Wednesday 25th March - Day 1

Arrived in Darwin at 4.30pm after a good flight from Melbourne, the Frontier hotel where we would be spending the first two nights was really nice, and the first night I was sharing a room with a girl called Natasha. Just had the room service for tea the first night with four other girls from the tour, - Michelle, Linda, Tasha and Megan. We were up early the next morning to start our first day of the tour. There were so many people on it, I was expecting a lot smaller group, there's about 45 of us in total, and only 4 of them are guys! After some paperwork, we headed out for the day to Litchfield National Park for the day, after that we went to a place called Florence Falls for a swim, had to climb up and down 139 steps which was fun with my gammy leg! Was a lovely place to swim, very warm and there were little fish in it which nibbled at your feet, and some very slippery rocks! Went to another waterfall after this called Wangi, but we couldn't swim there just in case any crocodiles had slipped in unnoticed. That night we went to a cafe called the Hogs Breath Cafe for tea and then to the Vic Hotel for some drinks. A couple of the girls who ended up being in our room entered a boob painting competition and had to go on stage and dance about, but one of them actually won $250 for it, so I guess it wasn't all for nothing.

Thursday 26th March - Day 2

Today we left Darwin and headed out to Kakadu National Park where we would be staying for the next 2 nights, very long cabin ish, I was sharing with a girl called Larah who reminds me so much of my friend Jill back home it is scary. Before leaving Darwin, we had a city tour and went to this museum, had some free time before we headed out to a place called the Didgeridoo Hut en route to Kakadu where I got to hold a python snake called Cuddles (although Dan our tour guide held her head for me!) and a baby joey who was so cute! Also got to try and play a didgeridoo after watching a hilarious dvd on the coach about how to play one, where this guy just basically blew raspberries, I couldn't do it for the life of me though! When we got to the hotel in Kakadu we had a couple of hours spare and then we had dinner at the hotel restaurant before getting an early night. There were some massive frogs/toads in the hotel complex, most of them seemed to be dead, well they didn't move when I poked them with a stick anyway! We also had some mini frogs in our room and a few spiders, which made the night a lot more interesting to say the least!

Friday 27th March - Day 3

Today after breakfast at the hotel we headed on out to Kakadu National Park to see some original Aboriginal rock art work. We went on a 1.5 hour walk which turned into a bit of a mini rock climb with the paths and steps - god knows where these 'easy flat paths' were that Dan our tour guide was on about were! The rock art and the stories behind them were really interesting. After our rock climb we went and had a look around an Aboriginal art museum. After this we went on a river cruise at a place called Yellow Waters, which was lovely, a lot like the one that I did in Florida. Saw two crocodiles, one of which was the largest crocodile that they had ever recorded in that part of the river, it was about 3.5 metres long. Went back to the hotel after this, and in the evening we had a punch party around the pool as dinner wasn't included tonight, didn't get told what was in it but god it was lethal! They had about 8 buckets of the stuff it was a great way to get everyone chatting and mingling with each other. It got a bit raucous in the end, luckily I didn't get too piddled, some of the group jumped back into the pool after closing and a grumpy grounds keeper had to come and chuck them all out again. The weather up here is so much more humid than in Melbourne, it's good to see up here as it is so much different to any other part of Australia.

Saturday 28th March - Day 4

Today we left Kakadu National Park and had quite a drive ahead, we stopped at a place called Pine Creek for something to eat at a little cafe called Maycee's, after this we had another 1 hour and a bit drive down to Katherine and our hotel where we would be staying the night. We got an hour's free time in the town, and I felt quite intimidated walking around with all the black/Aboriginal people there. Hotel is nice, sharing with 2 girls called Sinead and Tara from Ireland and a Scandinavian girl called Jenny. In the afternoon we had a river gorge cruise booked on the Katherine gorge river system, to be perfectly honest, although it was nice, I would have rather missed this optional out, as the river cruise we had the other day was much better and I would have happily paid for that one rather than this. But it was nice to see the gorge and we saw another crocodile and lots of birds. In the evening we went to the pool for pizza and ice cream, but we all had a pretty early night as we needed to be up to get on the coach for 6.15am, that was a bit of a shock to the system!

