I was due to be picked up for the third and final leg of my tour from Alice Springs on Saturday 17th July at 6.10am. I joined my group from the previous tour in the hostel lobby when a tour guide arrived and called only my name. And then the dawning realisation that I was being split up from my friends! I hopped on the tour bus and recognised three familiar faces - Sebastian, Therese and Emma - who I have travelled with on the tour all the way from Kakadu. But unfortunately there were no Danish girls, or Andy, or Thomas, or the Canadian girl Steph that I had met in my room the previous night.

It turned out that we were having two tour guides on this trip, one who was taking a back seat, who went by the name Pickles, and Dildz who was in training. Things got off to a good start and they seemed lively and informative. Then we each had to head down to the front of the bus, get on the microphone and give a short introduction. From here things went rapidly downhill, as quite a few of the people seemed very shy and didn't want to talk. The bus journey was stupidly quiet and even the tour guides quipped several times "keep it down guys, you are all talking over each other."

We had a lot of driving ahead of us and after several road house stops we arrived at Kata Tjuta (or the Olgas) where we walked to a couple of lookout points and where I bumped in to the other group with my old tour mates. From here we drove to camp, had some food and headed to watch sunset at Uluru (or Ayer's Rock). The colours were amazing and I was pretty astounded at just how many people were lined up to watch the light fade over the big rock. Back to camp we went, in deadly silence again, before the most obnoxious teenager I have ever met who was on our tour took control of starting the campfire and the rest of us chopped veg and prepared dinner. Then we rolled out our swags, put in our sleeping bags and I hit the sack (after all it wasn't like anything was going on with the group) underneath the stars wearing ski socks, a beanie, and several warm layers of clothing.

The following day we awoke early ready for sunrise at Uluru. I opted along with three others to complete the 10km walk around the base of the rock. En route we saw wild camels, heard a pack of dingoes howling, and saw the vivid red colour emerge as the sun came up from beneath the horizon.

That evening things seemed even more segregated with the group and the 6 Germans on the tour seemed to just be talking amongst themselves in German of course. Once more I decided to just go to bed to avoid either saying something I regretted, listening to German and obviously being unable to join in, or having to explain one of my witty jokes - seriously my humour was lost on them. And for three days I had to contain the fact that the aforementioned obnoxious teenage bore a striking resemblance to a member of the 90s trio Hanson. The urge to sing "mmmm bop" whenever he was nearby was intense and hard to suppress.

After a good nights sleep we were up again at the crack of dawn ready for a three hour walk around the rim of Kings Canyon. The location was used in the film Priscilla Queen of the Desert and I could recognise some of the set. The walk itself had a steep start, but afterwards we could enjoy the views across the horizon and down into the canyon itself.

Whilst the content of this tour was excellent it was a real shame that I didn't have many of the characters that I had befriended from previous sections of the 10 day tour. And to rub salt in the wounds, I learnt that I could have kicked up a bit of a fuss and stayed with my original group! If only I had known… But it has made an interesting story for my trip and meant I was extremely grateful to laugh and joke with the others when we were reunited at Annie's Place for dinner and drinks.

I have made some great friends during the course of the 10 day tour, but entirely from the first 7 days. And I hope to catch up with them all at some point whether in England, Sweden or Denmark, or wherever else in the world I may travel. And I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed the outdoors. Up until two weeks ago I hadn't been camping since I was a teenager myself (although not an obnoxious one I hope), but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.