Our next couple of days in Melbourne went by very quickly. One day we got on the tram to St. Kilda's beach where we sat outside a cafe and had lunch, it was beautiful weather and lovely just watching the world go by. We wondered over to Acland Street which is the main shopping area in St. Kilda's. It has a great backpacker and hippy atmopshere, we wondered around the shops and got 2 frozen yogurts, a fruit salad and a pint of gherkins, ha ha (our version of being healthy!)
In the evening, we went to a Vietnamese, bring your own alcohol restaurant in Brunswick street, this a very cool area filled with lots of bars and restaurants - very buzzing at night. We had a lovely dinner with some local melbourne friends we had met. We then went back into the centre of Melbourne and tried to get into a bar but no luck, passports only - so next stop was the Carlton Club, this had a gorgeous roof top bar and was busy with lots of life. I met up with a friend that I had met in Malaysia so it was good to see a friendly face.
The next day we got up early and went to do the Neighbours tour. We got on the bus and sitting on it was a girl - Nikki, that me and em went to school with - such a small world. It was great catching up. The tour was very touristy, we watched episodes of Neighbours whilst we drove to Ramsey street. Once we got to the street, we were shocked at how small it was. They weren't filming that day so we were able to walk around. The residents of the street have to move their cars out every time they film the street which is such a hassle for them but they get paid so I am sure they are happy. They also have to put the Ramsey Street sign up everytime they film so we had a fake sign that we had photos with. It is also was quite cold that day which isnt how they portray it in the show - they are always wearing shorts! We left and met the actress who played Stephani Sculley, a few years ago - she was lovely and was actually heading to Brighton for new years eve so not far from home at all.
We spent our last night in Melbourne driving down the Great Ocean Road, it was a surprise as we didn't realise we were doing it. Luke (the guy we were staying with) was taking us to a beach party a few hours away. We spent lots of time in the car with Luke and his friends and had a bit of a road trip. When we first saw the ocean, we pulled over and went a bit crazy. It was stunning as the sun was setting and the beaches were completely empty. Such a beautiful night. We stopped of at this pier and emily and I ran all the way down - we were the happiest we could be, smiling, laughing and jumping the whole way. It was such a beautiful experience. We headed for some dinner at a service station (pretty much an English pub) and then went to this girls party. It wasn't so much of a party though, about 10 people sitting around a fire. We didn't stay very long before we got back in the car and headed back to the city. It was about 1am when we got back to the city and we thought we might as well keep the night alive as it was our last night in Melbourne so we hit the town. It was a great day.

We got on a flight to Alice Springs early the next day. We arrived and were taken by transfer to our hostel 'Annie's Place'. We checked into our room which was a basic hostel room but we had a twin room for the same price as a dorm so that was nice. The hostel had a real desert feel about it - a converted outback motel almost. The rooms were all situated around a pool, and the hostel boasts a lively restaurant and bar too. (wow i have been reading too much of the lonely planet.) Our room however did still have someones toothbrush and toothpaste on the sink with ants swarming it. Emily asked the reception to clear that up though :-) Our door also got a bit stuck when we were in it and when reception came to look at it, she said oh yeah it does that, if we don't see you for a couple of days, we'll know where you are! Really comforting!
Alice Springs itself is a small town, just a grid of about five streets. However there is a mall - Todds mall with its very own 'Target' and 'Woolworths'. Just picture lots of grass patches with Aboriginal people sitting around selling pieces of aboriginal art. When they speak to one another it seems as if they are shouting and being quite aggressive, this made us a little uneasy but apparently that is just how they speak to each other. They would rather shout to each other from across the road than get up and speak in a normal voice, i guess they are just lazy. Maybe its the heat. It was very hot there, around 40 degrees. Alice is a real tourist trap, most come there as a centre for travelling to 'the Rock'. Most people would be happy to spend as little time as possible in Alice, but I happened to really like it. The whole small town thing really made me happy. Anyway, we were starting our 3 day 'rock tour' the next day and we weren't sure how good the food would be so we stopped at Woolworths to get some supplies. We took the healthy option of crackers, an antipasti dip, a jar of olives, fruit, dried nuts and some other bits. What are we like! We tried to bond with some of the tourists at the hostel that night but nobody was very interested in us so we got a bit deflated and went to bed.