Sunday 29th March - Day 5

Was hard getting up at 5.30am this morning after having so many lovely lay ins in Melbourne! Had quite a drive today, spent the majority of the day on the coach. We stopped off in the morning at a place called Mataranka Thermal Pools for a dip, it was lovely, a lot like getting into a warm bath! After that we had a lunch stop at a place called Daley Waters which only has a population of around 8 people so it's pretty remote! The pub we stopped at was really interesting, over the years all the people who have stopped there have left something behind, such as underwear, ID cards and money, and the walls of the pub are covered with lots of different memorabilia. The hotel we are staying at tonight in Tennant Creek is where Princess Diana and Prince Charles stayed at when they did their tour of Australia on their honeymoon, can't imagine it was out of choice though, and more to do with the fact that it is the only place to stay for miles. Apparently the Queen as stayed here too. Feeling quite sorry for a lot of the girls on the tour as they are all getting annihiliated by mosquitoes, I've got off pretty lightly with only a couple of bites, but some of them look like they have chicken pox they have been bit that bad! Just chilled out in the room that night, a few of the others went to the only pub in town to have a few, but we have to be up for 6.15am again tomorrow so it'll just be an early night me thinks!

Monday 30th March - Day 6

Today it was another early start to go and visit a rock formation called the Devil's Marbles. They were really good to see, one of the rock's was split down the middle which made for a really good photo. After a walk around the Marbles we headed to a place called Wycliffe Wells, which was the most bizarre place that I have ever been to! Apparently there have been quite a lot of UFO sightings there, but I didn't see any! Maybe the guy who lives there was just a bit cuckoo. They also have an absolutely crazy shrine dedicated to.....a fake gorilla. Yeah, I don't understand it either. Obviously living out in the Outback has done things to people's minds. We were staying in Alice Springs that night and I was sharing a room with Tasha, Rose and an Aussie girl from Brisbane called Megan. That night (after Megan had been perved on in the shower by a local Aboriginal boy who kept jumping up at the window) we all headed on out to a local bar called Bojangles. Got a little drunk that night, and rather fearlessly held another python - properly this time, head and everything!! Didn't get in until 2am and had to be up at 5.30am, so needless to say I was a little worse for wear the next morning.

Tuesday 31st March - Day 7

This morning we had our Bushtucker Aboriginal tour which was really interesting, well the bits where I was awake was. We had a talk and learnt about the Aboriginal way of life, the culture and their customs. We had some damper bread and a cup of tea from over the camp fire, which was the best bloody cup of tea I'd had in ages! We also got the chance to try kangaroo tail, which I can't say really tasted any differently from any other part of the kangaroo really. We also tried some Outback berries and a really tiny tomato type thing. There was also a witchety grub (like on I'm a Celebrity) which one of the girls was going to eat alive until the guy told her that she had to eat it whole and then she kind of chickened out, but the guy cooked it, which made it stretch, and then cut it up into 4 pieces, so some of the girls tried that, one said it tasted like peanut butter, although not having tried it myself, I wouldn't know, not too sure it would have gone down well with my hangover! I also bought an original Aboriginal art painting from one of the several women who were painting at the site that we went to. They all symbolise different dreams, mine is of a wallaby dreaming near a mountain, and the colours and patterns in it are just beautiful, the painter has their photograph taken with the painting for authenticity too. After leaving the Bushtucker tour, we had a 2 hour drive to a place called Kings Creek Canyon, there were 2 walks that you could do, a hard, 2.5 hour one, and an easy 30 minute walk to a viewing platform. After seeing the sheer rock face of steps that you had to climb on the hard one I decided not to do it, there were about 7 of us who didn't do it in total, but a few of them were red faced when they'd come back down. That night we headed to a working camel station called Kings Creek Station, where we would be spending our night sleeping outside in the Bush!! We arrived at about 8pm, and Dan showed us how to set up our swags which we would be sleeping in, which consisted of a thick canvas sleeping bag with an inch thick foam mattress in the bottom, and then a normal sleeping bag, and finally a thin, white sleeping bag which was described as a human condom as it 'protects you' from the insects. We all got ready for bed after having a meal of pasta and sauce, and then had a couple of drinks around a proper camp fire - toasting marshmallows and everything!! Had a pretty early night, was such a great experience sleeping outside, and to look up and see the night sky and the stars was just fantastic. Got quite a good night's sleep really considering I was basically sleeping on the ground, even though I did find a pesky spider in my sleeping bag the next morning!!

