Disastrous Darwin

Our bus up to tropical Darwin wasn't due to depart until 19:15 so we had a full day to look around Alice Springs before we could leave. The cricket that had been chirping away before we went on the tour was still going when we woke up, as we had been placed in the same 2 beds that we had vacated 3 days before. We had to check out of the hostel by 10am and then had to vacate the premises by 11am, otherwise we would have to pay $5 each for the privilege of using a sofa. We checked out and sorted our bags and then used the last hour to scoff a loaf of bread we had got for free that was left over from the tour we had been on. 11 came and we shouldered our bags and then braved the morning heat to walk to the office of the tour company we had gone with, as they had told us they would keep our bags for the day until the bus went. We dropped them off and headed out into Alice Springs to have a nose around. We had been recommended to visit ANZAC Hill, which has a memorial to members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who have lost their lives during wartime. The hill also provides great views of the town of Alice Springs and is only a very short walk from the centre of town and up a gentle incline. We sweated up the stairs and appreciated the views and also took the time to wander round all the plaques covering the various wars. While we were up their we spotted 2 girls climbing the hill who had been on tour with us, we greeted them and then headed down before it got too hot. After our hill climb, we walked to a shop called Harvey Norman, which is like a mixture of Currys and Debenhams from home, it seems to sell absolutely everything. We were after a decent waterproof camera to use in Cairns and possibly a few kayaking trips somewhere down the line. We were looking mainly at action cameras and weren't really sure what we were after so we told the assistant we'd be back after discussing it over a coffee but we knew we wouldn't return. We did go for the coffee though. We found a place on the central Todd Mall and sat and watched the world go by. Well, as best as we could in the very quiet day time of Alice Springs, everyone is obviously clever enough not to go out in the heat of the day. We managed to make this last about an hour and the time was flying by. We spent some time weaving in and out of the occasional open shop and making use of the public toilets just to kill some time. Eventually, the evening started creeping in so we purchased some early dinner and then sat in a park opposite the bus stop. We were making use of the free wifi in the town when all of a sudden an email pinged on to my phone from the accommodation we had booked in Darwin. I'd emailed them telling them we'd ordered a couple of books to be delivered, so we are expecting a reply to that but it was something slightly different. The proprietor, Mitch, had emailed us, the day before we were due to arrive saying the hostel was closed down and he would refund our deposit within the next 2 days. We were slightly shell shocked, bearing in mind we had booked when we were in Edinburgh in September, so we could have had notification earlier. We now had to panic about securing a weeks accommodation in Darwin and how we were going to get the books we had ordered. We managed to get the accommodation sorted easier than we had anticipated, so that was one worry of our minds. I emailed him back about the books but we'd have to sort that out when we arrived in the city. This was all happening just as our bus was pulling up at the stop, so it was a bit manic. We picked up our bags and thanked them for looking after them and hopped on the bus, taking 2 seats almost at the front. We steamed out of town heading north into the night. Our first major stop where we could stretch our legs was a place called Barrow Creek. The driver said over the tannoy that it was funny little pub that was well worth a visit. When we entered we were greeted by a very nice lady who asked where we were from. We replied England and she took us to a wall where numerous people had scrawled various messages on the wall and this wall in particular contained British Football teams. I said we supported Brighton & Hove Albion (rather than Man Utd) but she didn't know where it was. We searched for a short while but unfortunately had to settle with Southampton. When we'd finished admiring the wall the lady and the bus driver told us how this was the roadhouse that the girlfriend of murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio had got to after she had escaped from her attacker. It was pretty clear they were trying to scare us, they even admitted trying to do it to every British person who went in the pub but with so many people around, we felt pretty safe. We looked around the rest of the pub and saw that every wall was crammed with writing and photos from various visitors from around the world. We were invited around the bar to have a photo holding a bottle, so we obliged, gave the dogs a stroke before they were sent to bed and then headed back out to the bus ready for departure.

