Sunday 14th January

Quiet morning catching up with all our emails and sending you guys back home some pictures. Watched the Aussies beat New Zealand at cricket, well it makes a change from them beating England. When it cooled down about 5 p.m. we ventured down to Brighton Beach (nice and sandy not like Brighton in England) and after watching all the surfers and kite surfers we found a spot to see if we could get some pictures of the sun setting. It was all going to plan when a cloud decided to settle just between the sun setting and the horizon (typical), that had been our last chance of a sunset over the Indian Ocean.

Monday 15th January

Time to move on again, this time we were flying to Alice Springs and had to be at the airport for 12.20, Bob took us there and Arthur met us for farewells at the departure gates. The forecast for Alice Springs was occasional showers and a high of 36 degrees, the views on the plane of the outback and salt lakes was quite magnificent until the cloud came and obliterated it all. We put our watches forward 30 minutes and landed into Alice springs at 16.30, we located the hotel shuttle bus into the "town centre" and was amazed to see that the Todd River was bone dry. Apparently the yearly rainfall for this area is only 275ml (less than a can of coke). By the time we had unpacked again and sorted our rucksacks with suitable clothing for our safari camping trip to Ayres Rock it was time for dinner and bed.

Tuesday 16th January

Our bus was picking us up at 6.00 a.m. so once again we were up at 5 a.m. for a bite to eat and to checkout, the hotel looks after your main luggage until you return from the trip. There were 6 of us from our hotel going on the trip, ourselves, a couple from Wales and a young Danish girl with her 8 yr old son. Several people were collected from different locations and there was 20 of us in all, this consisted of 3 Germans, 1 Belgian, 4 Swiss, 2 Danish, 2 Canadian (ex British Geordies) and 8 British which included another young lad of 10 who was travelling with his dad.

The vehicle was a 4 wheel drive bus which had been specially built for rough terrain but also to give the passengers a more comfortable ride. Uluru (Ayres Rock) is 450km by road (only 330 by air) and our first "comfort" stop was at a Camel Farm for optional camel rides and the usual food, drinks and toilets. Linda's comment was that she was not riding any more animals!! The next stop was at a small café at the foot of Mount Conner, this mountain is very similar to Uluru in appearance but was is in fact much bigger, we also had a short stop at the roadside to collect wood for our camp fire we would have the next day, the main advice from our guide was to watch what you were picking up! We finally reached the Ayres Rock resort at 1 p.m., unfortunately for us though our accommodation was not one of the nice hotels there but a camping site at the back of the resort. Our guides name was Kristin and she was to be our driver, tour guide, cook, bottle washer etc, you name it she done it. Everybody in the group was expected to muck in to prepare the meals and wash up afterwards, there was also plenty of unpacking and repacking all our supplies, so plenty of muscle was needed. We had our lunch of salad, meats etc and then headed back on the bus for our first walk at the Kata Tjuta range (The Olgas), the weather was a bit overcast but still extremely hot.

Before you enter the National Park we were issued with a pass, the park is owned by the Anangu people (Aborigine) and part of the ticket price is for the cultural developnment of these people. The walk was called "The valley of the Winds" and is closed when the weather exceeds 36 degrees, the temp today had dropped to 30 degrees, so off we set. The advice we were given was to take plenty of water as dehydration is a real problem. During the first part of the walk we were shown where to find Witchity Grubs and honey ants, these beasties are eaten as part of the natural diet of Anangu people. Alex the young British boy was very keen to spot animals and he soon saw a baby monitor lizard which was already over a metre long, glad we didn't see mom and dad. The walk became more strenuous as we climbed and our clothes became wetter, but the views from the top were worth all the effort. After the walk (about 5km) we headed back to Uluru for the official sunset, the car park was just full of coaches and people were standing in groups sipping champagne. Our trip didn't run to champagne but we had the choice of red or white wine with nibbles (if we used our imagination we could have been back at the Renaissance Hotel in Kuala Lumpur). Disappointment again, too much cloud and the rock didn't change colour as it usually does when the sun sets, better luck tomorrow with the sunrise. Time to choose our billet (ha ha), it was dark and everything was done by torch light. Volunteers were found to help prepare our dinner , it was cooked on a gas barbecue (you are not allowed to light a fire within the National Park during the summer months) whilst everybody else unpacked (ha ha) and went to the shower block (about 100m away). It was not our turn to cook today so off we went for a bit of a clean up, Ron had to wait for Linda afterwards as she wouldn't walk back to the tents on her own in the dark. First thing we saw on our way back was a snake (or it could have been a legless lizard as our guide said later). There was a kitchen at the side of the tents that had an electricity supply so we all sat around the table and had big rump steaks, sausage and salads, followed by water melon. Time for bed, check out the room for bugs and snakes and zip yourself into the tent, you have a solid floor with a camp bed and sleeping bag. Linda hardly slept all night, it was too hot, too noisy (the Welsh guy in the tent next to us snored all night) and TOO SCARY.