Wednesday 1st April - Day 8

Woke up bright and early when the sun came up, and headed off for a shower, which was the worst one I have ever had, I swear if I had filled a thimble up with water and poured it over me I would have got faster streams of water happening! The cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast more than made up for it though, it was very tasty indeed especially after several days of continentals! Had to wait for all the people doing camel rides to come back, and then we had a drive to the town of Yulara where we are now staying for 2 nights. This is just basically a small, purpose built town consisting of a few hotels (a couple of which are 6 star! Not the one we are staying in though...) and a complex of a post office, supermarket, tourist shop etc. Got some food in for the next couple of evening meals as they aren't included, and then we checked into the hotel which is the most basic hotel we have stayed in so far, it is just basically 2 bunkbeds and an air con unit, that's it. When you have 4 people and 4 suitcases in it, you can barely move let alone swing a koala! That afternoon after dumping all of our stuff, we headed on out to the Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park to do a 2.5km walk through Kata Tjuta. It was very beautiful to see the rock formation (don't think I have seen or taken photo's of so many rocks in my life!!) but it was quite a rocky path, and very hot too. That night was pretty chilled out, just spent the evening chatting in the kitchen area, although I did see a dingo prowling about!

Thursday 2nd April - Day 9

Today was another early start as we had to get up at 5am as we were going to watch the sunrise at Uluru. I was really excited to be finally seeing this famous icon of Australia, despite seeing it out of the coach window the day before. We got there at about 6.20am, and the sunrise was at 6.45am ish, the colours that the rock turned as the sun was coming up was just beautiful, and the rock became more and more orange as time progressed. After a continental breakfast, we went round to Uluru itself where you could either climb Uluru itself, or do a 9.2km 2.5hour walk around its base. Only 6 people out of our entire group decided to go and the rest of us did the other walk. The way up Uluru was so ridiculously steep it was crazy, only half of the climb had a thin, rickety rail to hold on to, probably because the natives don't really want you to climb it, apparently over 35 people have died trying to climb Uluru, and I didn't want to be number 36! To be honest I was so chuffed that I managed to do the walk around the base, 9.2km equated to about 5 1/2 miles, which is probably the longest walk I've done voluntarily for awhile! So glad I did it though, you can't really comprehend how big Uluru is until you see it with your own eyes, I always thought it was a smooth rock too, but it has honey comb erosion in places, and some of the natives relate stories to the different markings and holes in the rock. After our time at Ayers Rock, we went to a cultural centre, but I think that everyone was just so knackered from the walk or the climb that we all just went and sat in the cafe until it was time to get back on to the coach. That afternoon we got quite a bit of free time which was so nice to just chill out and not be on the go for once, these last 9 days have been so crazy busy it's unreal. Tonight we had our champagne sunset back at Uluru which I was really looking forward to. We got there at about 6.20pm and the sun started to set about about 6.45pm, Dan and Youngy our coach driver set up a table of nibbles, and another table of champagne filled glasses which Youngy spelt Contiki with (bless) The sunset itself was lovely, but I was kind of expecting the rock to change colours more dramatically, but it was a great experience all the same, couldn't quite believe at times that I was standing in front of one of the most iconic places in Australia with a glass of champers in my hand with some of the great people that I have made friends with over the last few days. When we got back on to the coach, they turned it into a party coach and let us stand up and dance on the coach the whole way back to the hotel, they played Sex on Fire by the Kings of Leon so loud (this is our morning song, which they play first thing every day when we get on the coach) so loud and everyone went crazy. It was the best experience and so much fun, everyone was bopping about, and Youngy must have gone around the roundabout about 10 times, it was hilarious. When we got back to the hotel we all hit the hotel and had a few more drinks before I hit the sack at 11.30pm.

