If I remember correctly, the last time I sent out a bulk email, I was in the middle of the Aussie Outback. Well, I'm pleased to announce that I did in fact reach Ayers Rock. I pitched my tent right at the base of it (not knowing I was risking a fine of a thousand dollars for such things), then I climbed to top of it (348 m above the surrounding plain), and then I cycled around it (9.4 km). It sure is a big red rock. The 360 degree panoramic view from the top was mesmerizing.

Unfortunately, Ayers Rock is pretty much smack dab in the middle of Australia. So after cycling two thousand kilometres of nothing to get there, I was looking at another two thousand kilometres of nothing to get out. There is usually a comfort in the loneliness' of the open road, but the open road Down Under is particularly open. And windy!

The only town of size between Ayers Rock and the coast is Coober Pedy. And Coober Pedy is a hole - literally! The name is from an Aboriginal language and is said to mean "White man's hole in the ground." Coober Pedy is the opal mining capital of the world. In fact, if it weren't for the shiny rocks, no human would live there. Its a barren inhospitable land. Movies like Mad Max and Red Planet were filmed here. Plus 50 C in the summer, freezing in the winter and sand storms. To escape the harsh conditions, the locals have taken to living underground.

I joined them. I spent a couple of nights in a cheap hotel (read: renovated mine shaft). It was cool (a nice change from outside). I also gave a shot at "Noodling the Mullock" (read: searching on your hands and knees through a pile of crushed rock). My hopes of a million dollar find went unfulfilled, but on the bright side the Coober Pedy information centre had free internet and there I made a potentially very lucrative discovery.

It all started back in Tibet. While I was wandering through the Barkhor market in Lhasa, I met a woman who had in her possession a bag of old coins. It was a lucky meeting for both of us. She was trying to unload
some odds and ends and I was in search of a souvenir. I found a dandy coin about the size of a Coke can top with lots of Chinese characters on it. I bought it for five Juan (eight Juan in a dollar). However, buried in the pile of rusting junk was also a couple of rather interesting items. One was a US silver dollar - an 1804 US silver dollar to be exact. I had no idea what a two hundred year old American silver dollar might be worth, but I reckoned it should be worth at least a dollar. I paid five Juan for it (about sixty cents).

I've been carrying it around ever since, often wondering how much the thing might be worth. So in Coober Pedy, I took advantage of the free internet and googled "1804 US Silver Dollar". The first site that popped up was eBay. Interesting. Someone was trying to sell an 1804 US silver dollar with a reserve bid of 20,000 (US). Very Interesting!!! My investigation continued.

Apparently, the price of silver skyrocketed in 1804 and the US government stopped minting silver dollars. It was some years later that the US Mint struck a limited number of 1804 dollars for inclusion in collector sets. As a result, they are a very rare and valuable commodity. In fact, the most valuable coin ever sold at auction was - you guessed it - an 1804 US
silver dollar. The sales price: Four million US dollars.

Jackpot! I haven't worked a day in five years, and I might not ever have to again! Yahoo!! Unfortunately, further research revealed that as a result of its incredible value, the 1804 US silver dollar has been highly counterfeited. In fact, only a handful of originals are known to exist. Mine is undoubtedly a fake, but maybe, just maybe its real ..... Its nice to dream!

Back on the road, I crossed paths with a Brit named Dave. No matter what you're doing, there's always some bugger doing something crazier. Dave was skateboarding across Australia. I was impressed. Of course I'd have been more impressed if he had been hauling 50 kg of gear around with him, but he had three support vehicles for that. But still, he was pushing a skateboard across Australia!

I finally rolled into Adelaide and spent a coupe days of R&R with John and Sue, a retired couple that I kept bumping into in the Outback. They spoiled me proper!

I continued south along Australia's Great Ocean Road (along the lines of California's Big Sur or South Africa's Cape Peninsula). It was a great ride. But all good things must come to an end and it did just short of Melbourne. The scenic road turned inland, grew into a motorway, and I ran over fish hook, a big one, the kind you'd use to catch a shark, a little shark!

I mention it only because people are always asking me questions like "How many flat tires have you had?" I don't know, I never counted. Although I remember one horrible day in Mexico when I had 12! But that was long before I discovered a German tire company called Schwalbe. I switched over to Schwalbe in Finland and managed to cycle across 19 countries without a flat tire. Freakin' Awesome Baby. By the way, I'm now on my fourth set of Schwalbes and no, they won't sponsor me!(I asked)

I had originally planned on cycling Tasmania, but an expired visa led me to jumping on a plane in Melbourne. I touched down in Christchurch on New Zealand's south island and began a search.

Way back on my flight between Bali and Darwin, I watched a heart-wrenching Disney movie called "Eight Below". It was a story about a dog sled team that had to be abandoned on Antarctica and the subsequent struggle of its owner trying to get back down to rescue his dogs. There was a line in the movie that went something like "If you hang out in Christchurch long enough you can find a boat going to Antarctica." Ever since, I've been thinking about the "Big Ice" after all I've been pretty much everywhere else.

So I decided to put the line to the test and my search began.

I cycled over to the Christchurch harbor which is in the little town of Lyttleton and set up shop. I cycled to the end of the pier and with my "Antarctica" sign in hand, stuck out my thumb! Much to my surprise, I found a boat, the Russian Icebreaker "Kapitan Khlebnikov." Unfortunately, the cheapest birth on the boat was priced at $17,995 US dollars for a 25 day cruise. Yikes! I offered them my 1804 US silver dollar but there were no takers.

Rumor about the Lyttleton harbor was that if I was serious about getting to Antarctica, I would have much better luck in Invercargill, the southernmost city in New Zealand. So I loaded up my bike and cycled on down there. No luck. But I got word of an American Icebreaker, the "Nathanel B Palmer" that had just arrived in port in Lyttleton, so I hoofed it back to Christchurch and tried again. Unfortunately, the American boat was already overbooked and my charismatic pitch fell on deaf ears.

So my dream of cycling all seven continents has fallen apart. Still, six out of seven ain't bad!

So now I'm off to Auckland.