We were up bright and early today. Everything was packed and ready so we had our breakfast whilst waiting for Clare, Dan n Harribo to get up. After a few cuddles with Harrison we jumped in the Jeep n headed for the airport. The drop off is a minute turnaround so our goodbyes had to be quick.... I walked through the airport looking like a puffer fish, holding my breath to prevent tears sneaking out. It's hard saying goodbye.

Quantas, in Tullermarine, is futuristic! You put your phone in a scanner where it reads your ticket info and gives you bag tags. U then put your bag on a conveyor belt where red beams of light scan the tag and weigh your bag. It prints a receipt and your bags gone. Check in complete.

It's only a couple of hours flight to Alice Springs so we were a little excited when we saw we were getting fed. Albeit it was a pie?! But, it was delicious :)
When the plane landed we looked out the window and it looked like the Australia we'd imagined; bush, desert land and the oven door heat (when u open an oven door and the heat hits u in the face). Two men ran across the runway with a ladder for the plane (no little car), we climbed down and stepped on Northern Territory land for the 1st time..
On the drive from the airport to the hostel we could see indigenous communities in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, just a lot of bush land with a town made of shacks. There was a flying doctor pad and old train tracks that had weeds part covering it. It made us feel like we'd stepped back in time after being in Melbourne for so long.
Alice springs, in comparison to this, is a town. It has Coles, woolworths, Kmart, Target and a 50:50 mix between indigenous and non-indigenous. This is another reason it felt like we were back in time because the mix had a clear divide. The majority of indigenous were sitting in the bush surrounding the town and in bus stops and walking around. The non indigenous were either tourists or people working. We actually heard a kid saying to a security guard 'you don't own this land' because he'd asked them to move from the front entrance to the mall.
We stocked up on supplies and went back to the hostel. Alice lodge was quirky. It had a pool that was surrounded by dorms and caravans in a little circle. We were in a 4 bed dorm with 2 Italian ladies Titiana and Samantha. They told us some fab stories about their travels. To save money some nights they'd slept on the beach, in the Sunshine Coast and in Airports. Samantha was trying to improve her English so she was reading Narnia and she had a phrase book that she noted quirky phrases that she wanted to use like "as far as I know" and "don't poke your nose in other people's business".
Samantha was telling us how her and Titiana had got lost earlier in the day. They'd gone for a walk along the dried out creek in Alice Springs but ended up going different ways. Samantha said she was so thirsty she knocked on a random house in the middle of nowhere, to ask for a drink. I had to interrupt and say 'who does that?' This is the type of thing you see in a film and even then you say 'no one would be that crazy to knock on a secluded house door, in the middle of nowhere, on your own to ask for water?'. Samantha did! And even worse when they didn't answer she tried the handle and let her self in to see swill her face and fill up her water bottle!
There was a lad from Switzerland who came and sat with us. He was saying because he's Swiss he can't get a working visa. Money runs out quickly in Aus because the cost of living is a lot higher with our foreign money. So he was planning on getting a cash in hand bar job. We didn't realise Swiss weren't allowed to work and travel here :/
We had to get up early the next day so we made our tea of ham & avocado butties and went bed.