Friday 25th Alice Springs to Uluru with The Rock Tour -

(Today in Australia it is a public holiday with street parades as they are celebrating Anzac Day). I will blog on the way and upload when or if we get internet......

4.45am, pitch black outside. As scheduled we got collected and were drove to the meeting point, Gangs of local aboriginal people where hanging round the streets in Alice, police in attendance too. pleased we didn't have to walk to our meeting point. (We had been advised that if you find yourself in Alice after dark to get a taxi to your hotel). We were briefed and set off on a full 21 seater with a trailer on the back for our backpacks and Aussie swags (our beds for the next 2 nights).

The bus is not luxury it is an old banger with a/c, Hey ho I'm going with the spirit!! Matt is our tour guide, bus driver and cook, he seems fun. He told us the last person on the bus shuts the door, he showed us how to do this by pressing an imaginary electric button and made a few noises lol. On our way and he said we would play some soft music and "Road To Hell" comes on!! Lol.

Matt has starting swerving the bus now to wake those up that are sleeping (I think) there is no other obvious reason. We are making our first stop, a toilet break at a shack in the middle of bush/desert...., it sold coffee, cold drinks, ice cream etc.

We arrived at Kings Canyon we joined with another tour and had a good 3 to 4 hour hike. The first part of the hike was the worst it was called heart attack hill and it was a killer, the views worth it, we where shattered but survived!!

After, we went to a shack for a well deserved ice creams, then pulled over on the roadside and were sent to look for wood for our fire tonight and tomorrow. Matt wanted wrist thick wood, not twigs. A lad from the other bus started pulling a tree apart! When the wood was tied to the trailer, we went to pull off and found the bus wheels were stuck in the sand and we all had to get off and push!! (Which only added to the experience).

Next stop was for alcohol, we then made our way to the camp (curtain Springs) pitch black by now. Matt turned off down a sandy track and drove mental and started flashing his headlights and turning the interior light on the bus on and off to the sound of " The Ace Of Spades", the sand was all blowing up causing a disco effect the bus behind was doing the same and we then went round in a few circles before stopping. The driver got a round of applause for this!

It was time to set up camp, everybody mucked in by torch and moon light, we had a large pit of a fire, the food was prepared by us all, alcohol put on ice and we sat round the fire taking our turn to stir the pots whilst having a beer. We also made bread. We put a bit of lager and cider in with flour and put it in a metal container and on the fire it went, tonight's meal was chilli, rice and vegetables. The stars where amazing. After A few toilet trips into the bush later....... Firstly before getting into our swags we had to check our swags with our torches for any unwanted creepy crawlies or reptiles that shouldn't be there. We had to make a ridge around our swags with a spade (when the snakes come they dart the other way and leave us alone when they feel the ridge apparently) we then had to put salt around us to keep the spiders away and then pepper to keep the dingo's out. Another alternative was to urinate around our swags, we gave this a miss. (On looking back I felt we were actually seasoning ourselves for the dingo's dinner)!! Laid in our swags above us the "Milky Way", Never seen anything like it before. The stars crystal clear. we could also see mars. Good night.... I need to tuck into my swag and pull my monster hood over. Relax and breathe......