I departed Adelaide at about 6.30a.m on 1st May for Alice Springs. We arrived in Quorn, our next 2 nights accomodation, in time for lunch. We had about an hour to sort our stuff out and settle in before having lunch. After lunch we headed to Dutchman's Stern. On the way we found a baby Bearded Dragon in the middle of the road. Brett stopped and picked it up and named it Puff. The dragon stayed with us for the next 6 days and I think Brett has now adopted it as a pet. It took us about an hour to get to the top but the walk wasn't too bad as it just zig zagged all the way up. From the top we could see Quorn, Spencer Gulf and the Flinders Ranges. We got back to the hostel quite early so were given some free time to chill out. I ended up watching Crocodile Dundee with Gemma, another English girl, and some people from another tour that were also staying there. Dinner was a BBQ of Kangaroo chunks, Camel sausages and Emu burgers. After dinner we watched the rest of Crocodile Dundee and went to bed.

The next day we went to Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges. We climbed up one of the mountains which took just over an hour. Brett our tour guide let another couple and I go upfirst at our own pace while he stayed with the rest of the group going much slower. The climb was tougher than the previous one and involved a lot of scrambling but was good fun. After lunch we went to see some Aboriginal Rock paintings. The first place we went to Brett had never been to before. He had been told it was a 5 minute walk to the caves but it ended up taking 30 minutes. We then went to Yourambulla Caves. After seeing the first set of paintings everyone decided to carry on walking on to the next 2 sites. After the last on A German girl got everyone lost by taking them over the top of a cave thinking she'd found the path we were meant to follow. I ended up going down back towards the car park and found the path quite quickly. I found Carla and Brett back at the bus and we then had to wait for about 20 minutes for the others to get back to us. We then stopped at the ruins of Kanyaka Homestead and had 10 minutes to explore the ruins before going back to Quorn.

The following day we travelled North through Port Augusta and saw some salt lakes formed by the inland sea. Our next stop was Cobber Pedy, an Opal Mining town in the desert. When we got there we were shown to our rooms which were underground built into the side of a big mound. All the houses are built undergroud here because it stays at 25 degrees underground and because the town is in the desert it gets cold at night and during the day the highest recorded temperature was 62 degrees. We went on a tour of a mining museum and were shown the history of the town and how they cut opals and make jewellery and then we were shown one of the old mines and saw some opal in the wall and were told how they made dynamite. We also saw an underground house and were told how they made them, how they got electricity to them and how they were ventilated. After the tour Brett took us on a tour of the town and we then stopped at a place where the rock is dumped from the mines so we could have a go at 'noodling' for opals. Brett said the person who finds the best piece of opal will win a beer at dinner. I found a piece within 2 minutes of starting it was only a small slither but no one else found anything and lost interest quickly so I won the beer. For dinner we went to a pizza resturant and they also sold amazing cakes so I had a Malteser Chocolate Cake. Everyone else decided to go back to bed after dinner but Gemma and I decided to head to the local bar with Brett and another tour guide. The bar was in the underground hotel and we played some pool and talked to some of the locals before going to bed ourselves.

On day 4 of the tour we headed to Uluru. On the way we stopped at the Northern Territory border sign to take photos and also got some firewood for the nights campfire. We also stopped at a bottle shop so people could get some alcohol for the night though most people were quite shocked when they saw that the price of 375mls of vodka was $45. Ouch! We then stopped at our campsite briefly to drop stuff off before heading to Uluru. Brett showed us a few of the sites and told us some dreamtime stories. He also showed us the place where supposedly 3 boys sat waiting to learn patience and discipline and ended up staying there for 1000s of years and turned into stone after their tribe ran away scared by one of the dreamtime beings and never returned to tell them they could move. We then went to a little lookout away from Uluru so we could watch the sun set over it. Brett brought out chips, dips and champagne which we ate and drank while watching the sunset and taking photos. Afterwards we returned to camp, had dinner and got out Swags to sleep under the stars. I convinced Gemma to sleep at lookout point which was a 3 minute walk away from camp but we got a much better view of the stars and even saw some shooting stars.

We got up early the next morning so we could see the sunrise at Uluru, which was very pretty and we could also jsut about see Kata Tjuta in the background. After sunrise we did the base walk which was very interesting. There are about 7 sacred sites which you can't take photos of. The whole walk is 10km and took about 2 and a half to 3 hours. From Uluru we travelled to Kata Tjuta where we walked down a gap between 2 walls of the rock and saw a waterhole. Kata Tjuta is made of the rock that was deposited by the winds from a mountain and Uluru is the sand deposited by the wind from the same mountain which is why it is further away. So they are both in the middle of no where but made up of different materials from the same mountian that was broken down. We then headed to a campsite near Kings Canyon to stay for the night. This campsite contained a lot more bugs and spiders and dingos ran through the camp at night so everyone chose to stay in the tents that night.

On the last day of the tour we went to Kings Canyon. The walk wasn't very long but we took our time and it ended up taking about 3 hours. The first part of the walk is called Heartattack Hill, which gets you up to the top of the canyon. It is made up of quite big rock steps. Brett dared me to run up it, I got half way up and had to stop and walkthe rest. When Brett caught up at the top he said he didn't think I'd actually do it. The view from the top was amazing and you could look right down into the bottom of the canyon. On the walk Brett told us about a lot of the plants in the area and what the Aboriginals used them for like spears or medicine or glue. After about an hour we started to head down a bit to a place called the Garden of Eden. It was very pretty and at the end of it there was a waterhole where we stopped for a snack. I went in the water for a bit to see how it was. We then continued the walk and travelled back to our campsite. Brett had to get petrol so left me in charge of the BBQ. After lunch we continued our journey to Alice Springs.

Tonight we are going to a place called Annie's for a group dinner and we then have 2 days to explore Alice before going to Darwin.