Dear all

We have now reached Adelaide after a very fun and hectic 6 day overland trip from Alice Springs-Adelaide. The tour included Kings Kanyon, the olgas, Ayres Rock, Coober pedy, the Flinders Ranges, Woomera and Quorn. It was absolutly fantastic, we both really enjoyed it and are very glad we visited the Northen Teritory, despite it being so far away! The tour was a camping style tour with a group of 22 other people and a guide, which really added to the trip as it made it so much easier to just have to be driven to places and told about the area/history/culture! It was also really nice to have a group of us as it really added to the fun, and helped the 4 and 5am starts not seem quite as bad!

The tour started with a driv to Kings Canyon where we did a walk around the canyon then hiked to the top to see the views accross the outback. The walk was swealtering, but it was worth it when we reached the top as the views were stunning. We drove to the Aryes Rock campsite after Kings Canyon where we had dinner with our group and a few drinks (where I finally had my first taste of 'goon', basically australian wine in a bag, very classy stuff as you can imagine!) and then slept in 'swags' (an australian style bivvy bag!) outside under the stars. Sleeping in the swags was so fun, we felt like we were properly 'roughing it' (although we still had cooking facilities and a toilet and a nice guide to show us the way so we weren't really as hardcore as we think!) and we managed to spot some shooting stars before falling asleep!

We were woken at 4am on the second day so that we could go watch the sunrise over the olgas - it sounded so lovely in theory, but when we got there there was no sunrise to be seen because of a sandstorm, typical! We were taken straight for a walk around the olgas after sunrise though so our early wake up wasn't in vain, and the 3 hour walk was finished by 10am! It was a really nice walk in comparison to the day before - there was no stifling heat and everything felt fresh as it was such early morning, definetley much more comfortable! As we were walking we did bump into some national park workers though who had buckets of red sand with them.... and there was us thinking that the red stone was natural! Day two was when we also visited ayres rock, which was our favourite. The rock was nothing like we imagined it to be - it's not smooth at all, there are lots of small crater shapes in it and differetnt gouges and holes. And it's HUGE. The aborigines have stories to explain all the different markings and we were told some of them, although according to aboriginal culture the stories are not supposed to be shared with epople outside of their tribes. After walking around the rock we were treated to a glass (well, I should say plastic mug!) of champagne whilst we watched the sunset which again was one of our highlights (although slightly cheesy, it was definetly a sight you don't see every day!).

We drove to Coober Pedy on the third day which is an opal mining town in the middle of the outback, where all the houses are underground to keep away from the heat. The town was well worth a visit, but very remote, and we went to a local bar on the evening and met some of the locals, which was an experience! The bar had the tiniest dance floor I've ever seen, and it was like a throw bakc to the 80's with the decor and the locals! As Coober Pedy is famous for it's opals we had a tour of the mine whilst we were there - Phil has decided that he is going to make his fortune there as they don't use geophysics to find where the best spots for mining are (I told him he could commute there, I didn't fancy living there after experiencing the nightlife!). The next two days we spent based in a town called Quorn (I got my hopes up as I thought Quorn might come from there, but much to my disappointment the town consisted of a pub, bookshop and park and not much else!) and we went out to the flinders ranges durin the day where we did some great mountain (well, as high as mountains can get in Oz!) walks which again had some lovely views at the top. We had another night out with the locals in Quorn which was again entertaining - the pub even had a video juke box which Phil, our friend Vicky and I found very exciting, although it played western music the whole eve - saying that, after 6 days in the outback with a tour guide who loves that style of music, I am becoming quite partial to it!

the tour was tiering but absolutly brilliant, definetly better than we expected. I think one of the best things about it was the range of people we met. there were some swiss German people on their honeymoon, some people who were doing work and travel in oz and having a month or so break, two canadian ladies who had come in their retirement and then a few regualr travelers like Phil and I. It was sad to say bye to everyone when we reached Adelaide, but we're hoping to catch up with one friend when we reach Melbourne which will be good. All in all an ace 3 days, soemthing we definetly wouldn't have missed.

Looking forward to hearing from you all soon

Love Cat and Phil xxxxxx