Friday

For the rest of the night the trip was uneventful. Apart from the stop at the town of Tennant Creek where the petrol station looked like it had been taken over by a swarm of huge green insects that had a tendency to fly into windows and people. It wasn't until morning that the fun started to begin. Our driver had been with us since Alice Springs the night before and had pretty much been driving for 12 hours. Charlotte was watching the driver struggle to keep his eyes open for any length of time and she was understandably worried about our safety. The driver had even put on a pair of headphones and was singing and almost dancing in an attempt to keep himself awake. Eventually, Charlotte went down and tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he was okay and he replied that he was fine was just listening to some rock and roll. We weren't convinced but from now on he kept looking at Charlotte in his mirror and it was clear that the fact someone had noticed had woken him up a bit. It was only a short time after that we stopped at a roadhouse and there was a driver change, so it was a big relief. At this stop we picked up a coffee each and admired the large pythons that were in glass cages in the cafe area. Apparently, the man who owned the place had captured them from the bush outside and then put them on display in his roadhouse, as you do. Our new driver was very much awake and seemed slightly obsessed with cleanliness. For miles and miles we passed thousands of orange termite mounds protruding from the ground before arriving for our last long stop in the town of Katherine. From here onwards we were treated to a history of the area by the driver which was actually really interesting and funny and he didn't really have to do it. When we were about an hour out of Darwin we could see a wall of water in the road, which was part of a downpour that was heading straight for the city. The driver seemed perplexed and told us that it hadn't been forecast, yet he'd take it, as despite it being the wet season, it had been very dry. We were now in a race with the rain to make it to Darwin first as the driver said that if we beat it there, we might just have enough time to run to our accommodation before it hit. We drove through the centre of the city and the roads were dry, so it hadn't got there yet which was a relief. As we disembarked the bus though, it was just starting to spit and by the time we had made it to the end of the road it was pouring. We managed to find some cover down the shopping street, so we worked our way along the road under shop awnings. After that, it was a mad dash down one road then onto another to get to our hostel not too wet. We weren't too wet and it was so hot despite the rain we figured it would only take a few minutes to dry off anyway. After checking in to our room, where we were left with the 2 top bunks, we sat outside in the dining area while the rain died down. It didn't take long, so we went for a short walk along the Darwin promenade area. There isn't really a beach in Darwin and the walk was fairly high up a small cliff. It probably best that it's like that as you wouldn't want to swim in the waters around Darwin anyway. There's Saltwater Crocodiles year round, if they don't get you, the Box Jellyfish will, so it would be sensible to use the man made lagoon down at the harbour front if you fancied a swim. We could see the storm that had passed over in the distance and it made for a lovely evening sunset. After our short seaside walk we popped into Coles supermarket to pick up some things for dinner. We already had a curry sauce, so we only needed to get some rice and chicken to go with it. After sweating constantly during dinner we were desperate for a shower. They were good while they lasted but the second you'd turn the water off you'd be sweating again because of the humidity. We got ready as quick as we could so we could get back to the air conditioning in our room. We had found out earlier that the hostel was currently going though the process of getting free wifi installed. For some reason though, they had decided to get rid of paid internet before the free wifi had been installed, so this left us with no internet for the entire weeks stay. This was a huge annoyance, as we had intended to do a lot of planning and research while in Darwin. Our original hostel did have free wifi, which was another reason the cancellation was such a nuisance. We would just have to read a book to keep ourselves entertained for the week.

Saturday

Due to being fairly busy in the preceding weeks we were going to plan what to do in Darwin, but with no internet we knew we would struggle. There were a few spots around town such as a 24 hour convenience store but you could only get an hours worth and you had to buy a drink in order to receive a code, so it would have got expensive fairly quickly. There was also free wifi available in the shopping precinct but we wouldn't have felt comfortable sitting around with our tablets and phones out and about. It was also pretty bad wifi to boot. Anyway, with nothing much to do we treated ourselves to an extended lie in and then once up headed out to do a big shop at Woolworths. As we were in town for a week we thought we might as well make sure we had stuff in to save constant trips to the supermarket in the heat. We managed to keep a large trolley down to around $60 (£30), so we were pretty pleased with our efforts. We rushed the shopping home as it was incredibly hot outside and we had a few perishable items that would go off in no time at all. The rest of our day was spent relaxing around the hostel, almost at a loss of what to do with ourselves. The lack of Internet was really becoming a problem and we were starting to get fed up with making visits to the coffee shops and convenience stores. We made ourselves a chilli for dinner with some spices we had picked up from the supermarket, hoping that they would see us well into New Zealand. After sweating through dinner, we had a sweaty shower and finally made it to the refreshing air conditioned room.

