Wow......this is gonna be a long entry so beware!! I actually started the tour from adelaide in southern australia but wasnt sure how to break up the journal. ADELAIDE So the night before the trip i was laying in bed and could hear this alarm sound in the distant - i thought it was a burgualr alarm so tried to go back to sleep - after about 10mins the whole dorm was awake so someone had a look outside the room and we then realised it was a smoke alarm - after another good 10mins we decided to go outside just incase and there we find 4 fire trucks and v fit firemen. Noone had even come to tell us to some out neither did the alarm go off that loud - so not v impressed at all as in that 30mins of wondering what was going on the buliding couldve gone down - luckily it was only smoke in the kitchen as a light had overheated! So the next day the tour started and there was 10 of us and only 1 guy who was with his girlfriend. There was a good mix of us some swiss germans, some germans, some brits and 1 french girl and the guide was pretty cool and laid back too - always good. So our first stop was at CLARE before heading further north to QUORN for a lunch stop. The day was pretty much spent driving past the flinders ranges and thru the start of the dust trail. We saw some lovely wild kangaroos and stopped off at ANGORICHINA for the night. Before dinner we had a lil walk and also i bought a very chic flynet hat - just wait for the photos - vogue will be calling me up soon! The stars were amazing already and hadnt even got that far north - saw the southern cross very brightly in the sky - lower down than i had imagined - did look for it when up north but could never find it!!! 21 JANUARY Another day of alot of driving - left angorichina and stopped off at MAREE where we had a leisuely dip in some spa baths just of the highway in the middle of the outback - much needed as it was 48 degrees out - now thats hot! Went through Lyndhurst and stopped off at Talc Alfs place - now this guy is dutch and a fruitcake - he had v nationalist ideas and his place is full of banners and ideas of where the world began. His place had loads of old cars around it and old tyres too - reminded of the guys place in Wolf Creek so that scared me s***less for a bit! In the arvo we passed by the towns of Farina which is an old ghost town and at lake eyre where rob, the driver managed to get the van stuck!!!A bit later ie 200km later we arrived at williams creek - the smallest town in southern australia with a population of 12. After a few bevies we made some dinner before rolling out the swags - sleeping bag things with matresses in them so we splet out under the stars! 22 JANUARY (em's bday) Slept q well really but the flies in the morn when we were trying to pack up were an absolute nightmare!! Today we drove to Coober Pedy - an opal mining town. On the way we drove past anna's creek - largest cattle station in the world and the dog fence - which is v long fence which keeps the dingoes out of the northern territory. We got to Coober Pedy and had a tour around one of the museum things - we saw the inside of a typical house in the town as they are all under groud - v cool - like flintstone style houses underground - i would love one so dad start building!! In the arvo we went to the local pool but left as a small sand storm came through then headed out for pizza and drinks. We went to one bar and had some drinks there until we started being hassled by some drunk aboriginies - one had a go at me and another hit suzanna (german girl) with her shoe so as you can imagine we made a quick exit from there! So we wandered back from the bar in need of a place to go when we stumbled acroos our tour bus - our guide was like come on we'll have a party in there so we did. V crazy as everyone was drunk and we eevn broke on of the seats - only prob was that the only CD we had was Abba - but that didnt matter much - so had q a good night dancing on the bus! 23 JANUARY are you all bored yet?????? Today we started our long trip to Uluru stopping at the breakaways and at the SA/NT border in MARLA for lunch. Drove past the fake uluru - big rock thats called mt connor and from a distance it looks like uluru. After driving down lassiters highway we finally made it to Yulara - the resort place of ayers rock where we camped in the swags again - early rise tomo as up for the sunrise!! 24 JANUARY Woke at 4am - bloody hell!! And we drove into the national park of uluru - most of the tour buses wtch the sunrise from the same side but we watched it from thge other side so instead of being crowded by 20+buses there was only 4 mini buses in the area so lovely and quiet to watch the sunrise. Then we had the chance to walk around or climb uluru. Now here comes the moral part as the aboriginals ask you not to climb it as its sacred part of their tradition but everyone climbs it anyway. Anyway after alot of reading of thier beliefs etc i decided not to climb it - then we found out it was closed anyway cos of high winds!! So we did the 2hr30 walk around the base at 6am in the morning as coul;d not possibly do it in the day heat as you would die!! In the arvo all t he other tour groups were going to the pool dedicated to our camp ground but our guide was like the pool is too over crowded and no shade there so in the end he showed us 4 possible hotels to sneak into to use their pools. We all split up and went to two different pools and nobody siad a thing so we lazed on the sunbeds and used the beautifully quiet pools for free!! In the evening we headed back to uluru to watch the sunset - so beautiful and i took way too many photos - i know its only a rock but it is actually amazing to see!! Got back to the camp ground to another night sleep in the swags - actually like the swags - rather comfy and its so much fun sleeping out under the stars! 25 JANUARY Anotehr 4am start!!This time to see the sunrise over Kata Tjuta (the olgas) After we did a walk thru kata tjuta then began the drive to Kings Creek station. Before leaving we all jumped in t he pool clothes and all as so hot out that we were in the bus for like 10mins and were dry again!! Before leaving Yulara we all decided to pick up frank - a german hitchhiker as thought it would be fun and he was rather impressed about the number of girls onboard and took a fancing to natalies legs!!! We dropped him off down the road from our camp ground. After arriving we went for a swim only to find that frank had turned up - he siad to natalie that he came back for her legs - so she was slightly freaked out by that! Anotehr night in the swags followed by another early morning! 26 JANUARY - AUSTRALIA DAY Last day of the tour! another 4am start - this time to walk Kings Canyon - wasnt sure if i was able to do it as v bad blisters but persisted anyway and got thru it ok - was about 3hr30 walk again at 6am in the morn! Then we started the journey to Alice Springs. Rob decided to take a short cut thru the most bumpiest and unstable road ever but it did cut off nearly 2hrs from the journey but bloody hell it was so rough!! We made it to Alice Springs safely about 4ish and me, claudia, verena, gemma and natalie all stayed at Melakas where we all met for dinner and drinks. Started off really well with the shots but the early mornings and the late nights caught up with us in the end so left about 1.30am! But we did do alot of dancing before that which kept us going. In fact they had compos on the best dancer and that person got a free drink........so me and claudia decided to dance our arses off to that pussycats song anyhoo somehow i managed to win - yay me - i guess im not such a bad dancer after all - that or the others were just as bad as me!!!! But i got a free drink of vodka/sprite!! Not much of an austraian day for us but still had fun. The people on the bus were really fun and we all got on well so made it more fun. Im sure ive missed out stuff from this so i may edit/add more soon but im bored of writing at the mo!! So that was my DESERT PATROL trip - the company was really good - would recommend them to anyone! The outback was fun but could no way live somewhere so isolated - its exactly like the scenes you see in the movies - all you can see is nothing. Also, its q surprising how green some of the parts are and that they actually get bad floods thru there q often - crazy huh!! love nikk