We're in the outback!!

We are in Alice Springs and have just finished our three day tour of The Red Centre.

On Wednesday we flew to Ayres Rock. There was hardly anyone on our plane and we were put in the seats next to the emergency exit - lucky we were sober this time!! We had a fantastic view of the rock as we approached the runway - we couldnt believe wer were here. As we got off the plane we looked like we had just flown in from Bangkok - we were the only non Asian people!! They all had their cameras out and were videoing entering the baggage collection lounge!! Our tour guide Harley met us at the airport to start "The Rock Tour". We were the only English people on our bus and soon got known as "Team UK". Our guide took us to the Aboriginal Cultural Centre near Ayres Rock where we had our lunch. We did the base walk around Ayres Rock which took about two hours. The walk was amazing, quite moving actually, we both felt a bit emotional. It was really peacefull. We decided not to climb Ayres Rock as it is extremely dangerous, two people have died in the last three week attemptintg to climb it. It is also very sacred to the Aboriginal People and we didn't think it would be right to go against this. Six peope from our bus however did decide to climb it!! We went to a viewing area where we saw sunset, there was a full moon, this was an amazing sight, the whole rock changes colour. We went to the campsite, had showers and had dinner round the campfire - all we needed was some marshmellows!! We slept in swags and sleeping bags under the stars, it was beautiful. We saw Mars and The Southern Cross. It was pretty cold but we slept ok.

We were woken up at 5.30am!! We drove back to Ayres Rock to see the sunrise. The moon was even more beautiful than the night before. We had breakfast and took plenty of photos. The sky changed colour over the rock. We then drove to The Valley of the Winds where we went for a three hour walk. We learnt more about Aboriginal culture and Harley told us some dreamtime stories and explained how Ayres Rock was formed. We also did some body painting using the rock. We had lunch then visited a salt lake and Mt Connor. The sand was orange! We then went to some clay pits where we were the only two to get really stuck in!! We went back to the bus to clean our faces and drove to get some firewood - we brought back a tree, which we could hardly carry - Team UK came up trumps!! We drove to the campsite, got dinner on the go then went to have showers. It started to rain heavily, just our luck in the desert!! The kitchen area started to leak so a French guy started using a shovel to stop it from getting worse! Everything was getting soaked so all the Asians slept on the bus, they hung all their wet towels up!! "Our group" slept in the kitchen when the rain had stopped. We slept so well!!

Friday we got woken up at 5.20am! We had breakfast and packed away. We headed to King's Canyon where we started our hike at 7.45am. We were warned how dangerous this was and would need 3 litres of water each. Therefore only eight of us did it! We started on "Heart Attack Hill", we took it slow and it wasn't too bad. At the top the views were amazing. There was some lockers at the top containing bodybags - this freaked us out! It took us about three hours and we learnt more about plants and the sandstone domes of The Lost City. Back on the bus then stopped for an icecream at a cattle station where we saw a cowboy!! Back on the bus again, we got a flat tyre on the way to our lunch stop so this was bit eventful! We then had a long drive to the camel farm where we got to ride a camel!! Our camels were called Duke and Mirinda, we had such a laugh. We were bouncing everywhere!! Back on the bus to Alice Springs, freshened up at our hostel then out for dinner at The Rock Bar. We only had a couple of beers as we were so tired, we left about 11pm and decided to walk back with a swedish couple from our trip, we got lost!! Still, we were ok, a taxi driver pointed us in the right direction.

This morning we got up about 9.30am, had breakfast and spent some time in the city centre. Had a bit of a walk round. Alice Springs is pretty small and not much to do. We headed back to the hostel and spent some time in the sun updating our journals.

Tomorrow we fly to Perth - we're very excited!!