Sunday

We decided we really needed to have a look around the city this morning, as we had nothing much else to do and we really needed to give it a try. We wandered to the promenade area where we had a quick look at the day we arrived. There was a cenotaph commemorating fallen soldiers from the wars and a couple of tiled areas with the names of famous Northern Territorians written on them. I'll be honest, we didn't recognise any of them but I'm sure they are very well known in that part of Australia. A lot of them were farming families who had obviously made a fortune and become famous. We followed the edge of the prom along until we found a bridge followed by a lift that took us down to the modern looking waterfront area. To counteract the crocodile and jellyfish problem, a wave pool has been built so the locals and tourists can enjoy a swim without worrying about getting their heads bitten off or being stung to death. We wandered round the pool amazed at just how choppy it was in there. It seemed like it would have been a real struggle to move anywhere with the size of the waves the thing was producing. We left that behind and found the lagoon, which is also there to be a safe place to swim, it just didn't seem as popular as the wave pool for some reason. There was one man making his way round on a lilo but that was it. The heat was awful. The humidity was cranked up to the high nineties and it was unbearable a to spend any time in direct sunlight, we had to dash from shaded area to shaded area just to try and cool down slightly. We had a nose around the bars and restaurants in the area but they were all very expensive so we left them alone, opting to get something back at the hostel. We followed the same route home and were absolutely sapped of energy by the time we got back. We got lunch at our hostel as we had plenty of salad left over from our dinner the night before. We picked up some bread rolls and had chicken salad with rolls for lunch which were absolutely delicious. Eating was fast becoming the highlight of our time in Darwin. After lunch we decided to venture out in search of the original hostel we had booked in hope of finding someone to help out. Nobody was in sight though and we decided to leave it for Monday. We briefly connected to the city wifi to send a message home and then returned to the hostel once more in a pointless attempt to try and cool off. We didn't stop the sweating but we did manage to catch up with a load of washing and a bit of blogging which helped a bit. That, as well as the continuous football repeats on the TV took us through to dinner time, which was Chilli and rice.

Monday

Yet another lie in was ended when we got far to hungry to wait any longer. We continued to plow through the large box of Wheaties we had bought from Woolies. We had picked them up as we had expected them to be like bran flakes but they turned out to be more like crumbled bricks of Weetabix. After breakfast we headed to the coffee shop to obtain some wifi and try and get a bit of planning sorted. We only had an hour and got a minimal amount down, so it was very stressful. Once our hour was expired we broke for lunch and visited the bakers next door. A pizza slice and a vegemite scroll (half scone, half roll I guess) later we found a different coffee shop to access wifi at. This one only allowed in half an hour, so we got even less sorted than we did at the previous one. It was all really starting to get us down and we decided to call it a day and get some more admin done back at the hostel. Dinner was left over chilli and rice and by now we were becoming pros at cooking pretty good rice.

