Merry Christmas!

And a big hello from a New country - New Zealand.
Much smaller than Australia, New Zealand is a similar size to the UK.  The first few days after I arrived it rained quite a bit, so it even looked a bit like a home! Luckily things have brightened up now.  It is pretty hard to feel Christmassy in the sunshine, the decorations look a bit strange! It is great to be here though, some of you may know that I worked here for a while (quite a long time ago) so it's been great to visit friends for the Christmas break.

Anyway, if you click the link above there's a Christmas Quiz for you in case Christmas TV or COD get too much.
Christmas wishes to you all,
Miss B

Sport in Australia

Despite it's small population, Australia has produced many leading sports stars, and excels in many sports on a world level.  We especially Australia with swimming, cricket, netball and surfing.  I'm sure you can think of a few famous Australian sports people.

Sport is a very popular hobby here, both the playing and watching.  The pictures in this section show a few sports that I've seen/played since being here. 

  

Beach-y Sports

Let's face it, it's easier to be active when the weather is nice.  It's difficult to be motivated to do outdoor sports when it's cold/wet/windy.  Lucky Australia! The weather is warmer all year round (though in some places far too hot). There are volleyball courts on a number of beaches and social leagues going on all the time.  In the background you can see people surfing, body boarding and sailing.

Social Sport

There are a lot more opportunities to play team games at a social level, for example women's social 6-a-side football competitions, instead of more serious 11-a-side leagues.  I've also played mixed touch rugby in Melbourne with some friends. 

As you can see, I had my first lawn bowls experience too!  Bowls is popular with a range of ages in Australia.  At weekends you can play at clubs without being a member - as long as you take your shoes off so as not to spoil the grass!  For a small fee we got unlimited games and a BBQ - it was very busy with groups of friends out for the evening.

Professional Sports 

This is a very famous cricket ground - the MCG.  The match is a four day interstate game between Victoria and New South Wales, as you can see it wasn't very busy! Bear in mind though that it's a bit like going to watch Leicestershire play a four day game against Glamorgan in a stadium that's bigger than Wembley!  This ground is used in the winter for AFL games - Aussie Rules Football.  This is a bit of a crazy sport.  There are 18 players, and the pitch is the full size of the oval in the photo.  There are goal posts a bit like rugby ones, but with extra posts either side. Players pass the ball by knocking out of their hand with the other fist or kicking it.  They can tackle either other with not very many restrictions!  If you'd like to see more try this link for highlights of the 2011 Grand Final: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jikkqu7wJ6Q  or http://www.afl.com.au/ for general info.

The National Sports Museum

Also at the MCG is the Australian National Sports Museum, which was awesome to visit. Lots of interesting stuff about past Olympic Games, Australian sports people, cricket, and loads of stuff to play on, as you can see below. 

This was a Netball passing and shooting test.  Netball is very popular here, interstate games are watched by large crowds in big arenas.  At a high level netball is a very fast and skillful sport.  Check out this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgr2zmq9CUk from the world cup final in 2011 - extra time after a draw in normal time!

This is a cricket run out game - the ball was sent out along the floor to be fielded and thrown at the stumps before the batter on the video screen reached the crease.  My only chance to run out Adam Gilchrist!

Several of the games were Aussie Rules related. In this one the ball was dropped from a height, to be caught and then passed through the round windows.  As you can imagine, things got a little competitive!  There was also archery, bike sprints, soccer penalty kicks and reaction time tests - great fun!

There was lots of sports memorabilia in the museum, but one of the best things wasn't on display.  There were loads of drawers of items donated by sports people that there wasn't room for - one of the museum staff showed me this pair of shoes...  The photo isn't that good, but you can see they are pretty massive (I am size 6). The shoe belonged to Ian Thorpe, an Olympic swimmer who has recently come back to the sport.  He has size 17 feet - pretty helpful for swimming!



Pedal Power

The better weather here makes cycling a more popular hobby.  Some of you will remember that I cycle a lot at home, sometimes to school.  In New Zealand in 2012 I'll be doing a very long cycle ride - sadly I haven't had much practice recently! This is one of only two rides in Australia, so I think my legs might get a shock in New Zealand!  Cycling became very prominent in Australia in 2011, maybe some of you know why?!



'X' Games?!