Wednesday 17th January

Up at 4.30 a.m. well those that were not already awake (it turns out that several of the women didn't sleep too good), for breakfast and a quick wash, its still dark so Ron had to accompany Linda again. We left the camp and headed to the other side of Uluru for the sun rise, the official sunrise time was at 6.41 and already the usual tour busses were there, but this time some of them were eating bacon butties. Once again we were slightly disappointed as the cloud was hanging about but you could see the sun poking though occasionally. We then had a choice of climbing the rock (the Anangu people prefer that you didn't as it is a sacred site to them), walking around the base (9.4 km) or a short walk with a ranger telling you about the Anangu life and culture. It had to be the base walk for us to see all the different rock formations, we were given 2 ½ hrs to complete this walk. By now the sun was out in full and we set off, the biggest disappointment to us is that we could not photograph several features as it is an offence to do so (these places are sacred to the Anangu people). After the walk we visited the Cultural centre where you can learn about Tjukurpo, the traditional law which guides the Anangu people. At midday we headed back to the camp to clear up, have lunch and load up the bus for our next destination. Our guide heard on the radio that the Stuart Highway (which is the main road from Alice Springs to Ayres Rock) had been closed in areas due to flooding, luckily for us we turned off onto the Lasseter Highway which would take us to Kings Creek. During one of our "comfort" stops, our guide then heard that there had been a serious accident on this road and we were likely to be held up. When we reached that spot we could see that a car and a minibus had collided head on ( 2 people dead and 3 seriously injured) but as were in a 4x4 vehicle we were allowed off road to drive past. By now the rain had reached us and the roads soon flood as there is nowhere for the water to go. We reached our next camping spot by 5 p.m. - it had stopped raining now and we chose our tents, ours was well away from the previous nights snorer!! The campfire was prepared and everybody got ready for the evening ahead. Kristen used big cast iron pots to cook chicken drumsticks, damper (a type of bread) and a pot full of vegetables, they sat in the coals for about 2 hrs. Whilst the meal was cooking we sat around the camp fire (with tinnies) swapping travelling stories. Unfortunately it started raining again so we had to eat in the mess hut. After lunch we were informed that we must not walk around the camping ground without proper footwear as snakes were very prevalent in this area. Before we had even got to bed several scorpions had been found walking around the camp fire (most ended up on it), this made Linda even more hesitant about getting into the tent. Eventually though we did retire and surprisingly even managed a snatch of sleep.

Thursday 18th January

A sleep in, we didn't have to be up until 5 a.m., although we were not sunrise viewing we had to clear the camp and leave it clean before we left. We travelled to Kings Canyon resort (300 km S.W. of Alice Springs) and once again had a choice of walks, a short one (2 km) or a long one (6 km), the long walk though involved quite a steep climb to start with, then levelling out around the top of the canyon with a more gentle descent. It was drizzling quite a bit and Linda was concerned that it might be slippery underfoot but was assured that this was not the case. Here we go again the big walk was chosen. The climb was in 3 stages up to the highest point, this enabled everybody to get their breath back. We then walked around the rim of the canyon where we viewed the most amazing sights and the sun came out which brightened up the view. The whole walk took about 3 ½ hrs as Kristin explained to us about the geology of the land and showed us very rare plants. We then had a quick "comfort" stop before we headed to the famous Mereenie Loop Road. This road is unsealed which made it even in our big vehicle very bumpy. The rain was very heavy at times and part of the road was covered in water, we drove on this road for nearly 4 hrs. Our first "comfort" stop was behind some bushes, these bushes are called "Black Boys", but as usual they cannot be called that anymore so are now known as Desert Grasses. As a few of the group were carrying onto the 5 day tour we were met by a smaller vehicle on the proper road back to Alice Springs, we arrived an hour later than expected as we had experienced quite tricky road conditions. It was now absolutely pouring down with rain and several times on the return journey we had to drive through fast flowing flood water in the creeks. One such time our new driver Stuart was unsure if we would get through, the car behind had an Aborigine family in it and the children got out and just waded in to see how deep the water was. This passed the test and we carried on, arriving back to Alice Springs at 6 p.m. Our driver told us that if you see the Todd River flowing more than once you are considered a local because it is such a rare occurrence (it last flowed in 2001). The Todd River runs quite close to our hotel and it was in full flow, when we had arrived on Monday it was quite dry. We had a message waiting for us from the Outback Ballooning Co to inform us that our trip that we had booked for the following day had been cancelled owing to severe weather conditions. Boy did we enjoy our shower and soft bed and looked forward to a good nights sleep.

Friday 19th January

3 a.m. we are awoken by the fire alarm, some idiot was smoking in a non smoking room and the alarms went off, everybody assembled outside, so much for our good nights sleep. The fire service arrived and we got back to our rooms by 3.30a.m. and back to sleep. Late breakfast, and we didn't have to wash up today. Today is also laundry day, some of our kit was covered in red dust from the outback and our boots were caked in a red sandy substance. Browse around the shops, type up the diary and just chill out.