Tuesday

This was another frustrating day with no wifi. We normally wouldn't have a problem with it but as I've said, we were relying on it being available. Had we got everything sorted previously, we wouldn't have had an issue. We decided to try some sightseeing for a change and walked to a place called Mindil beach, which was a thirty minute sweaty stroll away from our hostel. We swung by the closed hostel on the way to see if there had been any postal action yet but there was nothing. We decided to try the post office to see if they could help our predicament but with no tracking number, we couldn't get anywhere. Downhearted, we decided to walk to the beach via the hostel again and encountered the postman on this trip. He had one of our parcels, so we managed to get one but we were still waiting on the second. This escapade had taken up most of the morning, so we decided to leave the beach for the next day and grab some lunch. Cheese and onion rolls and a mars bar went down pretty well while we considered what to do for the rest of the day. We decided to take the bus out of town to the shop, Harvey Norman. We had visited one in Alice Springs but hadn't made a quick enough to decision on what we wanted. We were after a waterproof camera to use everyday but more specifically for a trip to the Great Barrier Reef we had planned for when we were in Cairns. The bus was a dirt cheap $3 flat fare for 3 hours riding, so we were confident we'd be able to return within that time frame. This time we were in and out of the shop in no time at all. The assistant had been really helpful and had guided us towards better but cheaper cameras than we had been looking at previously. Our new camera in hand we hopped back on the bus and were back in Darwin in just over an hour after starting. We put the camera in a safe place and popped to the coffee shop to try and get some admin sorted. It was closing at 5 so we only had 45 minutes in which to work, so it wasn't very productive. Tuna salad for dinner followed by a couple of beers we had left over from Uluru.

Wednesday

We were still having postal issues and the hostel owner wasn't responding. We were having issues with our credit card and Halifax wouldn't accept reverse charge calls despite saying they would. We were getting stressed and starting to niggle at each other. To let of some steam we walked to Mindil Beach. It was almost a wasted effort as you aren't allowed to swim there due to crocs and jellies. There was a lone sunbather who had placed herself as far away from the water as humanly possible (she was pretty much in the car park). It was good to get out and about though, even for just a short while. We browsed and planned our trip in Tasmania during the afternoon and then dined on Pasta and baked beans in the evening.

Thursday

This last paragraph will be short and sweet. We had no more luck with the postman and had nothing to do during the day. We printed our plane tickets off for the journey the following day and popped to the post office one last time with no success.

Thankfully, Darwin was almost at an end. We didn't enjoy it, despite really wanting to 

Uluru & Kata-Tjuta: "Out where the river broke, the Bloodwood and the Desert Oak"

