hi all,

Well here iam in the middle of the country, literally in hte middle of nowhere!  I arrived in alice springs last sunday with my very heavy back pack (i will learn to travel light at some point!)  Anyhow i arrived at my hostel to discover that the masters games were on in alice springs - its a sports competition for anyone over the age of 35, for all sports.  My accomodation was heaving with old wrinklies.  The place was ok, the motel part was much nicer than the backpackers part.  The dorm i ws in, the ensuite bathroom door was nearly falling off the hinges and the kitchens were less than desirable.  At this point i decided i wasnt going to stay there after my tour finished.  I met up with some irish girls in my dorm who needed some alcohol for the their tour hte next day, so we decided to go and find the local bottle shop.  Being australia, and a sunday everywhere we tried was shut, we walked for what seemed ages before getting to the bottle shop.  The only problem was that we were entering an aborigini community - which was a little unerving as they were all staring at us and it was our first experience of the aboriginis.  Anyway we went in the bottle shop and came out very quickly.  We were keen to return back to hostel as quickly as we could!  i think i must have then done something to my ankle again as that night and for the rest of my time in alice springs i couldnt take any weight through my right foot.

My tour picked me up from my hostel nice and early on tuesday morning - it was actually 6.30am, as i got on the bus i realised i may have chosen the wrong tour, as everyone was either in a couple or were my parents age.  Some of the group were english, and they were all lovely, the rest of the group were mainly danish or german- lets just say they lived up to the stereotype -especially when it came to the seating positions - noone wanted to move seats - which is very difficult when you are travelling on your own and you  get stuck with the only seat that doesnt have air conditioning!  The weather did its usual thing and came with me - it was rainy and lcoudy formost of the trip - we didnt get sunset and we only got a couple of minutes sunrise while we were walking around the rock.  We visited the olgas - walking throught the rough footpaths - which wasnt very easy with a dogy foot.  We arrived at our campsite whchi had permanent tents with camp beds, i even got a whole tent for myself, which is a real luxury as i am now used to staying in dorms!  We had a lovely barbque for dinner.  That night the guide told us not to bother about alarms and he would wake us up if the weather was good in the morning.  Noone woke me for some reason, and after breakfast someone realised that i wasnt present - so they woke me up and i had about 10mins to get ready - just what i needed, luckily someone cooked my toast while i was getting ready.  We headed out from the campsite at a very stupid hour - 5.15am for the non sunrise.  The tour leader  drove us around the rock and we had the chance to walk around the base at 6am.  It was amazing, and we were lucky enough to get the sun come out for a couple of minutes.  In the afternoon we headed out to kings cannyon creek we we stayed for our next night.  The tour leader cooked us an amazing dinner, a chicken stew, all in clay pots in the embers of the fire, aswell as bread. That night i didnt sleep very well as i heard something in my tent - not sure what it was, maybe a mouse or a beetle, but i ws having thoughts that it was a snake - the joys of staying in a tent on your own in the middleof nowhere!  The next day we had another ealry start and headed out to kings cannyon,  where most of the group went on a 3 hour hike across the top of the cannyon, my foot was still causing me problems so i decided to take the hour walk through the bottom of the gorge - i have got some amazing photos.  All in all i had a great trip and the tour leader was pretty knowledgible about all the aborigini culture and the desert.

Friday night i checked out the masters games, i went to see the netball finals, and the 35+age group were extremely fast - very different from what i am used to back home.  everything was free, i didnt have to pay for my entrance.  The next night was the closing ceremony, where they had a live band in the park - again it was all free.  In alice springs the aboriginis are everywhere, they dont realy have many social skills or cleanliness - for instancfe i dont think any of them used deoderant, and one particular lady  couldnt wait in the que for the toilets, so decided to go in the bin -do you have a nice image?

Anyway had best go for now as got to get sorted for my flight to new zealand tomorrow.  Bye for now

Sharon