The final get up was a struggle, and as we headed towards Kings Canyon we did feel as if we were flagging a bit and definately looking forward to a sleep in a proper bed and a get up later than 4am! We did the 3 hour walk round the canyon and it really was brilliant - some of the scenery and formations within the canyon were awesome and what made it even better was the relative lack of flies!

After wearily taking our walking boots off for the last time back at the bus, we got our foot down to cover the final km's all the way to Alice Springs. We were just about to fall asleep when we started on Trevors short cut - a dirt road across the outback to save us an hour and a half in travel time - it was pretty rattley! Although it was nothing compared to being in the back of the jeep on Fraser Island!

To pass the time we discussed the side effects witnessed as a result of the extreme conditions, which included:

- a permanent state of 'cankles'
- a steady flow of crustified bogeys
- a constant sweat moustache
- Hutch actually drinking enough water for once
- a whole new level of hatred for flies

There was also time to laugh at Trevors sayings which seemed to have unfortunately caught on, like "welcome to the jungle" and "full stop dot com".

It felt so good to get to the hostel and sort out my 'Outback Jack' appearance and although we were both pretty tired we got all clean and dressed up (this had been a week in the making nearly!) and the group got together downstairs for the after party, which also happened to be our last night in Australia!

We celebrated surviving the Outback in style and for once cut loose a bit and pretty much the whole bus, which had been a really good crew, had a good time. It was a bit unnerving however when to get back to our room you seemed to have to climb along the outside of the first story railings to open up the thru door!

Unfortunately we woke up to apparent bad case of bed bugs as I was COVERED in bites, but in the end was just probably from sleeping in a swag turned ants nest the night before. The free food on both flights to and from Darwin naturally made us very happy - this is the service a good airline provides - take note Tiger!!