Monday

The cricket was still chirping away when our alarms went off at quarter to 5 the next morning. We did our best to keep the noise down while we shifted our bags out the room and into the reception area, where they would stay while we were away on the tour. We had slightly misjudged the timing and didn't really have time for breakfast before we would be picked up, so we settled with eating it on the bus. We let ourselves out of the locked gate and only had to wait a couple of minutes before the bus pulled up. The driver introduced himself as Matt, telling us we had to pick up a few more people before heading to the office to check in (which hardly seemed necessary bearing in mind we had already done it twice before). We lined up to go through the formalities and then all bundled back on to bus to try and catch some sleep before our first stop. We were informed by Matt, our tour guide, that we would have a long first stretch and we'd be stopping in around 2 hours. We hit the road, heading South down the Stuart Highway, the way the Greyhound had come in from. After about 2 hours we passed a roadhouse we recognised at a place called Erlunda. We had fully expected this to be our breakfast stop but were left disappointed when, after bus turned down another road instead of into the forecourt.  We had been driving about half an hour since the turnoff when Charlotte and I gave up and got out pack of croissants out of our cool bag and tucked in. Typically, we pulled into a roadhouse just as we were wiping the crumbs from our mouths. It was called Mt.Ebenezer, although there wasn't a mountain in sight, so it seemed a bit of a bold claim. There was nothing of note in this part of the Australian outback, apart from flies. Lots and lots and lots and lots of flies. Flies that have a penchant for your face. By the time we had made it into the roadhouse, we had perfected the Aussie salute (Australian slang for the act of swatting flies away from your face). We purchased a coffee and were pleasantly surprised to receive one that actually tasted good in such a remote place. We sat outside with the flies again drinking our coffee while our tour guide laid down some ground rules. They weren't serious ones.  First up was that we were no longer aloud to call flies flies. We had to call them bananas. Sounds easy, but it's not when you have 10,000 hiding out on your back and some kamikazee ones setting up base camp in your nostril. Second was that we were no longer aloud to say the word "mine", if we did we would get a forfeit of 10 push-ups, this one was as easy as it sounds. Finally, we were told that when we got back on the bus, we would all have to go up to the front and answer a few questions over a microphone. That was the worst of the lot, talking in front of people. We all piled back on and prepared ourselves for the ordeal. To make matters worse (or better actually) he started calling us up from the back, which meant that Charlotte, me or the man sitting next to me was up first. I went first, keen to get it over and done with. The questions were actually easy and fairly innocuous. They consisted of name, hobbies, where are you from, favourite animal and preferred superpower. It was just a getting to know you exercise. For the animal I just plumped for Polar Bear and superpower was to breath underwater as they were the first things that popped into my head. With me done I struggled back to my seat in the bumpy bus. Next up was the man sitting next to me before everyone just started getting up wildly hilly and not sticking with the back to front policy. Eventually, Matt called Charlotte up, suggesting that she was hiding away at the back, which wasn't true because of the other keen ones in front. Tiger and time travel were the significant answers Charlotte gave. Eventually, everyone except a few Koreans who spoke limited English had been and gone, we were now told that some pens would be sent round and we had to write our name and the favourite animal conducting the superpower on the vans Windows and while we waited for the pens to get to know the people around us. Being at the back the pens took quite a while to filter through so we got to know a few of our next door neighbours. Sigurd from Norway was sat to our left and we spent a good while chatting, mainly from him lightheartedly criticising the UK and talking about politics. His main problem was the weather in England, driving on the left, basins with taps that have a separate hot and cold tap (actually, that one irritates me too) and so on and so forth. Generally things that any foreigner finds odd about the UK, which we fund completely normal. We did throw some complaints Norway's way for good measure too. The conversation then moved onto politics and it was slightly embarrassing how much more he knew about our own political system than Charlotte and me. Eventually, the pens came round and it was our turn to scrawl on our windows. Sigurd next to us clearly regretted choosing a wombat when he lent over to us and enquired as to what one looked like. We couldn't really help him as we had no idea either. Our drawings were terrible but they would suffice as nobody really looked at them. By the time we were done we were just pulling up to our first bush walk at a place called King's Canyon. There were 2 options for walks, a 3 hour return, or a 1 hour return. We had no choice but to do the 1 hour return one as the 3 hour walk gets closed off when the temperature exceeds 36 degrees. It was pushing 40 today so we were happy for the shorter option. It was a mazy walk into the canyon, over rust coloured rocks and past countless eucalyptus trees. Just before we made it to the viewing area at the end we stopped and were told how King's Canyon was formed. Unlike the Grand Canyon, which was formed by a river eroding through the rock, King's Canyon was formed by the rock collapsing in on itself. We were also told that the reason the rocks and ground was red was because of the iron in the ground, which after thousands of years of rain and air has turned the outback rusty. After our history lesson it was a short walk up the path to a viewing platform which allowed us to see the walls and length if the gorge. After taking some photos, we completed the 30 minute walk back to the bus.

With one bush walk down for the day it was time for a short drive to the next one, which was about 30 minutes along the road. This walk was different to the one advertised as we didn't get to do the 3 hour one at the Canyon, and was called kings creek walk. This walk was a flat meandering pass through the bush with few points of great interest. The good part was at the end though as there was an outback watering hole that was teeming with wildlife such as birds and insects. Again we had a short lessons about waterholes in the outback and how the aboriginal people wouldn't jump into one for a wash as soon as they found it because if they used it as a bathtub the animals (food sources) wouldn't want to come and drink from it. So if they had 2 watering holes, one would be used for washing and one would be used to gather food. Again, we lingered for 5 minutes to take some snaps and enjoy the view and then we started heading back. Mercifully by now the bananas had died down so the fly nets we had bought could be taken off. Once again we all piled on to the bus in preperation for our next stop. This one was at the side of the road as we attacked some dead Mulga trees in order to obtain some firewood for our cook fire that evening. I say "we", I wandered off into the bush alone to see a man about a horse while everyone else collected the firewood. By the time I had returned and avoided the millions of snakes that I'm sure we're camouflaged 2 feet from me all the wood had been collected and we were all ready to depart, after taking some photos of the straight road.

