We flew to Alice Springs from Perth on Saturday 21st and had a 1 and a half hour time change (we are just beginning to realise how big Australia is!  We booked a 3 day tour to go and see Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kings Canyon with 2 night sleeping out in the bush.  Over those 3 days we drove about 1200km and pretty much just on the same 2 highways.  Some guys that we had met the night before told us that they had not had any speed limits in the outback until last summer!  It doesn't seemed to have changed that much from the 60s (in 'A Town Like Alice') and is pretty remote and isolated.  The first day of the tour we stopped of at a camel farm and Em went for a ride on a camel - there are loads of wild camels in Australia and they eat them to keep the population down (haven't tried camel burger yet).  Then after a 6 hour drive we arrived at Uluru and went for a walk around Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) which are huge head shaped mounds.  Then we had to rush to the sunset viewing sight to see Uluru at sunset.  Unfortunately it was cloudy and we couldn't even tell when the sun had set!  You may have noticed from the photos that we had to were ridiculous head nets because of the flies - they just kept crawling into our mouths and everywhere!

The next day we got up at 5 (am!!!) to see Uluru at sunrise then go for a walk around the base (we decided not to clime as it is a sacred place for the Aboriginals).  Then we had another 5 hour drive to our camp at Kings Canyon, we stopped off on the way to collect fire wood and that night we cooked on the coals and roasted marshmallows.  Our tour guide Aaron bought us a treat - a kangaroo tail to cook which looked really disgusting but tasted like spear rib!  That night we slept under the stars in our swags and were told not to be shocked if we woke up with dingoes sniffing around our heads (luckily we didn't, I'm even afraid of little dogs).  We saw lots of stars that night including the southern cross (thought Dave might be interested). 

On the final day we had a lie in and didn't get up until 5.30!  Then we went for a walk in Kings Canyon which was very high and extremely beautiful.  We took a lot of pictures there!  There were lots of plants that our tour guide told us how the aboriginals used them for bush tucker and as medicines.  We definitely feel well equipped to survive if we were stranded out in the bush now!  On the way back to Alice we stopped off at a little town in the middle of nowhere with a population of 6.  It still had a cafe, a general store, a hotel and an aboriginal art centre - still not tempted to move there though!