Hi guys,

Didn't get very far with my last entry. We made it to Adelaide in our lovely van, but only stayed there for 15 hours as there was a bus leaving for Alice Springs and not another one for a few days so we jumped on for the 2 day journey to the red centre. Before getting to Adelaide we went to see the grampians mountain range (again, we didn't return to the UK), but it would be boring for you to read about so won't bother!

The trip up to Alice was just weird! Stayed overnight in a bunker in the side of a mountain in a place called Coober Pedy. The town was founded cos they found opal in the ground. 70% of people there live underground cos it's cooler. I was a bit disappointed cos I imagined it to be a kind of invisible town, with trap doors to the houses underneath that would appear. As it turns out the houses were just built into the side of the mountains. The town itself had a really weird scary feel to it, was glad to get out of there! We also went to one of the roadhouses on the way that has a 'singing dingo'! Oh my god, the funniest thing you've ever seen. You would play this piano and this pet dingo would climb on the keys and howl. I was nearly crying with laughter. It's world famous and even has a trivial pursuits question named after it- is Australia not the strangest country ever?

After arriving in Alice (where it's sooooo hot), we went on a 3 day trip to visit Ularu (ayres rock), kata tjuta (the olgas) and king's canyon. Fantastic trip. We set off very early and did a walk through king's canyon, where Aboriginal people still carry out ceremony's at certain times and slept that night in the middle of the bush in swags (thin matress and waterproof bag) and sleeping bags. It was so good, just our group around a campfire in the middle of no-where. I was a bit scared of dingoes so found it hard to sleep, also there was a snoring German on our group which didnt help! Actually there were lots of Germans on our group and it was really funny cos they kept talking to me in German, no matterhow many times I told them I didnt understand what they were saying. I just nodded in the end, it was like they thought I might suddenly understand them or something!

Next day we went to Kata Tjuta, which is loads of big domes of rock in the middle of the landscape, and did another (tiring but good) walk there, before going to ularu to watch sunset. It was cloudy so didnt get the fun effect, but still fun. there's a good photo of Krys pretending to eat ularu somewhere in the folder!

Stayed in the swags again the next night, and got up at 4.30am (!) to watch the sunrise at ularu which was also pretty special. Krys and I both heard dingoes howling in the middle of the night nearby which again kept me awake and scared. We walked the 10km round the base before heading back to Alice Springs. Had a cool big night out with the people we'd met on our group, and didn't get out of bed until the evening the next day I was so tired from all the walking and drinking! We went to a pub with the biggest bunch of misfits you've ever seen here. It was called Bojangles and was hilarious. They had a webcam so you could have seen us on the internet, you can even buy people in the bar a drink over the internet- wish we'd have had a mobile cos you'd have all got a call!

Been stuck in Alice since then (5 days) waiting to get a car to drive 3000km to Sydney. It's going to be a very long 4 days! Think this could be the real test of our relationship! We've already disagreed about food we should take and where we should sleep and we've not set off yet- hmmmmm. We are both very excited about getting to Sydney and seeing our friends there though so that'll be cool.

We will have a mobile from next week so will let you all know it when I get it.

Lots of love,

Toni and Krys xx