Alice Springs is one of the few large towns in the whole of the Northern Territoy and the only one in the centre of Australia. The state istself is 7 times the size of the UK and only has 200,000 inhabitants. That is a lot of space per capita! Most of the land is arrid and dry with very little rainfall. We are here in the height of summer yet this is also the wet season. We have yet to seen a drop of rain or a river or creek bed with any water in it. We hate to think what the dry season is like. As there are no coastal breezes the temperature here is also very hot averaging around 38-40c/104f degrees every day and the maximum temperature ever recorded at the rock was 56c/132f. It hit 44c/112f whilst we were here. Thankfully though there is little humidity, which at least makes the temperature a liottle more bearable. When we first arrived in Alice we were a little worried about the inhabitants. However, we can now safely report that ZZ Top have retired from the music business and have taken over as the local hoteliers - either that or Alice is the Australian headquarters for the Hells Angels! The long bearded guys seem to be everywhere! We hired a campervan straight away for our 1,000 mile return roadtrip. First port of calll was Ayers Rock which is a 5 hour trip on very long, very straight road. When Chris went to pick up the van from the depot, the first concern was the number of vans in the yard that had been rolled and completly totalled. Cars are not the problem out here as you may see one car every 30 minutes or so but kangaroos, cattle and wild camels are a different thing altogether and have a mind of their own. As we drove to Ayers Rock the roads were littered with the carcasses of dead kangaroos, providing plenty of food for the large black birds circling above. We were clearly warned that if we see a 'roo on the road hit it straight on, don't swerve as the other totalled campervans did. Thankfully, we did not have to make that choice. The other danger on the roads are the roadtrains, which are huge trucks upto 175ft long pounding along the roads. The biggest annoyance out here are the flies - you have never seen so many flies who all seem to be competing to enter every facial orifice possible. You will see on the photos the sartorial elegance of the headwear we finally succumbed to - complete head nets, but you would eventually go mad without them. Whilst it is certainly the most famous, Ayers Rock is not the only monolith in this part of the world. Mount Connor, the Olgas and Kings Canyon are similar edifices and are equally as impressive than the big rock itself. The reason that it is so important is it's religious significance to the aboriginal people, which all seems to be based on tales of fighting animals! We took the time to hike around the base of Ayers Rock, which whilst a flat walk, was no mean feat as the temperature quickly climbed to 40c/104f over the course of the 6kms. It is also possible to climb to the top of the rock, which is 380m above ground. However, you are encouraged not to by the aboriginals due to the reigious significance of the site and they close it anyway if the temperature is forecast to creep over 36 degrees. The track itself is also pretty vertical and quite a number of people have died climbing it through falling off or heart attack. So you can imagine that Carol was fairly relieved that the climb wasn't open due to the temperature! One evening we stopped and had dinner on the side of the road as we watched the sunset descend over Ayers Rock. Over the space of 30 minutes the colours varied between orange, ochre, red, cinnamon and salmon pink. The shadows against the rock appeared, lengthened and disappeared again as the sun moved further into the western sky. It really was as dramatic as the photographs suggest and quite magical. We also managed a couple of other hikes to look at the Olgas and also climbed to the top of Kings Canyon for an impressive walk around the rim. Whilst on the latter walk we discovered some pools at the bottom that were possible to reach from the track. Carol was a little worried about paddling in case there were any crocs nearby, but the ducks seemed to be swimming happily without the prospect of being lunch for that day, so we gave it a go. Whilst there, though, we did see a wild dingo in the bush, which scampered away as we approached, with some pray that it had caught. All we could hear was the tearing of flesh and the crunching of bones as the dingo discreetly tucked into lunch. It was quite exciting to be that close to a wild animal. Each of the walks really took their toll, due to the temperatures. Just to survive a 3 hour hike, we needed to take 8 pints of water each in a small back pack, as the tracks are not generally equipped with water stations. Yet even that much seems to hardly touch the sides. We have really enjoyed this central part of Australia, but in a week have probably exhausted its main offerings. Alice itself is a nice place which sits just on the Tropic of Capricorn and seems to have a strange pull for many people, as they often travel here with the intent of moving on, only to stay for the rest of their lives (though we are not sure what they do for kicks). For us it is now time to move on to Darwin on the north coast, which is cooler but more tropical.