good at eliciting help from strangers when we're having car troubles
Vanessa, Baptiste's partner, from Montreal, went to Concordia at the same time as I and studied sociology, she is very nice and says she never farts, how disgusting!
Tom, my boyfriend, from Dresden, Germany is a musician and is about to study something when he returns home from Australia, he's wonderful and adorable and loves to count my hiccups and make wishes on them...
AND me

We don't always get along being smashed into a car together for 21 days straight. There have been a few arguements, a couple of breakups and reunions, and heaps of swearing in various languages.

But we laugh CONSTANTLY and we cry and we are getting to know each other and their habits REALLY well.

We started in Adelaide and our target is Darwin, but currently we are in Alice Springs and sleeping in beds for the first time in 2 weeks, which feels amazing.

Along the way we saw The Olgas, Ularu, King's Canyon, a domesticated Emu that grumbled at me when I disturbed it to go take a pee in the middle of the night (who expects to see a giant bird outside their tent at 3 in the morning??), Flinder's Ranges, a crazy 4WD trek to Palm Valley, tons of mice (as there is a plague at the moment), heaps of nothing but salt bush dotted with random mountain formations, a baby joey in his mother's pouch, some wineries, done a few bush walks, got stuck in the mud at Lake Eyre, had a few car problems, slept under ground in Coober Pedy, saw a few wild dingos, and met many wonderful friendly people along the way.

We've named our rig Trudy, after a woman we met in the first couple of days. When Trudy's feeling a bit temperamental, she doesn't like to start, this can happen in the middle of nowhere off the main road or in a small town, which, let's face it, it's all in the middle of nowhere. We give her pats and tell her we love her and that usually gets her going. So, we're chugging along.

We only have 6 more days to go and it's passing quickly. Four of us are hoping to go to Bali together to keep our trip going because we love each other so much.

Will have to update when I get to Darwin, until then send your love to Trudy, we can use it!