As Alice Springs became a distant sight within our rear view mirror, we made our way towards not one but the two jewels in the crown of our long trip through the outback. First on the list was Kings Canyon and the only thing standing in our way was a comfortable four and a half hour cruising drive that made a nice change from the minimum six to seven hour drives that we had been used to over the past few days. We had set off from Alice Springs early giving us the day to just kick back and take in the sights as we drove. It was yet another sunny day in the Northern Territory with clear blue skies bouncing up off the rich red and orange coloured soil. Driving west along the Lasseter Highway we were finally rewarded with an amazing sight as the Watarraka (indigenous name for Kings Canyon) National Park came into view. This has to be one of the most spectacular sights in central Australia if not the whole of Australia. Pulling into the national park was a feast for the eyes and we didn't know where to look first. There is an easy 2km return walk that trails through the rocky creek bed until you reach a raised viewing platform that gives views of the towering yawning chasm. The walk through is excellent and easy on the legs and the colours are magical. Photographs don't really do it justice as the sun was so bright, we could not capture the true colours that were before our eyes. The short walk into the canyon was a great taster for the next days adventure, the Kings Canyon Rim Walk. So taking in the sights with our heads swivelling from side to side like we were sat at centre court at Wimbledon, we decided to drive a further 6km up the road to were we had planed to stay for the next two nights, Kings Canyon Resort. What a great place, simple, straight forward with good amenities and cracking views of the canyon. The resort had a bar and grill BBQ shack so what better way to check the place out then to have a couple of wood fire pizza's washed down with complimentary drinks. Happy days. The bush tucker pizza was our favourite topped with kangaroo, camel and alligator. The only down side to them was that they were about as big as a tea saucer and cost $18 each. Very tasty though.

So after an evening of drinking a few red wines and watching the epic that is the Godfather part I, we woke up feeling fresh and ready for a day of adventure and exploration around Kings Canyon. It was great not having to get up early to plan the days driving and we made the most of our morning by having a lazy breakfast followed by some time in the sun playing on our guitar, who's sticker collection is coming along nicely I must add. We decided to let the heat of the day cool until tackling the rim walk and set off towards Kings Canyon at 1.30pm when the sun wasn't as fierce in its heat. For the first time in a while we pulled out our well loved and reliable hiking boots from our backpacks and tied up the laces tight ready for a good bit of action. Standing at the foot of the canyon, we took a deep breath and a good glug of H2O before we started the ascent. Even though we had started the rim walk in the cooler part of the day, the temperature was still in the mid 20's and we had to stop half way up the climb to catch our breath. But only halfway up we were already being rewarded with spectacular sights. Once at the top of the climb, we stopped once more, this time not to catch our breath but to take in what was below and around us. This finally gave us an appreciation of the scale and size of Kings Canyon. After the steep climb, the walk skirts around the canyon's rim with paths leading in and through massive amphitheatre like sections that have been naturally created via wind and erosion over the past 20,000,000 years. It was absolutely fascinating. Some of the paths lead to viewing platforms and stable cliff edges that offer breath taking views of the canyon and it's surroundings. These were worth the thousands of kilometres that we had driven alone. Continuing around the rim we eventually descended some stairs leading to the Garden of Eden, a lush pocket of trees and vegetation around a natural pool that filters through the sandstone of the canyon and sits like a tropical oasis pretty much bang in the middle of the canyon.

