I was unduly excited for my flight to Alice Springs - perhaps it's the recollection of childhood holidays and the knowledge that something new and fun is on the way, or maybe I just love plane food more than is humanly normal, I'm not sure, but Nina and I were up and off nice and early and, as usual, had too much time to kill at Perth airport.

Alice Springs is very unprepossessing, we landed early evening and by the time we had got to our lovely little hostel, sorted our tiny backpacks for the forthcoming 3 day trip to Uluru and the surrounds, and stowed away our big bags in the storage room (cue panic from me a day later as I had totally ignored the signs saying 'no food to be left in storage room due to mice' and was petrified I was going to get back to find a family of the little critters shacked up in my cosy backpack nibbling away at my food), it was pitch black outside and we couldn't see much of it as we tried to find Woolworths for food. First impressions weren't brilliant I have to be honest, neither of us felt massively safe on the ten minute walk to the shops and there weren't many other people about apart from some local Aboriginal women one of whom shook my hand then tried to stroke Nina's face so we ran away. Anyway I thought I'd give the place the benefit of the doubt and see what it was like in the daylight upon our return a few days later.

Cue our trip to Uluru, Kata Tjuta and King's Canyon with the BRILLIANT Emu Run tours. We had booked a 3 day, 2 night tour and were very giddy, albeit sleepy, when we were picked up at 5.45 (I am forever destined to never sleep past 7 it seems), me complete with toothbrush in hand as I had left it a bit late, and giving GJ, our guide for the next few days, a good laugh to start the trip off with.

The group was a bit of a motley crew, 3 Germans (Manfred, Christina and Jasmin), an Australian (Cathy), An American (Meaghan), a Dutch girl (Eileen), a French couple (Julien and Laurie), a guy from Hong Kong (Eric) and a guy from Korea (Matt). I literally had only learnt all the names by today when I'm flying out to Cairns. Some of the girls got a bit cliquey and in some ways spoilt the trip as we often seemed to be in two very separate groups (plus they did mine and Nina's heads in), one in particular seemed very keen to let us all know that she could have 'watched this on youtube', told us it 'wasn't worth getting up early for' and seemed to enjoy complaining about all the walks we did, which drove me over the edge so I responded 'didn't you read the itinerary?'. It shut her up for about 5 minutes anyway. Apart from that the trip was a brilliant experience and I would definitely do it again, although some warmer clothes would definitely be first thing in my bag.

The first stop on our tour was Uluru (or Ayers Rock as it was termed when first discovered by the Europeans) which I still don't think I'm pronouncing correctly and must have heard it discussed about 30 times over the three days. I could probably pontificate for paragraph after paragraph extolling how awe-inspiring it is, you truly feel dwarfed by this massive monolith rising up from seemingly nowhere, and the fact that is bright red is frankly just bizarre. There are a lot of likenesses in the rock - the 'winking elephant', Mick Jaggers lips, and even a Shakespearean profile. But I suppose you can see what you want to see if you look hard enough! Nina and I did the base walk, a 10km stroll around the entirety of the rock, all the way being bombarded with flies but enjoyable nonetheless. I am pleased to say we were first back as well, victory for the Yorkshirewomen.

Once everyone had returned we drove over to a lookout point and enjoyed bubbly whilst admiring the changing colours of Uluru at sunset. The temperature rapidly drops so pretty much as soon as the sun was gone we jumped back on the (heated) bus and toddled along to our campsite for the evening - as the leaflet called it 'the hotel under the stars'. Once cuddled into our swags (like single body tent things with sleeping bags inside) and with the campfire roaring it was pretty cosy, and falling asleep with the stars twinkling above is always a good way to end a day.

The next day brought a chirpy 5am wake up call, and if the freezing cold air (it probably was about 3 degrees, how Australia has weakened me) didn't manage to slap us out of early morning stupors then watching the sun rise alongside Uluru certainly did. The view was from a distance but still an impressive sight to behold, as Uluru slowly takes shape on the horizon and turns from grey to dusky pink to red, you can sort of understand why the Aborigines revere it so. Sadly we were all freezing to death and on a tight schedule so as soon as the suns warming rays hit us we were back on the bus and heading to the Olgas, or as they are now more correctly known, Kata Tjuta.

