Ok so I arrived in Alice Springs and checked into my hostel and began to prepare for my Rock tour the following day.

Alice was alot more built up then I expected, I took a walk to the local woolworths to get my water for the tour and saw alot more abbo's then in the cities (they all still stank tho!!) Hostel was ok but had a bizarre german girl and a weird aussie in my room but was checking out early the following day so not so bad.

The tour picked me up at 6am (which was to be my latest lie in for the next few days!) and after a long drive we arrived at Kings Canyon and with my sexy fly net and backpack got ready for my 3.5K walk, we started up 'heart attack hill' then made our way from there - we stopped at a few lookouts and then at 'the lost city' which is where I struck my karate kid pose! After then we headed for 'The garden of Eden' which was nice but i've def seen better - had a little swim all the same, wasn't there long tho before we had to continue our walk (only half way through) we finally made it down - i didn't find the walk, heat or flies to bad but maybe I was just being apprehensive? We made it to our bush camp late that night (Africa all over again) and started to make dinner, it was chilli which I wasn't over keen on but it turned out to be ok, we didn't eat till about 9.30 so after washing up (def the worse bit!!) had to get ready for bed - we were sleeping in swags which is basically a sleeping bag on the floor! Its nice as you get to go to sleep facing the starts but does mean your out in the open for all the bugs to get you! I wasn't too bothered as I had my liner which goes over my head but then on the girls started to scream about a spider, one of the boys went over to take a look and said about it being big - it was then that I decided I wouldn't get up and take a photo as I may then not be able to get to bed! Good thing I didn't - took a look at his photo the next day and it was massive, one of those fat hairy ones (wolf spider to be more precise!!!)

We was woken early the next day again (about 5.15) - woke up to a surprise with no flies, that all changed about after 10 min as they started with a vengeance, as tho they had been to sleep all night and now had built up some energy!!! We then had another long drive before we got to Kata Tjuta - valley of the winds for our walk there - this was wasn't meant to be as hard as the first but it was 36 degrees that day but when you get into the gorge the temp increases by 10 degrees! This walk was about 7k and took about 2-3 hours? I found this the hardest walk to be honest and my poor feet started to hurt :-( After that we checked into our campsite - bit more up market then the night before and had lunch, well I almost had lunch - the flies were too bad even if I sat on the bus so I gave up and treated myself to a coke and went for a quick swim in the pool before a nice shower ready for a visit to Uluru for sunset. We was the first to arrive for sunset but eventually the other buses started to turn up and set out these posh dinner and drinks type things! Couldn't think of anything worse then eating there at that time - the flies were relentless still - our guide cooked us dinner which again I didn't eat as it didn't look too appetizing plus the flies are all over it! yuk! Finally it came time for sunset so a few to many pics were taken before we drove back to the campsite for our seconds night sleep.

The final day was an even earlier start, 4.40!! as we were due to get up for sunset over Uluru - we got to Uluru and same as the night before waited for the sun to rise - took a few too many pics then drove onto the sight ready for our base walk. You can climb Uluru but it is often closed due to weather conditions and also when the abbo's request they want a ceremony to take place e.g burial (the Australian government gave the land back to the Abbo's but just before they were due to sign it over they added that they had to keep the climb and walk open which wasn't want to abbos wanted but was better then not having ownership at all) The base walk was flat but this time 9k which took about 2hrs! We started just after sunset so nice and cool still but the flies seemed worse (might just have been my tolerance wearing even thinner!!) I was the 4th to make it back and waited in the van for the rest, so took my shoes off - not long someone spotted a snake so off i got to take a pic which prob wasn't the best time to go out and about without any shoes on as it was a King Brown snake - I think its the second most deadliest snake in the world?

After that we made our long, very long drive back to Alice springs - but not before a group pic at the Alice Springs sign.

Was so glad I did the tour, the flies were relentless, the food was not so good (prob a good thing Dave didn't come!) and sleeping wasn't the easiest plus I was the only english person on the tour but I had a fab time and am so pleased with myself for going - all the while doing it all by my self!

I was up early again today to catch my flight to Melbourne which is where I am now - booked on a few tours already and will update again soon.

Love from Melbourne!!!

p.s Have spoken to Dave, apart from going out for a few roast dinners (maybe he'll shut up about them now??) and a few beers he's not been up to anything else - oh and he hasn't taken any pics :-( shame shame