Back from beyond

Well, a very enjoyable trip and I'm still in one piece. Biggest mishap we had was a punctured tyre which meant we had to give up one expedition (we only had one spare and, I'm told, going on without one at 100° isn't the best of ideas), but that was about it really so I'm not complaining. What we did get to see was pretty special, and I even got to drive! It was the first time since I passed my test and a hell of a lot easier: I'm now officially a big fan of automatic gears, cruise control and roads that go on without turn or traffic for 40km - we did 900km and changed time zones just on the first day! The biggest challenge is reminding yourself you're not about to drive into a lake - the mirages are crazy. Stopped at a campsite in a mining town called Broken Hill for a couple of nights, quite an interesting place bang in the middle of nowhere. Lots of the streets have mining-related names, e.g. 'Bromide Street', 'Cobalt Road' and the one that sounds like it's from Viz, 'Slag Street'. From there we went on to stay at Mungo National Park, which is just stunning: a lake until around 30,000 years ago, it's now a massive dried-up basin with sanddunes running round one side. It and the land around it are almost totally flat, which combined with the bizarre, otherworldly-looking dunes made for probably the most spectacular sunrise and sunset I've seen anywhere. Anyway, I'm not gonna be able to do it justice so just have a look at the pics (photos by my uncle - my camera had given up the ghost the day before, frustratingly). The day after was spent at Pink Lakes, which surprisingly enough actually are pink - they're so salty that the only thing able to survive in them is a sort of algae which for some reason produces beta-carotene, hence the colour. Bloody weird-looking actually: felt like we were staying at a beach resort on an alien, and slightly camp, planet.
So, back here, a weekend spent getting industrially wasted at my cousin's friend's holiday house down the coast (yeah, tough call I know), day at the tennis yesterday (or rather waiting for the tennis while being slow-roasted: it was so hot they postponed play 'til after 8pm, annoying but as court temperatures were somewhere over 120° I suppose I can sympathise). Determined to get my money's worth I ended up hanging on there past midnight; they were still going when I left! Some great crowd action: chants in broadest Aussie, German, Swedish and, obviously, Chilean, which made for an entertaining atmosphere, and eventually we even got some decent tennis. Worth it in the end.
Off tonight to the theatre to see this and feel slightly less clod-like than usual. That's if I get the jokes. Take care. Ta-ta.