If I used up all my bad luck at the racecourse it was HK$500 well spent. Arriving in Cairns airport with 45 minutes to spare and needing to negotiate immigration, baggage reclaim, quarantine, check-in, security and boarding isn't the sort of thing that fills you with optimism. I manage to accomplish it all through a combination of running everywhere and tutting loudly at anyone who takes more than 5 seconds to do anything.

From the air, it really is clear that in the middle of Australia there is absolutely nothing, diddly-squat. Any human scars are very obvious - and there are very few of them. For around one thousand miles all there is is the blue of the sky, the white of the horizon and the red of the desert.

To call Alice Springs quite quiet would be like calling Brian Blessed quite loud. The town centre reminds me of one of those out of town retail outlets: I half expect to see B&Q and CarpetRight round the corner. My big day out on the town leaves me returning with 2 bottles and water and a tube of Pringles purchased from Big Al's Corner Shop. Smokin' Joe's pizzeria is closed so I eat in a McDonald's (it's rather out of place, maybe it should be called Grillin' Ron's). The population is roughly evenly split between foreigners, locals and natives. The aboriginals are notably poor, many wandering the near-deserted streets in barefeet and rags.