Kata Tjuta is part of the same national park as Uluru and has a lot of the same red colourings but there the similarities end. Where Uluru is smooth and more evenly shaped, Kata Tjuta is a series of mounds with broken rocks, trees, peaks and troughs. We walked through the 'Valley of the Winds' to start our 7.4km walk, and let me tell you the name was justly earned. I don't think my fingers have ever felt so cold, even during the snows of winter. I feared frostbite was soon to occur! Despite this inauspicious start the walk through the formations was beautiful and I think my favourite place of the three we visited. Kata Tjuta is a very sacred place for 'men's business', as the Aboriginal men term their secret ceremonies and knowledge. Women aren't allowed anywhere near anywhere that men's business is taking place so the walk is a strict footpath winding up and down some steepish gullies and allowing for some superb views of the entire 36 domes that consist of the landmark. The domes towering above you and casting shadows over the walkway created different effects and colours on the stone, which is only red because of the high level of iron ore in the ground. I have to say that Kata Tjuta was a lot greener than I expected - I don't know maybe I just thought the 'Outback' would be a lot more barren but it really isn't!

For our evenings entertainment we made damper - basically flour and beer mixed together to make a bread, delicious. We also had a lovely bbq, replete with kangaroo steak! If you're interested it just tastes like strong beef… After a long day, firstly in the cold then in the much warmer afternoon, we told a few ghost stories (well GJ did) which, although at the time weren't scary must have triggered something in my brain as I had very creepy zombie dreams! Then one last snuggle up in our swags in the hotel of a million stars (really wish I knew more about astronomy there were some amazing things out there) to prepare for our last day of the trip - boooo!

The final day started off early once more, and, again, froze off my poor little tootsies. It was all worth it though when we got to King's Canyon. Kings Canyon is made up of layers and layers of rock which has been worn away by water and the elements (see my Exmouth trip blog for geological facts!) but is peculiar in that the top layer, say 5 inches or so, are red from one type of sand, and the inside is actually quite a bright yellowy white colour, which you can see where there have been rock falls.

This walk started with a 100m climb of 400 steps which I powered up, hot on the heels of Matt, our resident Korean hill runner. I honestly think he has more stamina than the rest of the group combined. This afforded a gorgeous view of the plains ahead of us, it was like a scene straight from the Lion King again! Although this time we actually did sing a little bit of the circle of life. We followed a 6km walk along the rim of the canyon, lots of ups and downs and really enjoyable, for me anyway. There were fossilised wave prints and sea snail tracks to see, 780 year old cicads (the oldest living species on the planet, from before the dinosaurs), what seemed like hundreds of weathered sandstone domes, the 'Garden of Eden', a prehistoric looking abundance of greenery in one of the gorges running alongside a creek, just beautiful, and sheer sided edges to stare over and give yourself vertigo. It took a lot longer than I would usually expect, but with a group of 12, and one Korean who goes off running in the 'Garden of Eden' (possibly the funniest comment I heard all week. 'Where's Matt? He's running through the Garden of Eden'…maybe you had to be there.) it took about 3 hours. My photos probably say more than my limited vocabulary can so please just go peruse them for the full visual impact! It was a long drive back to Alice - damn this country being so big! We stopped off and had camel burgers - the meat was a bit sweet for me to be honest - then went to a camel farm where you could ride on the camels. It seemed to be a day of camel punishment quite frankly.

Upon return to Alice we had a few hours to get ready then went out for a quiet couple of drinks at the most bizarre circus/fairground themed restaurant/bar, I felt like I was inside Roald Dahl's head or something. They had a nice cider though. A relatively early night, about 10pm by my count, alongside a telling off from one of the girls in our dorm who was asleep when we turned the light on (get an eye mask), made for a solid nights sleep.

So, now, back to Alice Springs in the daytime. I have to say the sunlight didn't improve my opinion of it much. It is about as far from anywhere as you can get and, although there are some nice little shops and art galleries for Aboriginal art (some of it is AMAZING, unfortunately I can't justify a grand on a picture), but it seems to have a lot of social issues. There are a lot of Aborigines wandering around the streets listlessly, whom I assume to be destitute, and the white and Asian locals just seem to try and ignore them being there. Forever the legacy of the original settlers I fear will be the slow disintegration of Aboriginal culture - in towns like Alice it seems like a case of too little too late to help save it. Despite this we had a lovely BBQ with our new trip friends, and I got to meet up with Kat from my Exmouth trip briefly, before going to airport for another fun filled flight.

Becca