Not quite - but this is the Australian Pro-Am Skateboarding Championship Final.  It was part of a skating and street art festival I went to in Sydney in December.  They fell off quite a lot, but the tricks were very impressive to see live. The art exhibitions were cool too, there was a bit of British representation from the world-famous Banksy (check out the links if you're not sure who this is!)

http://www.banksy.co.uk/ 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8096000/8096891.stm.

Australia Rocks

People ask all the time - 'what do you DO when you're away' and it's a good question.  Sometimes the answer is not very exciting stuff a lot of the time.  It takes a long time to do things that don't usually take that much time, like cooking (on a trangia), doing laundry, pitching a tent so you have a bed, finding somewhere to check email/internet banking on slow connections etc.  If you read travel books a lot of people writing them complain a lot about all that kind of stuff, and it can be very annoying.  I would say that I would much rather read about the rest of the day though, when you get to see something you've never seen before, try food you've never eaten before or go to a really amazing place.

Doing walks is a really good way to see places, particularly if you can walk up something high to get a good view.  It's also satisfying to do the hard work to get to the top, and know it's not going to be quite so tiring to get back down! Australia has some amazing (and strange) landscapes to look at.   Also, without running around after you lot at school, I have to make sure I keep fit somehow!

Here's a few pictures from high walks in a few different states:  

Here's another very big rock - a very famous one - many of you probably recognise it as Ayers Rock,  traditional name Uluru.  This one is not for climbing, though sadly many tourists still do climb it.  It is a sacred place to the local aboriginal community (the original inhabitants of Australia) and climbing it is a bit like climbing on an altar in a church.  
I don't really understand why people still climb it - not only is it made clear that it's not the correct behaviour but also it's incredibly steep and hard to climb, often subject to fast changing weather, and is quite simply the only thing to see - once you're stood on top, you can't see it!
I walked around instead, and saw lots of changing shapes and colours.

Nearby are the funny shaped rocks you can see in the other photo - the Olgas.  These are also not for climbing, but again the walk around them is amazing. I feel very lucky to get to see all these sights!

World Solar Challenge

Firstly, sorry this is a little behind - the solar race started on Oct 16th, my only excuse is slow Australian internet.

 

 



The World Solar Challenge is a 3000km road race down the Stuart Highway, from Darwin to Adelaide.  This is the only road, so it's worth considering the fact that the small solar cars, some of which weigh only 140kg (that's 2 Miss Butlers carrying their big rucksacks), have to share the same road as all the big road trains and trucks.  Also, though it is called a highway, it's just a single lane road either side.  Throw in all the things that Australia likes to try and get you with - bush fires, smoke, storms, animals, extreme heat and dehydration and suddenly Lewis Hamilton's racing job looks a little easier.  I'd seen some signs for the race in Katherine, and when I got to Darwin bumped into the Cambridge University team in the supermarket and got chatting.

 

 

Mrs Rees and the Stem group sent over some questions for me to ask, and in seeing the team again I also got to visit the centre where all of the team's cars were being held and checked (called 'scrutineering').  Some of the teams are very professional and well-funded, others are more hobby projects.  If you look at the solar challenge website or use a search engine you'll find out how different they are.
Here's some of the info I found out from the team - i hope it answers most of the questions!  You can always email if there's other things you'd like to know.

Designing the car:
The team have worked on the car as part of their degree/postgrad studies, and in their spare time.  Much of the design has been done using CFD software.  To test for aerodynamics very fine strands of wool were attached to the car and smoke passed over it - watching the patterns formed helped to refine the shape/design.


The car:
The car is two parts, the base with driver's seat and wheels, and the array, which is the top panel with the solar cells on.  The area of cells is very closely regulated.  The array lifts off easily, and this is done everytime the car stops, in part to angle it best to the sun.  Teams spray the array to cool it, as ironically when it heats up it's less efficient (but has to be in the sun to work - crazy eh).  The cars are very light, and the good ones are very energy efficient.  The Aurora uses the same energy as a toaster to go at 100km/h (62.5mph); it's 98% efficient compared to a petrol car at 30%.

The driver's seat in the Cambridge car (and most others) is very small...


The Teams:
...Need to have small enough people to drive!  Under 5ft10 and less than 80kg.  The Cambridge team had two drivers to keep swapping - this is important as the temperature in the car can reach 45 degrees - very very hot, and it's very cramped in there. The rest of the team travel in support vehicles in front and behind to help keep the car safe, and also to fix any problems.  They are all studying engineering subjects, and did A Levels such as maths, physics, further maths and chemistry.  Their car's top speed is 70mph but because the intensity of the sun changes throughout the day this can't be maintained.  Wherever the car gets to at the end of each day, the team camp out, ready to race again the next day.


