Blimey. Long time between posts, I know, but I've been out of contact for that long.

The outback is as orange is it is in all the photos. Uluru is immense (takes 4 hours to walk a circle round it), and well worth seeing, despite the shallow nature of the resort and the lacklustre exhibits there. No Aboriginies in sight though, which is a little odd. Then again, it is a desert.
The night sky there is unbeliveable, and well worth braving the freezing temeratures.

On to tropical North Queensland now, where the rainforest sits side-by-side with the Great Barrier Reef. What a place it is too. The rainforest stretches on for miles. From Cairns (the main town up here), you can get a  ski-lift over the canopy (they call it "sky rail"), from where you can watch parrots and cockatoos darting about. But it's at ground level that you truly realise the beauty of the place. Once you get over that fact that all the houseplants you have in little pots back home are growing outside and are 10 times as big! Amazing.

A weekend trip to the ripoff that is the Fitzroy Island resort was a necessary evil, as I met up with Stuart to undergo a "Level-Up" to a PADI "Advanced Open Water Diver" Certificate. All it really means is that I can go to 30 metres without getting nitrogen narcosis, and where's the fun in that? Still, the reef is mind-blowing. I've found Nemo several lime over, and have got over the fact that all these aquarium fish are swimming outside and are 10 times as big! Astounding.

I leave Cairns tommorrow for Hamilton Island,  and a few days sailing around the Whitsunday Islands on the "Anaconda III".  Sounds like an unwisly made sequel, but I'll wait and see it before I make a final verdict. Anywho, I'll be dropping out the loop for a few more days, so until next time; be lucky, oi oi!

5:47 Local time.

Wandered aimlessly around the district known as "The Rocks". Very nice, lots of shops nearly all of which sell the most tacky and hackneyed souvenirs imaginable. Naturally, I bought a few of those items. Circular Quay, just beside it, is much more upmarket, but a tad soulless. However, this was lightened by some Aboriginal buskers playing on thier dijeridus.

This is my last day in Sydney, and I quite frankly love it. As generic a city as it may appear to be at first, there's a real heart here just below the surface. The people here are ceaselessly friendly and very obliging hosts, and for all thier idiosyncraies, I wouldn't have them change one bit.

Off to the Outback tomorrow, for a day's stopover at Uluru. Weather will be much hotter (huzzah), but it is the middle of God's great nowhere.

Time to Log off now, before the fog-hornesqe droning of the lothesome Alabamians behind be drive me to some sort of creativity with my newly purchased boomerang...

22:17 Local Time
 
Sydney. Wow.
 
This place truly is quite amazing. First: the weather. It's midwinter in the southern hemisphere, but today the city is very sunny, reasonably warm (12 C) and all the leaves are still on the gum trees.
 
Yesterday I went to the aquarium. It's a truly world-class affair, and I've seen things I've never seen before. Pacific Stingrays, for example, are absolutly fecking HUGE. Somthing I never knew. Anyway, I was massivle blown away by the whole affair. Amazing.  The Opera house, too, is so very, very cool in personj. The architecture is superb (the white of the outside id overed in white and beige self-cleaning tiles. From Sweeden), and the auditory attewntion to detail that has gone into the main auditorium is insane.
 
Today I want to a wildlife park that was far too touristy for it's own goo,d but the upshot of that is that I fed Kangaroos, stroked Koalas and witnessed the immensity that is a Saltwater Crocodile. Those bastards and massive. Bondi beach, hoever, could be any other beach you've been to, only with marginally better sand. The cath to swimming there is evdient from the strandline - its littered with "bluebottles" (portugese man-of-war), which are so tiny it's wonder so many people get stung by them.
 
Anyway, I'm just back from a lovely (and cheap)  meal in Chinatown, which - like everything in Australia - is a much friendlier affair that thier overseas equvilent.
 
Anyway, it's my last full day in Sydney tomorrow before I move on the Uluru on Thursday.
 
It just occured to me that by sending this message back to the UK,  I'm effectivly sending it BACK IN TIME!!!  Hope none of you come over and shoot me before I have time to pet the wallabys...

It's 9:30am local time and the wonderful land of Australia beckons. I've survived the 20+ hours of flight time better than I thought, and there's no jet lag to speak of on my board.
 
Sydney is suprisingly cold ('roud about the 10C mark), but it's vibrant and very welcoming. Australia is massivly efficient from all I have seen, and there are all the indications that I'm gonna love it here.
 
Anyway, I cant hang around here and type on when there's a whole day of coolness ahead. The Sydney Aquarium beckons!
 
Stay tuned for updates on my progress.
 
Peace all.