From: Ann Sweeney 14th December 2002
Hi All,
Hope you are all keeping well!!,
Well, what a mad 2 weeks we’ve had. I’m in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory at the moment. Perth was brillant we got to meet and know so many people. The first day we arrived in Perth was roasting we weren’t used to it with our Melbourne weather. We went to see the Perth Mint and how gold is heated down into gold bars, very interesting! The following day we went horse-riding, we had such a laugh my horse was a bit like me, doesn’t like to be controlled!!, He took off in a trot and of course your’e meant to be holding onto the saddle but being so excited my arms ended up around the horses neck and my right foot up in the arm!!, everyone was in the stitches laughing!!, the 3rd trot I was expert at horse-riding ready for show jumping next!!.
We went to check out the famous Irish bar here called the Bog, a great nite was had by all, we never left the dance floor.
The following day we took a ferry to Rottnest Island, we hired out bikes and cycled around the Island, there were some fantastic beaches there, white sand, blue and green waters beautiful scenery, we stayed the nite. We had our own BBQ and camped out . We had great fun.
On the Monday we booked a tour (Easyriders ) to bring us down South of Perth, we had an absolutely great time. We met so many people mostly Irish and Scottish girls. We saw lots of cute little towns along the coast and stopped to sample a few wineries along the way. The wines over here are lovely!!! To top off the evening we had a little champagne as we watched the sun go down, heaven!!! We stopped in a place called Denmark to do some canoeing it was really nice, we managed to see the Solar eclipse here it was amazing, we could see it so clearly.
By Friday we had made it down to a place called Albany to try our luck at surfing. It was the best craic ever, we looked the part anyway!! All I managed was to get to my knees, I tell ya its not easy!!!. I will definitely do it again!! Our instructor was great craic he couldn’t stop laughing at us. Well at least we were some entertainment for somebody. The harder I tried to get on the board the worse I was getting!!!!
We flew back to Melbourne and while on our flight they had a prize for someone who could either sing, or tell a joke so after persuading Helena we went up and sang “Leaving on a jet plane” – Well low and behold, we won the prize which was a nites accomodation in the Darling Harbour in Sydney, so that was a nice surpise so thats where we’ll be over a nite at xmas, its meant to be lovely with a great view of Sydny Opera House, happy days!!!
Came back to Melbourne on Sunday nite and went to work for 3 days. Wednesday, we took an 8 hour bus journey to Adelaide, we took the famous Ghan train to Alice Springs which was 20 hours, so here we are ready to do this big climb of Ayers Rock. Its absolutely roasting here at the moment so tomorrow we’re going on a 3 day tour to see Ayers Rock both at Sunset and sunrise. So looking forward to that. We’re leaving here on Tuesday for that famous 20 hour train journey and then on the bus back to Melbourne so its all go here at the moment . So, thats enough from me your’e probably all tired of reading at this stage!!!
All the best from very hot Alice Springs,
Ann
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