There's loads more about this on www.cuer.co.uk so have a look if you're interested.  Having driven the route in a normal, quite big car, I think you would feel very fragile next to the big road trains in a solar car.  Also, I was lucky to avoid any major fire/smoke problems, but some of the race teams had to stop for a while due to the burning.

 A great effort to get the team together and go the distance, I'd like to hope that better use of solar power is not that far away.  There's a lot of homes here with panels on the roof - there is a bit more sun here though!

Ramsay street?!

Good morning from Melbourne, home of tv soap neighbours and the legendary sports ground the MCG. As you can see it's blue skies and sunshine here, so later I'm exploring the Mornington Peninsula, where there's some lovely beaches and walks- blog updating will wait for a grey day! Won't be far away though, the weather is very changeable in this part of Australia, so there will be lots to look at on here soon.
Although it's only 10:45am here the sun is very strong, so while you're snoozing (it's quarter to midnight in the uk) I'm covered in sunscreen! You will remember the ongoing pe teacher white feet problem from last summer, despite the sunshine I'm not sure I'm doing any better here- like to take a guess on what shape my shoes are?!
Have a great weekend
Miss B

Quick update...

Hello! Since the last post in Darwin, I've done about 3800km and am now just outside Adelaide in south Australia. It's been a lot of driving through a lot of nothing- so haven't had Internet for ages. That's like driving from leicester to the pyramids in Eygpt, if you could drive in a straight line! Finished the trip with a few days walking in the flinders ranges, near a village called quorn! The mountains are named for Matthew flinders who is from near where I grew up in Lincolnshire - he's much more famous in Australia though, maybe you can find out why. Anyway, I'm on the iPod and unlike you lot I can't type well on it, so proper update very soon. Here's what I'll be putting up next:
Interview with Cambridge Solar Team, with questions from Mrs Rees and the Stem group
Photos from some big rocks that I've climbed up, and a famous one that I didn't
Insider school of air info from meeting the Assistant Principal at Alice Springs
Life in the middle of nowhere - the everyday heroes that make outback living possible
Competition time! Prize for the winner!

As usual, please ask if there's anything you'd like to know- you can comment or message on studywiz. Hope you are well and had a good halfterm!
Miss Butler

Totally Tropical

I mentioned in the previous post about it getting pretty hot recently.  I passed the Tropic of Capricorn a few weeks back, but things didn't get really tropical until getting into the Northern Territory. The NE of Western Australia (Kimberley) and the 'Top End' of NT experience a wet-dry tropical climate.  In WA though the scenery didn't change much.  The Kimberley region is very barren, big spaces and huge boab trees.  I passed a lot of forest fires and burnt areas.  As I headed NE, everything got much greener, with palm trees, mango trees and rainforest areas. 

There's still burnt areas, but the larger trees are resistant to fire, so it's just the smaller ones that have to regrow.  Although the burnt parts look damaged and bad to us, remember that this burning and regrowth is vital to the forests and land.  Traditionally, tribes would have burned small areas at certain times.  In some areas this still happens, in others the Department for Conservation has taken on the task.  Burning small areas can also stop larger fires spreading. 

The local tribes in the top end recognise six seasons in the year (more details here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Australian_seasons).  At the moment it's the 'build-up' season, hot and humid as the wet (cyclone) season approaches.  In fact, the city of Darwin's location means it's had a tough time of it - being heavily bombed in WWII (as featured in the film 'Australia') and then almost completed destroyed by cyclone Tracey in 1974.

It's been great to see some different scenery after mainly big, dusty dry areas in WA.  I particularly enjoyed Litchfield National Park, which had lovely waterfalls to swim in.

If you look closely at the one below, you may be able to see some flying foxes (type of bat), they were very noisy up in the trees!

Next it's the big red centre for me - similar to the cars of the World Solar Challenge (www.worldsolarchallenge.org) I will be heading South to Adelaide.  It's 3000km of mainly red desert.  Fortunately, I won't be racing so will have time to stop at Uluru (you might know this by another name) on the way.  You can follow one of the teams in the solar car race at http://www.cuer.co.uk/.  I met a couple of this team in Darwin the other day, and am going to see the cars later today, so check back in a few days for more news on this.

