Thursday 17th April 2008 Luke and Chris headed off to Alice Springs for some sunshine and Ayres Rock action!!! The lads both tested the weight limit at the airport and soon found themselves stuffing their day sack with whatever weighed the most, whilst the most racist bloke ever tried some friendly chit chat. A short flight and a taxi ride later we arrived at Annie's place (our cheapest accomadation for a long time!). Pretty basic and a lot of European's kicking around. Headed into town for a look around and meet the local Abo's (different). Pretty chilled out day and evening as we were in for a 5:00 start the next morning.

Friday morning proved to be a 04:30 start as Chris had cunningly forgotten to adjust his clock to the new time zone. Whoops. All geared up in what would put Ray Mears to shame we got onto the bus. A very mixed group on the tour which included a lot of Germans, a 35 year old detective (Chief Inspector Grobalar) and Miss Israel. In for a jolly time! First stop after an hour was at a camel farm. At 20 bucks a ride, the 20 seconds on board seemed a little pricey so wallets stayed closed. Back on the bus and the two narcoleptic British boys showed everyone the nodding dog trick. After a few pit stops and some serious fly swatting action we arrived at Ayres Rock. Now whilst some say it's just a rock it was bloody amazing to see it for real (Mum's and Dad's expect a lot of rock based pictures). Donning our fly nets and two of the campest fishing hats we could get our hands on we were off for a march round the rock! A good couple of hours with some trigger happy camera action (we are not Japanese) we were back at the bus to go and park up for sunset. A Thai green curry was on the menu and as the sun went down by the rock we were preparing for our first night under the swag! Campfire was lit (although not the greatest we'd seen) and it was time to watch the Germans buckaroo around the fire whilst we went in for a quiet one! Not too often that has been said!

Saturday was another early one. Got back to Ayres Rock for some sunrise pictures and some breakfast. Amazing. All packed up and it was off to the Olgas and the second part of our rock based adventure. Another hike and we come across the valley of the winds. It's hard to describe it but it was truly stunning, even better than Ayres rock! A serial place in the middle of nowhere. Back to the carpark and it was lunch time. At this point we discovered the Japanese people, whilst small, are like vultures around a pick nic. Bloody hell can they put it down. And in the dog eat dog system that was being operated tempers were tested. At this point we also realised one of our fellow Asian friends was wearing Australian flag silk boxer shorts as actual shorts. No joke. He must have mis-read the label or only ever have seen white fronts because he wore those bad boys the whole trip! Flashy git. Back onto the bus and the inter-European banter began. There were vicious rumours going around amongst the German camp that the English can't drink. Now these guys clearly hadn't been made aware of the 10 week intense training the English lads had been on. Detox to one side the goon was purchased and it was set. Before fun and games though it was a 4 hour ride to the new campsite. Luke and Chris checked out the facilities and plunged bomb first into the unheated pool. Out like scolded dogs with nipples that could cut glass it was a quick shower before camel-con-carney. Nice! Once again the Japanese struck and pretty much cleaned out the pasta before the 42 people behind them could get to it! After dinner it was drink time. A reasonable night of games and wine tasting, however the Germans were obviously feeling the effect because before you knew it they were starting an illegal fire! Different. After a good night it was again an early-ish night under the swag!

04:30 wake up call the next morning, and after some blue language we were off to the Vally of the Kings. No breakfast it was straight out for heart attack hill. Not suited to the training regime we had been on we staggered up the hill for some more breathtaking views. A really good walk in the cool of the morning, wathcing sunset, we were truely amazed by Australia's Red Centre. It was something neither of the lads had seen and a true eye opening to just how big Australia is! After a light lunch and our tour company being banned from the campsite due to the illegal fires, it was off for a 5 hour mission back to Alice Springs. Yikes. That night having warmed to the group it was all planned for a night out. 40 of us had a meal at the hostel where sing song was immense. We're passing on our bad habits. Then a night at the local with the tour guide Biege. Absolute cowboy and the place was bloody weird. Didn't exactly fit in with all the bikers and truckers but it just didn't matter! After a bloody good evening it was back to the hostel. Now for any avid readers you may know that we are also travelling with Sammy the Snake (the rubber number Luke 'borrowed' in Cairns). Now he has made a few guest appearances along the road turning up in all sorts of ladies beds the little rascal. However tonight Sammy had decided he wanted to sleep in one of the Swedish ladies beds. Not being able to talk him out of it Luke and Chris got their heads down for at last a lay in.

Monday morning Luke and Chris were awoken to what they thought were the people in our room checking out. However after what sounded like some sort of commotion we popped our heads up to discover that Sammy was causing all sorts of mayhem. The cheeky devil didn't introduce himself, and with the Swedish lady not wearing her glasses things had got a little out of hand. One lady was on top bunk slightly in hysterics, whilst the other had jumped up into her boyfriends bunk. The boyfriend was shouting that it was moving and to top it off the girl from reception was standing at the door not knowing what the hell to do. Slightly bemused and getting themselves together Chris announced that it was a rubber snake, hopped out of bed picked up the trouble maker and chucked him back into his. This is why we don't take Sammy out more often. Bloody good job everyone saw the funny side because we were crying with laughter for the rest of the day! The rest of the day was spent buying some tacky s***, hitting the pool and generally chilling. Skippie was on the menu and with no head chef the lads had to knock it up themselves. Delia your fired this stuffs easy. Having broken the ice with the Swedish we spent four hours playing Swedish card games which was ace before retiring!

22nd it was back off to Melbourne via a lethal bus ride to the airport. Ayres Rock was an amazing trip, fantastic sights and great fun. Another tick in the box.