While travelling to our next destination, some of us started noticing a rather large, red coloured rock passing by on the left of us. I pointed out to Charlotte and our new Norwegian friend that there was Ayre's Rock but I immediately started to doubt myself. It just wasn't how I had pictured it and I was still  sceptical up to when Matt the guide stopped the bus at a viewing site at the side of the road, turned round to us, whistled and said "that's one big red rock!". I then thought, well it must be it and went along with it. It did seem strange that he hadn't mentioned it by name and so the doubts were still there as we walked up a sand dune to get a better view and take some photos. By the time we had reached the top I was sure it wasn't Uluru but just didn't have the confidence to front up and say it wasn't. We went along with it, took some photos and also had a look at some salt flats which had been left over from an Inland Sea that had long since dried up. We walked back down the sand dune and joined the bus to go to the bottleshop to buy some beer. It wasn't actually a proper bottleshop but a roadhouse that had showers, sold groceries as well as alcohol. The place was called Curtin Springs and there didn't seem to be much going on, apart from some cows dotted around the place. We picked up the beer and then headed to our stop for the evening. Matt the guide claimed he a had picked it at random but it was pretty obvious it was a predetermined site as their was an old fire and a gazebo set up. While Sigurd and I feigned a runner with the cool box full of beers the rest of the people set to tasks like breaking the firewood ready for the fire and prepping the food. Once that was done, Charlotte and I found a log to rest on to enjoy a cold beer while appreciating where we were and what we were doing for the first time. It was getting dark quickly so we moved to a seat closer to the fire where I wouldn't get in the way or trip over things endlessly. While a couple of people helped with the cooking, the majority settled into seats around the fire and enjoyed the moment. Dinner was served and bearing in mind it had been prepared and cooked in the bush, it was pretty good. We had a mild chilli, rice, freshly baked bread and a ratatouille and were pretty full come the end of it. After washing our plates and cutlery and braving a trip to the outside 'dunny', we returned to our swags, which we had been using as seats, to find them stolen by George the Korean and his lady friend and our things we had left next to them had been shoved out the way. We weren't impressed but left it and found a couple of spare ones around the campsite. A swag is pretty much a sleeping bag with a mattress inside that you can roll out on the ground and sleep in without a tent and then roll it up the next day and move on. We rolled ours out in a gap by a tree near the fire and had barely settled in them when someone called out that had seen a load of green spider eyes in the tree. We refused to move now though. Before we had got in our swags we were told by Matt that if we draw a line in the sand with a stick it will prevent snakes from slithering in and joining us as they don't like crossing broken ground. Again, this was something we were highly sceptical about but when in that situation, you can't help but believe the person who has done it before. Despite drawing the lines, everyone decided to stick their swags so close to one another that by the time everyone was tucked up the lines had been walked over anyway. Surely a footprint would class as broken ground anyway? For a short while we laid on our backs and watched the stars up in the sky in the hope of seeing a shooting star. All we could see though we're static ones and atleast one planet shining away brightly. Just before giving up though, Charlotte and the girl next to her did see one scoot across the night sky though, it just happened to be while I was blinking though.