TTFN

Miss B

The World's Largest Classroom...

(... and some not so big ones)

A few days ago I was lucky enough to visit the Katherine School of Air.
Nothing to do with flying planes (though that would have been exciting), School of the Air is the name given to schools that serve remote (far away) parts of Australia.  Some stations (farms) are so far from towns that it would be impossible for the children that live there to attend school.

Katherine School of Air (KSA) started in 1966, using radio to communicate with students.  The teacher would sit in a studio, and deliver a lesson over radio.  Students would have been posted work, and could sit at home to listen to the lesson, do the work, and post it back.  Later, students could ask questions and converse with the teacher.  The signal wasn't always very good - clouds, wind and rain all affected the signal.  If you looked at the 'Totally Tropical' page, you'll have seen that the wet season lasts for several months, so it must have been a little annoying to listen to crackly radio for a good proportion of the year. 

Suprisingly, this carried on until only 4 years ago when internet learning started.  Now the teacher and students can see each other, and although there is a slight delay it is much more interactive.  It was a big task to upgrade, as you will find out...

KSA covers an area of 800,000km square.  The UK is about 243,000km.  There are also many other School of Air branches.  When it was first set up, the technical guy had to drive or fly to every station to install the radio equipment.  To upgrade, a satellite dish and computer had to be installed with every family.  A BIG job!

There is a lot of responsibility on the students and their families to keep up to date with work and posting it back.  For the people in more remote areas posting/receiving mail will only be possible once a week - they can't just pop to a post box - they will probably drive to a town/roadhouse once a week for fuel, food and mail.  Also, they will only have a 45 minute 'lesson' with the teacher every day.  The rest is all up to them.

Sometimes the teachers go out to visit the students at home, to see what their life is like and help with any problems.  Remember that many of the children will be heavily involved in farm work, especially at busy times of year.  The students all come into town a few times a year, for swimming week, a week of lessons, sports day, and they all go on a camp together too.

I could write loads about this because I found it really interesting, it's so different to our school!  I don't want to go on for ages though, so it's best if I stop, and you can ask any questions you want about this - just post comments.  I see all the comments before they go online, so if you don't want you name to appear, just tell me.

This week I also met the teacher from a very small school - 40 pupils!  She teachers years 1-3 (same as ours) and has a class of 11 students.  Some School of Air students also join her class for two days a week, when they can get into the village (Adelaide River).

What problems do you think there might be with School of Air?

Would you like to have a School of Air?

As I said, feel free to ask any questions, and i'll do my best to answer them!

Australia is out to get you!

Let me start by saying that Australia is a truly fabulous country, and what follows should by no means put you off ever visiting...  There's a lot of amazing stuff here, but also there's some things that you have to be careful of...

In the last week life has got very hot.  Since leaving Broome it has been over 35 degrees every day, and got increasingly humid the further North I have travelled.

This means you have to drink lots, and put sunscreen and bug repellent on even more often, because you get so sweaty.  The mosquitos up here in the Northern Territory carry some pretty nasty diseases so it's not good to get bitten.

Assuming you manage not to get bitten, and avoid sunburn, there's plenty of other things that can get you up here.  Let's say you've decided to drive to a nearby National Park...

Before you leave, check oil, coolant and petrol levels.  'Nearby' is probably the same distance as Leicester to Exeter (Devon), with no fuel stops and little shade in between.
Fill up water containers (we carry 25 litres minimum) in case you get stuck somewhere. (There's probably only drinking water at the fuel stops). If you get stuck, never leave the car. It's your only source of shade and it's much easier to spot than a person is.
Drive for 2-3 hours, not leaving too early in the morning, or arriving too near sunset because of animals on the roads.

Going well so far...

Before starting to explore the Park, change into closed shoes instead of flip flops (so no nasty bugs/snakes/diseased mites can get your feet), put on hat and some more suncreen.  Make sure you carry enough water for your walk, 1 litre per hour per person. 
So now we're walking in 35+ degrees, with a hot head, a heavy bag, hot trainers, and a sweaty-suncreeny mess everywhere.  Maybe we'll happen upon a pretty looking swimming hole...

Swimming in un-managed water is a very bad idea in the NT.  Crocodiles come in two varieties, the freshwater leg nibbling kind, and the saltwater person-gobbling kind.  Confusingly, the saltwater kind are also found in inland river areas, so you're not safe anywhere!
Some beaches are unsafe due to crocodiles (see the picture on the Wild Wild West blog), there have also been two shark attacks on surfers in Western Australia in the last 6 weeks.  There's no beach swimming in Darwin at this time of year because of box jellyfish.  These nasties are the world's most venomous creature, and people die just from the pain of the stings - no thanks!