Welcoming the brief spell of shade that was offered in the Garden of Eden, we climbed back up the stairs that lead to the other side of the canyon. Winding through a maze of giant beehive like domes kept us busy and alert as to where we needed to be going as it wasn't hard to get lost off from the track you should be on. On this section of the rim walk we were keeping well away from the unfenced edge as it was littered with unstable overhangs. People in the distance were sitting with their legs hanging over the edge on overhangs of sandstone only around one metre thick taking pictures. A tour guide that was just in front of us shouted over the canyon for the people to move away from the edge and we overheard her talking to a member of her tour group, telling him that on her first day touring the canyon that she watched a woman fall to her death as she stood on a overhang that just broke away beneath her feet. After hearing that tale we couldn't look at the people taking pictures near the edge because if they did fall, it was a long way down and there would only be one result. As we reached the end of the rim walk we started the gradual decline and by then we could both feel it in our legs. It only took us two and a half hours to cover the 6km trail that recommends allowing four hours to complete so we had been going at some pace during the walk/climb. Pealing off our hiking boots we hopped back in the van and drove back to the resort at a leisurely pace, safe in the knowledge that we would be reflecting over the days activities with a few ice cold beers. Treating ourselves to some snags from the on site shop (or sausages as we call them in England) we knocked up a tasty spicy sausage pasta and turned in for the night with tonight's matinee being the Godfather part II.

We woke early the next morning and wasted no time as we were moving onto our penultimate destination in our outback adventure, Uluru, more commonly known as Ayers Rock. Again most of the driving had been covered from the day before and another four hour drive was all that was between us and our destination. On arriving at the Uluru resort we were quiet surprised to find a small modern shopping complex as we expected the place to be rather barren. We arrived at 12pm and decided to check straight into our camp site at Ayers Rock Camping Ground before entering the national park. All checked in we had a quick look around and hit the road once more for the short drive to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. After paying $50 for entrance, we made our way down the road with the view of Ayers Rock dominating our windscreen. It is fascinating because no picture can convey the multidimensional grandeur of Uluru. This entire area is of cultural significance to the traditional owners of the land, the Pitjantjatjara and Yankuntjatjara Aboriginal People, who refer to themselves as Anangu. The Anangu officially own the national park and lease it to Parks Australia who jointly administer and run the park within their best interests. First of all we decided to visit the Cultural Centre which teaches and introduces you to Anangu culture in a special cultural and natural environment. It definitely adds depth to your visit as you learn about the Aboriginal peoples law and the foundations of their culture. The centre itself is built from locally made mud bricks and is a free form structure that flows from one building to the next. The layout represents two ancestral snakes, Kuniya the woman python and Liru the poisonous man snake. What a fascinating place, it is adorned with aboriginal paintings that add a brilliant colours as you walk through the centre. Our favourite part was the pile of Sorry Rocks. They are joined by a folder full of letters from all over the world asking for forgiveness and offering apologies telling tales of misfortune and tragedy. These people had visited Ayers Rock and as a keep sake had taken away rocks and even soil from the Aboriginal sacred sight, which is seen as a disrespectful act by the Aboriginal people and it is thought that a curse is cast upon those that take away the pieces of Ayers Rock by their ancestors. The rocks and soil that have been sent back with the letters are piled by the folder, the most moving letter being about a woman that had lost her husband and daughter in law to cancer all within a couple of years of visiting and taking rocks from Uluru. Her son had just been diagnosed with stomach cancer and she was returning the rocks in hope that her son would be freed of the curse. Very moving, superstitious or not. We made sure that no rocks made it into our pockets that's for sure.