Monday was an early start at 5am. We left our hostel and got on the tour bus at 6am. The bus was full when we got on it and the only seats left were at the front, one next to the tour guide and one behind that. Our tour guides name was Sam and he was quite lively - the other 20 people on the bus, not so much. The journey into the outback was 4 and a half hours with plenty of bush toilet stops. My shepee (for those of you who know it) came in handy! We arrived in Kings Canyon at 11am and a started a 3hr trek around the canyon. It was very hot, and the first part of the trek was called heart attack hill - only about a 15 minute climb but quite steep. I pretty much raced up in, even in the heat but Em struggled with the heat and was pretty exhausted by the time she got up there. Unfortunately this put a downer on the rest of her trek as she just felt so ill but she braved it and continued on until the end (partly because Sam said he wouldn't let her sit in the bus with the aircon). By the end of the day, the whole group, even the chinese and the french were calling her 'shady' as wherever there was shade, there was emily. But she did great and as much as she didn't enjoy the first day, she loved the next few days of trekking. The walk around the canyon after the climb was easy and a really stunning trek. The rock was so red and the sky was so blue, it was such a beautiful contrast. We stopped at a vantage point on the canyon for some lunch. Sam had handed out the lunch on the bus and told everyone to put it in their bags and save it for lunch but most of the chinese people didn't understand English so they ate their lunch straight away and didn't have anything to eat at the top. Sam was really interesting and told us how they canyon was formed as well as the aboriginal stories. The walk overlooked sheer cliff faces with some awesome views. We also walked through the Garden Of Eden which normally should have tranquil pools but not now in the heat of summer. After the canyon we drove further into the bush where we made a stop for some firewood. Me and Em didn't really get any firewood, I was too busy concentrating on finding the best place for a bush toilet. W then headed to a bush camp off the side of the road to make camp for the night. It was dark by this point so the first thing we made was a fire. We put the swags (outback style bedroll with thin mattress inside) in a circle around the fire and chilled out with some goon (box of aussie wine - 4 litres for 10 pounds). Everyone took turns over the 3 days helping with the cooking, cleaning and fire building. I started chatted to this guy Antonio from Holland - he works in cancer antibody research and this is something I am so interested with so was great chatting to him. Also chatted to 3 brits who had recently graduated too, a lovely Belgian couple who had just got engaged and a german girl who had been working in McDonalds in Alice Springs for the past 2 months!! Dinner was delicious, Sam cooked us chilli con carne, vegetable curry, rice, potatoes and veg - definitely didn't need our extra supplies. We went to sleep shortly - got in our swags which was extremely comfortable but what with the fire and the temperature being 35 degrees, it was boiling. I had to sleep on top of my swag with no covers on me. I had a bad night sleep as I kept waking up thinking I could hear animals and insects around me. There were no stars when we went to sleep as it was too cloudy but emily woke me up in the middle of the night and the sky was beautiful - breathtaking, so many stars. I honestly thought someone had moved me in my sleep and taken me somewhere else where there were stars. Em kept waking up in the middle of the night and going to the bush toilet right by Sam's bus door - she didn't want to go to far into the bush on her own. Sam was not best pleased in the morning! And somehow everyone knew it was emily!

We were woken up at 5am with Sam making us breakfast. We rolled up our swags, changed and grabbed some food. We washed up, cleared camp and got back on the bus. It was another journey before we arrived at Yalara resort (Uluru resort). We stopped off at the campsite where we were staying the night for some proper flushing toilets and running water. We then drove to Kata Tjuta which is a collection of huge rounded rocks about 30km from Uluru. The main walking trail is the 'valley of the winds', a 7.4km walk which we did. We walked through the gorges where we saw awesome views of the domes and some stunning rock formations. The creation story is that there were 2 aboriginal kids, 2 giant boys who were trying to make mud piles so were separating the mud from the rock, throwing the rock behind them and overtime the rock and the mud combined forming Kata Tjuta. There is so much that Sam could tell us of Aboriginal stories as a lot of it is kept secret unless you have been initiated.
We saw a kangaroo and its joey hiding in the trees on our walk...my first kangaroo viewing!
We went back to camp for a lovely lunch of salad, wraps and chili con carne. I love how I mention everything we eat. We spent a couple of hours relaxing by the camp pool which was so refreshing in the heat. After the pool, we went to the cultural centre at Uluru. Uluru at first sight was magnificent, so much bigger than I ever imagined. And it definitely wasn't just a rock. We walked around the centre learning about the Aboriginal culture, before heading outside for the Mala Walk. This walk is short, only 2km but is an interpretative walk explaining the tjukurpa (traditions) of the Mala people. It was most culturally fascinating of all that we had seen so far. Uluru stands about 350metres high above sea level but the bulk of it is below the earths surface and is quite incredible.
Climbing Uluru has great spiritual significance for the Mala men so it is not advised for you to climb it, nobody in our group did out of respect. The Mala walk had lots of waterholes, coloured paintings and drawings on the walls in the caves. There were women only sections of the rock where women went to give birth and therefore men weren't allowed to this area, they also had caves where they cooked and taught the children and you could see the evidence of this by the paintings. After the Mala walk, we drove to the sunset viewing point where we all drank and were merry. Sam cooked us another great meal while we just took in the gorgeous site, however it wasn't as gorgeous as it could have been as it was too cloudy so pretty much no sunset whatsoever. We went back to camp, had a big sing song in the bus on the way back - all in high spirits. We stayed up for a while chatting and drinking, we eventually got in our swags to go to sleep and I felt water on my face. I thought someone was being funny and had turned the bus windscreen wipers on but no - it was just rain! I must have weird dreams in the outback. As the swags aren't waterproof - we all ran for shelter. This was the start of Cyclone Lawrence. Nobody got much sleep that night and we had to get up at 4am to watch sunrise which was unbelievable. We ate breakfast at the viewing point and it was just stunning. The only unfortunate part of the trip were the flies, they were everywhere - I would recommend to anyway to bring fly face nets. We went back to Uluru to do our final trek of the trip - the base walk, a 10km walk around the whole of uluru at 6 in the morning! It was early but so beautiful, and a nice temperature to do the walk. There were also no crowds doing this walk so it was pretty serene. We got back on the bus for our long journey home in the cyclone, lots of sand storms and heavy rain - was quite an experience though. We stopped at a camel farm on the way back to ride some camels and pet some orphan kangaroos. I think we were all pretty exhausted by this point but it was fun nonetheless.
We arrived back at 5pm and were all meeting for dinner and drinks at 8pm. Sam said usually everyone is up for a big night but not our group, we all left for bed at 10pm. Early start the next day though, flying to Sydney...