16 hours on a bus - what fun! But we made it safely to Alice Springs. We walked from the bus stop to the hostel and dumped our bags as we couldn't check in until 11am. We then realised it was breakfast time (the whole experience on the bus was very surreal and messed with our body clocks!) so went and had a bite to eat and wandered around the town. We'd remembered that Ben (Narelle's Brother in Law for those of you who don't know) worked in an outdoor centre in Alice so we thought we'd pop into the only one we'd seen and it was the right one! We caught up quickly as Ben was busy but arranged to meet later for a dinner and a beer. We then headed back to the hostel, checked in and went to bed for a few hours. After a shower we met up with Ben and went out for a lovely meal and to a pub in town for a few beers. We were flagging by 9pm so we headed back to the hostel - a night in a bed!!

The next day was quite relaxed, doing a bit of shopping and catching up on e-mails. We met up with Ben again when he'd finished work and he took us out to Simpson Gap and up to Anzac Hill for sunset but it had clouded over so we went to the supermarket and picked up some bits for dinner. We went back to Ben's place and had dinner and chatted. It was a really nice evening but with another 6am start the next day Ben dropped us back at the hostel and we went straight to bed.

We pulled our heads off our pillows and made it outside by 6am. We jumped on the bus and after a few more pick ups we were on our way to Kings Canyon. After a short stop at a road house (for the obligatory pie!) we made it to Kings Canyon and started on the rim walk. It was quite tough to start with going up 'heart attack hill' as it's more commonly known but the rest of the walk was quite easy going and very rewarding. There was just one little problem - someone (Alicia) dropped the camera half way around the walk, down into the Canyon so you'll notice that the decent pictures stop at Kings Canyon and for the rest of the trip we had a disposable camera - Opps! We did manage to save the memory card though - Phew! After our walk we then set off for Curtin Springs which would be our campsite for the night. Curtin Springs is a working cattle station of over 1 million acres - crazy. Our camp was a fire pit (we had a fantastic fire with wood we collected ourselves!) and a shelter for the bus and that was it, no toliet or running water and we slept in swags by the fire. It was quite an experience and it was so cold over night but we made it through (poor us eh? sleeping under the stars!).

We were back on the road again by 7am and headed for Uluru and our campsite for that night. We dumped the fire wood on our site and headed to Kata Tjuta (The Olga's) for a fantastic 2.5 hour walk around and through the giant domes. After our walk we had lunch and visited the Cultural Centre at Uluru before heading off to watch the sunset. We weren't the only ones there - there must have been 40 other coaches - but the sunset was beautiful and whilst the other trips were enjoying a class of bubbles and canapes we grabbed a cold beer and probably enjoyed it even more. Then it was back to camp for dinner and a few drinks. We then went to a lookout on the site to watch the stars - amazing! Then back into our swags for another night and it was even colder - it didn't help that we ended up with broken sleeping bags but never mind - it might toughen us up a bit!

On our final day of the trip we were up at 5:30am to watch the sunrise over Uluru. it was really pretty but our guide took us back to the same spot that we'd watched the sunset so they wasn't anyone else there which was nice but seemed a bit pointless??!!. Anyway, after some porridge (which was very average - not as nice as Mum S's) we set off on the walk around the base of Uluru. It really is something you've got to see to believe, the size of it, the colours and the way it changes as you walk around - amazing. After our walk it was then time to head back to Alice Springs. We stopped at Curtin Springs again on the way back and had some lunch. By 5:30pm we were back in Alice.

We dumped our bags and had a very welcome shower before being picked up by Tarin & Ben. They took us back to their house and we were treated to at fab BBQ (or should it be outdoor grill??). It was great to catch up with them both and it seemed a shame to be leaving Alice the next day! Fed and watered Ben & Tarin dropped us back in town and after a quick drink (the others from our trip were meant to meet us but they never made it into town!) we were back at the hostel for our last night in Alice.

Our flight out of Alice the next day wasn't until 11:30am so we left the hostel about 10am and jumped in a taxi to the airport. Melbourne here we come!