Our last day in the Bush started with a 5am chorus of "Good morning starshine....." from Bernard. Pleasant as that was, it came just as we were getting to sleep, after a fitful night of tossing and turning, hearing wild animals walking about on the gravel outside the tents, and scratching on the tent walls, and at one point it even sounded like something was trying to dig its way into the tent in the corner by Tony's head! When I told Bernard about it, ...

So, not the best night's sleep, camping in the Outback! Went to sleep very quickly, but then woke up at 2am and spent about 20 minutes debating whether I really did need a wee, or whether I could hang on until we got up at 4.30...... In the end, I decided I couldn't wait, so fumbled about in the dark finding the torch, then fumbled about getting dressed and making sure there were no scorpions or snakes in my boots before I put them on, and set off on an expeditio...

On Saturday morning, we got up at 5am to ensure we could eat breakfast, (as it was included in the price!) and were picked up at 6am from our motel in a 4-wheel drive bus / truck by our very friendly Tour guide / driver, Bernard,(Bernie). You could tell straight away that he was definitely a "morning person" - but he did give us our own 'squishy pillows' which we were to use for the beds at the campsites, but said we could use them in the bus as well i...

So on Friday 23rd, we set off at 6am for Sydney airport. We struggled along with our rucksacks, as the luggage trolleys were four (non- refundable) dollars if you used them! Our 4 hour flight to Alice Springs was longer than our flight from New Zealand to Australia, and involved another time change! We were lucky, as it was a really clear, cloudless day, and we had fabulous views as we flew out over Sydney, then the Blue Mountans, (where we should be going in a f...