Friday 3rd April - Day 10

This morning we checked out of the hotel in Yulara and had a cooked BBQ breakfast that Dan and Youngy had prepared for us, we had quite a bit of drive time today to get back to our hotel in Alice Springs. In the afternoon we went to a place called Simpsons Gap to see some (more) rocks, and try and spot some rock wallabies (must have been doing too much of a good impression!) After this we had a couple of hours free time before we went to a restaurant called the Overlanders Steak House for our big blow out dinner. It was a 3 course meal consisting of potato and leek soup for starters, then a platter of crocodile, emu, camel and kangaroo to try. I tried them all to say that I had tried them, but I don't think I would ever order any of them again voluntarily to eat again. The crocodile was the worst, it was horrible, it tasted quite flaky, a bit like fish, but I had to swallow it with water to get it down. The emu, camel and kangaroo all pretty much tasted the same, but I forgot which was which really in the end. I then had a steak for my main course, and apple pie for dessert which was probably the best part of the meal to be honest. When we had all finished eating, the staff got us all up from our seats to try out some wibble boards Rolf Harris stylee! It is so much harder than it looks, and I think I ended up just flapping a lot of air about really. After the meal, a lot of the group were heading off to Alice Springs casino, but since I had my hot air balloon ride the next day and had to be up at 4.30am I decided to give it a miss and walk back to the hotel with 3 of the other girls. It was quite intimidating walking about in Alice Springs at night time with all the native people about and I was glad when we finally reached the hotel.

Saturday 4th April - Day 11

Today after getting up at 4.30am and getting all excited about my balloon ride, Dan stumbled out of bed to meet us all at reception and tell us that it was cancelled because it was far too windy to do it. Was really disappointed that I couldn't get the chance to do it here, and also because I had got up at stupid o'clock to do it! Went back to bed for a couple of hours though as we didn't have to be on the coach until 10am that day. This morning we had a tour of the Royal Flying Doctor's Service, which was really interesting. It was $7 to get it, but I didn't mind paying it as it is a really good cause. The service has about 27 bases all around Australia and 51 planes, and they fly to anyone with a hospital on wings basically to treat people free of charge who live in too remote places to access medical treatment and hospitals. After our tour we had a stop at the original Alice Spring which was basically a big pond really, named after a woman called Mrs Alice Todd. We also saw the original telegraph building for the overland telegraph, and Anzac Hill which offered really good views of Alice Springs. This afternoon we said our goodbye's to all the people who weren't coming to Cairns with us, was quite sad to say goodbye to Megan as we have made really good friends with her over the time we spent together, but as she lives in Brisbane she is going to come and see us when we get to the Gold Coast, hurrah! Dan and Youngy took us all the way to the security gate at the airport, where we all hugged goodbye and had our first flight to Ayers Rock to connect to Cairns, was absolutely mad to think that it took us 5 hours to drive from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock, but we flew there in 30 minutes!! Got my cultery set taken off my at the connecting security gate (what did they think I was going to do? Eat my way thouugh the plane???) but they let me keep my scissors so that's ok!! Good 2 hour flight to Cairns where we met our new tour guide and driver John and Ralph (also called Bernadette but no one will tell us why yet!) There are 19 other people joining us on this part of the trip, who we went out to meet at a place called The Woolshed for drinks when we had dropped off all our stuff at the hotel. It is a really nice place named the Cairns Colonial Club, we are staying here for the next 3 nights, it's so nice to put down our stuff for more than a couple of nights and not be on the move as much. The night out was good, but we didn't stay long, about 10pm ish as we had an early start for breakfast and our Great Barrier Reef tour the next day!

Sunday 5th April - Day 12

Today we had our day trip to the Great Barrier Reef, which I have really been looking forward to ever since coming to Australia. We set off for the marina at about 8am and it only took us about 10 minutes to get over there. After we had had a group photo, we boarded our boat for the day and headed on out to Moore Reef which took about 90 minutes to reach. Once we got there we all got kitted up with a stinger suit, just in case any jelly fish were still hanging about, we all looked so ridiculous when we had them on it was hilarious, like a cross between a teletubby and a cat suit or something but far less glamorous! We got our masks and snorkels, and then it was time to hit the reef for some snorkelling! The first time I put my head under the water it was absolutely breath taking, it's weird because unless you see it from the air, you can't really tell by just looking at the sea that the reef is there really, and then you stick your head under water and it's like being in the middle of Finding Nemo (although I didn't find him!) Saw so many different species of fish and coral though, so many colours of fish you didn't know existed, such as a a black one that looked like it had been dipped in blue glitter! There was also a massive fish called Wally which I got my photo taken with by the scuba photographer who coaxed him up for a snap, also got another good one of me holding a Cairns Barrier Reef sign too. We got about 5 hours out on the Reef in total, and I can honestly say it has been one of the best days of the tour so far, it was incredible and I loved snorkelling, I felt a bit like a water baby at times (who can swim like a brick) Having another early night tonight as I have to be up at 3.50am for my hot air balloon ride tomorrow, going to try and do it again, hopefully it will be less windy this time so that it can actually go ahead!!