Ok, so no swimming.  Stick to the marked trails in the park instead.  There have been a number of news stories even since I have been in Australia (6weeks) about people getting lost in the bush, two were young children.  Fortunately both were found, but I reckon it would be very scary, especially at night.  There's a lot of big insects, animals and snakes around when it cools down at night.

Sounds like hard work eh?!

Well that's the worst of it, and remember that the scenery and beaches are beautiful, and that bad things generally only happen to people who don't get the basics right, like reading the signs and having enough petrol/water/clothing on to be safe.  The biggest problem is just how far apart everything is.  At some points even on the main highway there's over 150 miles to travel to get to the nearest hopsital.

So here's a question for you, i'm sure a well-known search engine will be able to help you out with the answer - feel free to post it as a comment - hopefully the comments should work for everyone now...

Why is Clyde Fenton pretty famous up here in the Northern Territory?

Sorry there's no photos today, have temporarily misplaced the camera lead (oops), but will try to get online again tomorrow for some photo uploading, and to put up some other news.  There's a vote at the bottom of this page so you can make sure I put what you want on here.

Hope all is well in England,

from a bite-free, un-burnt, well-hydrated, Miss Butler : )


ps.  I forgot, watch out for bushfires and cyclones too.  I"d say 'extreme' was right as we saw several fires that day...

Diamonds and Pearls

Diamonds and Pearls

Broome in Western Australia is a bit of an old-time frontier town.  100 years ago it was the centre of a booming pearling industry.  Japanese and Aboriginal Australian divers went to the bottom of the bay for up to seven hours a day collecting pearl shells.  With our modern day equipment, this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but this suit can’t have been very comfortable!  Also the diver was completely reliant on his crew on the lugger (pearl boat).  It took four men to pump air down a pipe to the diver.  He must have really trusted the crew as they pulled him back up by a rope attached at the neck of the dive suit.  Before decompression chambers were used in 1915 many divers died after experiencing 'the bends.'  They resurfaced too quickly to give them more time to dive for pearls, causing problems with Nitrogen balance in the blood.  This can still be a problem for divers today.

Pearling declined during the 2nd World War, and since then pearls have been 'farmed' inland at places like this:  www.williecreekpearls.com.au

Broome was attacked during WW2, sea plane wrecks can still be seen off the beach at low tides.  The best story I found was about a man named for a drink and $10million diamonds...

On 3 March 1942, Dutch Dakota DC-3 PK-AFV "Pelikaan" of the KNILM (Netherlands East Indies KLM) left Bandung in Java headed for Australia with a plane load of evacuees. They managed to escape Java just 3 days before the Japanese took the Bandung area.

At about 1:00 am, while the Dakota's engines were being warmed up, the Captain of the Dakota, Ivan Smirnoff  was handed a sealed cigar-box sized container by Mr. Wisse, the manager of Andir airfield at Bandung. The box was wrapped in brown paper and sealed in many places. Smirnoff was not aware of the contents of the box but was told "Take good care of this, it is quite valuable". He was told that an Australian Bank would take delivery of the box on arrival in Australia.

As they followed the beaches towards Broome, they suddenly observed large black clouds of smoke when they were still about 80 kilometres north of Broome. 


They had unfortunately arrived at Broome just after a Japanese raid by nine Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter aircraft.  Three of the Zeros first attacked the Dakota from the port side. Captain Smirnoff was wounded several times in his arms and hip. Smirnoff managed to put the Dakota into a steep spiral dive with the Zeros in pursuit, and landed the plane on a beach.  They continued to be showered with ammunition, so abandoned the plane.  Two passengers would later die from their wounds and lack of water.

In the meantime, Jack Palmer a well known beachcomber in the Broome area sailed his lugger into the Carnot and Beagle Bays area. He spotted the wrecked Dakota. Being a beachcomber he salvaged what he could from the Dakota. It is presumed that he found the mystery box at low tide. Stories have been told that he shared some of his booty of diamonds with friends and some local aborigines.

