The Countdown is ON!

12 more days and my daughter will be arriving in Australia. Actually she arrives in Melbourne in 11 days, but she won't get into Alice Springs until the following morning. I'm not sure who is more excited - she is thrilled to be coming to Australia for the first time and I have missed her so much, saw her last Christmas. She arrives on my birthday so I'm having some friends over as well to help celebrate it all. I couldn't ask for a better birthday gift!

After the birthday celebrations we'll spend a few days checking out Alice Springs and surrounding area. I'll take her to the desert park, Standley Chasm, and we're going for a camel ride in the foothills of the McDonnell Range at sunset. Then we'll pack up the Rav 4 and head south, stopping at King's Canyon and Uluru before crossing into South Australia and camping overnight at Coober Pedy, hoping for a space in the underground campground to escape the heat. Then we're off to Adelaide, with a possible stop along the way to check out the beach. We'll spend Christmas Day/night at a hotel before taking off for Kangaroo Island to check out their gorgeous beaches. From there we'll be taking the Great Ocean Road towards Melbourne, stopping to do some hiking, cave exploring, and enjoying the beach. She leaves Australia again on New Year's Day and I'll point my car north again and head back to Alice Springs, returning to work on the 4th...

Yup, Christmas is going to be a blast with my girl. Our last travel Christmas was not at all what we planned and ran into snow again and again, and had to forgo camping altogether, particularly when we arrived at the Grand Canyon and it was -27C and 3 feet of snow...I have promised her absolutely no snow this time around. I told her if we run into snow in the desert, I'll be leaving with her!

11 more days!