We left the centre and made our way to the beginning of the base walk that sweeps in and around the Ayers Rock site. At first we had expected Ayers Rock to be a rather featureless mass and how surprised we were at the wave like groves that cut into it's base and the difference in textures of the rock as you walk around it. It looks different from every angle and it is constantly changing in size, shape and colour. No matter how many times you have seen pictures of Ayers Rock on postcards and tourist information boards, nothing really prepares you for the shear size of it and it dominates the horizon for miles around. Uluru is 3.6km long and rises a towering 348m from the surrounding sandy scrub land. If that's not high enough, it is believed that two thirds of the rock lies beneath the sand. Setting off on the 10.4km base walk we circumnavigated the rock, passing caves adorned with Aboriginal paintings used to teach their children their history and way of life. We passed sandstone folds that in some places would come away from the rock leaving a gap making them look like they were mass supports holding the rock in place. The walk reveals the natural beauty and rich culture of Uluru and it was great knowing that we were following in the footsteps of the ancestral beings that shaped the landscape. As you walk around the site there are a number of sacred sites that hold a great amount of significance to the Anangu people and you are asked not to take photographs or film these area. With the thought of the curse and the sorry rocks still fresh in our minds we respected their wishes. It was another hot day and we completed the walk in under three hours, we felt a great sense of achievement as the trip to Ayers Rock was one of the main things to do on our 'to do list' whilst travelling Australia. After knocking the sand out of our shoes we made our way back to the van and drove to the sunset lookout point with plenty of time to get a good spot. The sunset viewing area offers that familiar postcard view and as we waited for the sun to go to bed, Ash rustled up a tasty treat for our evening meal. Sun was due to set at 6.28pm and by 6pm the place was packed with people. As the sun started to set the colours seemed to change like an angry chameleon changing every minute. I've said it before but photographs don't really do it justice. What is for sure, we had had another fantastic day in the outback and it is something we wont forget for a long time to come. With the sun below the horizon we set off back towards the camp site thrilled with our time and experiences in the Northern Territory and that evening we completed the story of Michael Corleone by watching the final chapter of the Godfather series. Ashleigh's film night with Barry Norman style review went like this "A bit long winded and nowhere as good as part I or II. A mediocre 3 out of 5".

The last destination of our outback experience would be Coober Pedy in South Australia. It was a days full driving just to get to the rest area an hour outside of Coober Pedy so we set of early to try and make the best out of the day. The day was pretty uneventful bar Ashleigh who was sat in the captains seat shouting "CAMELS! LOOK CAMELS!" as we drove down the road. At the side of the road were two wild camels trying to cross in the barren landscape. We pulled over once we had passed them to watch and a camper van behind us had to stop in the road as the camels lazily crossed in front of them like The Beatles in a photo shoot for their Abbey Road album. This put a smile on our faces and was the definitive highlight of our 660km (412 miles) days drive. The next morning we set off early to hit Coober Pedy by 10am for what would turn into a whistle stop tour. Driving into Coober Pedy the dry barren desert suddenly becomes riddled with holes and piles of dirt, supposedly more that a million around the town. The reason for this is every man and his dog digging for opals which have made this small town a mining mecca. This doesn't make it a top tourist destination though as it looks more like a post apocalyptic hell. Due to the summer temperatures here being face meltingly hot people live underground in dugout homes that used to be opal mines. Now if you cross this with the swarms of flies, no trees, Aboriginals that scream at you as you drive past, cave dwelling locals and rusty car wrecks in every front yard and you have a good idea what the place looks like. Think Mad Max meets the Teletubbies and your somewhere close. Actually with the surrounding dessert being so desolate, many an end of the world epic has been filmed here like Mad Max III, Red Planet, Ground Zero, Pitch Black and the more believable Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The space ship from Pitch Black is still here and sits like it has crash landed outside of one of the many opal shops. Continuing all things 'big' in Australia, Coober Pedy offers two, the Big Winch with an optimistic 'if' painted on the side of the big bucket summing up the towns mining spirit and the Big Miner that stands in the front of somebody's front garden with his mining lamp ready in his hand. There were many dugout homes and churches on offer to view and we opted to take a look at the Serbian Orthodox Church as it was dubbed as the largest and most impressive in our New Testament. It was impressive we have to admit, with its detailed carved ceiling and its ornate carvings in the rock walls. We are not big on religion but one thing I will give it is that it had created some impressive buildings. We had seen all that we wanted to see in Coober Pedy and were quite happy not to be shouted at by the Aboriginals as we drove past any more so we decided to leave the outback for good, heading towards our next destination some 850km away (530 miles). Buckle up kids as we have an 11 hour drive ahead of us, roll on Adelaide!

Love Peter and Ashleigh x