The trip did not have the best start as everyone who went out the previous night both felt and looked terrible! Fortunately there were 18 of us on a 24 seater bus so we could spread out.

For this trip we had 2 tour guides Benchy and a trainee called Nik. Their emphasis was on fun and boy did they create it! Benchy in particular was a bit of a prankster so to while away the long hours on the bus they had us singing karaoke, eating weet-a-bix in a race, playing a guess the lie game etc....all good silly fun!!

This trip was from Darwin to Alice Springs down the Stuart Highway. The highway is named after John Mcdouell Stuart a Scotsman who was commissioned by the Australian government to find a route from the north to the south. He walked 16,000 km took 33 months and 6 attempts but eventually he made it. Despite being such an important man in Australian history it is claimed he died alone in Scotland and that there were only 3 people at his funeral - his brother, the vicar and the grave digger!

I think it is perhaps the isolation in these parts but everyone appears to be a little cuckoo! The roadhouses (service stations and rest stops) in particular are so surreal - here are some examples:

In Wycliffe the roadhouse was covered in paintings of aliens and claims that it is the alien centre of Oz. Inside the shop was even worse with dead animals in jars, a freaky display of kids stuff behind a glass wall and a 4 poster bed with a gorilla surrounded by a selection of whicker baskets - time to go.......

Another mental place is Daly Waters once home to Australias first international airport. This small town is essentially all about the pub which is the oldest pub in the northern territory. You'll see on the photos what I'm talking about but inside it's full of autographed bras, knickers, scarfs, you name it! When we were there a church choir were visiting who got up and sang us some gospel songs, then an older guy got up wth a birdcage strapped to his head (yes I did say a birdcage) and started singing. Faced with such strangeness we retreated to the pub swimming pool for a swim, a spot of lunch and some normality!

We stopped at a roadhouse in Barrow Creek where the landlord insisted that we come into the pub so that he could show us some memorabilia he showed me all the British items he had, Anne all the dutch and Nicole all the Swss. He was quite creepy so we uncomfortably stood in the middle of the pub whilst he moved around us like a whirlwind with a cane pointing at old notes, bus passes, football shirts etc....lovely yes but again time to go....! This roadhouse is where both Peter Falconi and his convicted killer Murdoch fuelled up before the murder 30km away.

As well as taking toilet and lunch breaks at wierd and wonderful roadhouses we also saw some culture en route. We saw Katherine Gorge by boat, went for an early morning dip in the thermal pools at Matarankan (so early that we hadn't even had brekkie) visited Devils Marbles which are huge round stones created from the molten lava of ancient volcanoes and drove over the Ghan railway line that links the north to the south. The Ghan wasn't fully completed until 2003 (!!) and is named after the Afghan (actually Indian and Pakistani) cameleers who assisted in the exploration of the route. We were also taken to a community aboriginal music centre where I thought we were going to get a demonstration of some traditional music but in fact they played electrc guitars - it was stll good though and the lyrics were all relevant to their struggle and way of life!

We drove into Alice to the sounds of Dr Hooks classic - 'Who the fxxx is Alice?" and within an hour were out partying. Alice is a stopover for many travellers along the Stuart Highway so has a real nght time party atmosphere. After a cheap $5 meal at Annies Place we headed over to Bo Jangles for dancing where a great night was had by all.