Today was the big day! We were heading to the Northern territory. It wasn't originally in our plan to go there as it is so far away from everywhere else we were planning on going but after some thought we decided that we couldnt come all the way to Australia and not visit Ayres Rock (Uluru) so we splashed out on some flights and I mean splashed out!! Considering it would have taken 3 days to drive there from sydney I think it was money well spent!

The scenery from the plane on the way over was amazing. Australia really is a wierd and wonderful place. Its just vast open space...everywhere. I quickley grabbed my camera to take some snaps on the plane and my camera decided to die. NOOOOOOO! We had spent about 300 quid getting to Alice Springs and now I didn't even have a camera. I couldnt believe it! I was so gutted you wouldn't believe. And yes before you ask Tom and I only have 1 camera between us!

Anyway we landed in Alice springs and the first thing that hit us was the unbelieveable heat. The temperature didnt drop below 30 degrees the whole time we were there. I think it hit 45 degrees one day we were on our trip! Its a strange place, so different from everywhere else we have been in Australia. Once we dumped our bags at the hostel we headed into Alice Springs town in search of somewhere that could deal with my camera.

Australia has a strange and secretive history relating to the aboriginal people and we really learnt about it while in the northern territory. Its really sad to see them trying, with difficulty, to fit into a western culture. Apparently many of them have alcohol problems that stem from not being able to integrate into society and it was really evident in Alice Springs as we walked around the town centre. We found 2 camera places in the WHOLE of Alice Springs. One didn't sell cameras that were made this century and the other was really expensive as they have to ship them to the outback so we decided against buying a new camera here and bought a crappy disposable and hoped we would meet someone on our trip who would so kindly let us have a copy of their photos. (THANKS RUTHIE!)

In the afternoon the hostel took us on a free guided tour of the area. It was quite interesting, not very but quiet and we got a free alcoholic drink at the end. We didn't learn much but we met some brummie lads! Wahey! We spotted their accent a mile off. We ended up spending the evening with them drinking until the wee hours of the morning. A stupid (but fun) thing to do bearing in mind we had to be up at 5.30am the next morining for our Ayres Rock 3 day trip!