In mid April 1942 Jack Palmer made a visit to Army headquarters at Broome and asked to enlist in the Army. During an interview with Major Clifford Gibson he unexpectedly poured a salt shaker full of diamonds over the desk. They were confiscated and sent to Perth. Palmer was taken into custody by Lieutenant Laurie O'Neill who led an investigation into the incident. They took Palmer back to the crash site. They found pieces of torn brown paper wrapping and seals that came off the box. While they were there, the team salvaged some parts of the aircraft.





Diamonds started to be found in a variety of locations:-

- a Chinese trader had some
- amongst aboriginal communities
- in a matchbox in a train carriage compartment
- in the fork of a tree (found after the war)
- in a fireplace in a house in Broome

Jack Palmer and his two accomplices James Mulgrue and Frank Robinson were committed for trial in the Perth Supreme Court in May 1943. Chief Justice Sir John Northmore presided over the court with a jury of six. All three accused were acquitted after several days. Captain Ivan Smirnoff and Major Gibson were amongst a number of witnesses called from all around Australia.

Only £20,447 worth of diamonds were recovered by the authorities which means that there is in excess of £250,000 still missing today. This is now equivalent to over $10 million dollars worth of diamonds.




If only I had the time to go looking...

Getting Around in Western Australia

Western Australia is big.  Seriously big.  The UK would fit into it between  20 and 26 times depending on who you believe.  Since buying a car, I've covered over 6500km.  To work out what that is in miles you can divide by 1.6.  It's a long way, and there's still about a thousand miles to go before the border with the next state.  Driving can be tiring due to the distances and the heat.  The scenery mostly makes up for it though, even if it can be repetitive at times!

 When not driving, I've done a lot of walking, and scrambled up some of the mountains on the way.  This one is at Mount Bruce, the second highest mountain in WA.  The rock is really red in this region, the Pilbara.  A lot of mining happens, and like everything else, this is on a truly enormous scale.

 This dump truck is one that used to be used at the mines.  The wheels are 3.9m in diameter.  That means they are taller than Mr Preece standing on Mr Wilson's shoulders.  Maybe not an experiment we should try.  They hold 4900 litres of diesel ( most cars are around 60 litres), and thousands of tonnes of rock, iron ore, shale or whatever you put in them!

 The iron ore is put through a series of machinery to grade and mix it, and then carried by train to the coastal ports.  Ore from this mine in a town called Tom Price goes to Dampier port.  There are seven trains a day, each one is 2000m long with 200 trucks, carrying about 220000 tonnes of ore per train.  In total over 200million tonnes left this mine last year.  There are 12 mines just in this region, and many more than that all over WA, mining iron ore, copper, uranium, gold and many other minerals.  If you are interested, there's lots of information on the web, and in particular the Rio Tinto (mining company) website.  Many of the towns in this area including Tom Price) were built by the mining companies to house their

workers.  They are often a long way from other towns, and in very hot areas, so can be quite tough living.  I saw a great film about Dampier at the open cinema in Broome the other night.  It's called Red Dog, and is essentially a feel good film about a pretty cute dog.  There's great scenery of the Pilbara, and well worth a watch if it make it to the UK!

 So what about the stuff that doesn't go on train?  Well it still does.  These big trucks are called Road Trains.  It's not hard to see why.  Road trains can be up to 53.5m long (over half a football pitch), and usually have 3 of the large trailers.  They carry just about anything, groceries, building supplies, other vehicles (as you can see in the picture) all over the West Coast and through the centre of Australia.  Road train drivers travel up to 1200-1300km every day, sleep in their trucks, then carry on the next day.  This driver said "it's not a job, it's a lifestyle."  He was on a trip from Perth (Western Australia) to Darwin (Northern Territories) - see if you can find out how far that is! 

You can just see on the front of the truck that there's some large metal bars.  These are 'roo bars.  Kangaroos might be cute, but they are a major cause of accidents, either from cars hitting them, or swerving to avoid them, especially at dawn and dusk.  These folk in the big trucks are ok, but in cars we never drive at night outside of towns to stay safe.  It's important to plan journeys around sunset times (about 6pm at the moment) and be off the road before dark.  Kangaroos are very impressive to watch, so it's much better to be somewhere nice by then!  They evolved to hop for a very good reason.  It can be a long way between food and water supplies in Australia, and hopping is very energy efficient for them - energy is stored in very long elastic tendons in their powerful legs (tendons join muscles and bones).  This means they can travel long distances at speed when needed.  Can you find out how a Kangaroo's top speed compares to some other animals?