Arrived in Alice Springs the day before our 6 day trip through the outback. Suprisingly it was not nearly as hot as Queensland. Good news no biting sand flies. Bad news swarms of house fly type things. We got used to these over the next 5 days - you had to or you'd go mad with them.They might have got in your ears/mouth/nose but at least they didn't bite and in fact there were no biting insects at all.

Alice Springs is a strange sort of town. Hundreds of miles from anywhere in the middle of the desert it attracts "alternative lifestyle" type people as well as a fair few aborigine alcoholics or outcasts from the aboriginal communities. They look quite scarey but they're harmless.

It may look on the map like we've got to Ayers Rock/Uluru (we'll use Uluru from now on - it's shorter) but it's in actual fact it's over 250 miles away across the empty desert.

So after a pleasant day visiting Alice springs and taking in the Flying Doctor museum + a night in a very nice hotel with pool etc we got ready for the ADVENTURE the next morning.