Tuesday

The alarm went off at 5 and everyone struggled up to roll their swags up and return them to the van. We hadn't had the best night sleep. The wind had been blowing sand into our faces all night and it was a struggle to relax. That's not to say we didn't enjoy the experience. We got ourselves some breakfast consisting on Weet-Bix (not to be confused with Weetabix) and due to their being no seats, stood around and ate it. The air was fairly banana (fly, just incase you'd forgotten) free at this time of the morning so it was a pleasant time to eat. Everything was packed away and we headed to Ayres Rock Resort camping ground so everyone could freshen up with a shower and use a flushing toilet before setting out for a long day. Everyone was back in the van and ready to go by 8 o'clock and we set out on the road. After about 10 minutes driving we reached the entrance to Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park, where we were told to wave our tickets at the person in the ticket booth to prove that we were aloud in but we were through so quick I'm not sure she really saw us all. It was now we started to notice the large red rock emerging from the horizon. A different large red rock than the one we had seen the evening before. It was pretty clear that this was Uluru and there were a few surprised faces around when Matt pulled over and admitted to his deception the day before. It had been Mt.Conner we had seen, which has developed the name Fuluru, due to so many tourists being duped by the similar appearance to Ayre's Rock. We continued on past for now. As we were headed to Kata Tjuta (also known as Mount Olga) which is 16 miles west of Uluru. On the way we were told about the 3 main types of vegetation to be found within the national park. Spinifex, which is a type of grass that helps stabilise sand dunes and usually found around the coast. The Mulga which is a shrub only found in the arid areas of Australia. Finally, the Desert Oak, which again, is indiginous to Australia. This tree grows very little in its first 80 years of life while it sends down roots to find water in the dry desert. We pulled up in the car park of Kata Tjuta and prepared for what would be our longest walk over the 3 days. The walk was called Valley of the Winds and, because it lasted 3 hours, park rules stated we would have to take 3 litres of water with us, each. While everyone hauled on their heavy backpacks, Charlotte and I just went with our bottles of water in our hands. The first portion we all did as a group until we reached a shaded sitting area. Here Matt and some "volunteers" showed us how Kata Tjuta was formed. Kata Tjuta/Mount Olga are a series of 36 dome rock formations made from such as granite and basalt cemented with sandstone. From here we carried on without Matt and followed a long track around one of the domes to an area called the valley of the winds. It was pretty flat and routine most of the way until the last section which was a steep climb over rather loose rocks. While we were climbing we heard a rustling in the bushes and turned just in time to see a large grey kangaroo hopping through the bush. When we reached the top we informed Matt of our sighting and were told we were pretty lucky, as they only tend to come out at night. We sat around 15 minutes and took some snaps while we waited for the people we'd left behind to catch up. When we were all present it emerged that we were the only people to see the kangaroo, so we were pretty chuffed with ourselves for the sighting. It did make us laugh that just before we saw it we were complaining about the lack of wildlife we had seen in Australia so far. At the top in the valley we had great views down the hill we had just walked up so we had a couple of group photos taken of us (that we are yet to receive from the persons whose camera they were taken on). After this break we finished the remainder of the trail, getting back to where we had split up and walked with rather painful feet back to the van. It was nice to have a sit down but the bus was so hot it was almost unbearable. We were driving back towards Uluru when we stopped at a viewing platform that gave a panoramic view of Kata Tjuta round to Ayres Rock, although our cameras couldn't quite capture it all. By the time we had finished it was lunch time and we stopped at a site that had covered picnic tables. It's just a shame they didn't have nets to keep the bananas of the food. Bowls of salad, tuna and ham were set up and we each had a wrap to fill with what we could manage. The bananas over the food were a slight put off but with a quick swat they'd scatter to the bowl next door.

It was finally time for the big one. The thing we had all come to see. Uluru. We drove up with it looming over the van and pulled into the cultural centre, which is just next door. The cultural centre is a place for visitors to go in order to learn about the local aboriginal culture, see artifacts and ofcourse, buy souvenirs. We wandered round and read various things but there was so much it was hard to commit it to memory, so I can't write about it all on here. The area is inhabited and Uluru is considered sacred by the Pitjantjatjara people, that's about as much as I can give you without relying too heavily on Wikipedia. Anyway, we gave it our full attention and enjoyed it, although, we weren't allowed to take many photos. We picked up a refreshing drink on the way out then gathered round the bus. Our departure was delayed slightly as one of the Koreans that had stolen our swags the night before had lost her iPhone in the toilets. Karma. We headed off to the base of Uluru to do a short walk around part of it. When we arrived we were pointed out a chain running up the side of Uluru to the summit. This is there to aid climbers, despite those who hold it sacred requesting that nobody does climb it. The chain is dangerous itself as it is very low to the ground due to the person building it being a very short man. Apparently, we had all seen him the day before in the roadhouse in Curtin Springs but we couldn't remember him. You aren't aloud to climb the track if it's too hot, too windy or too wet, so it is rarely open. The last person to climb it was a Taiwanese gentleman who fell into a crevice and couldn't be rescued until the next morning. To make matters worse, he didn't have travel insurance and had to shell out $75,000 dollars to be flown home. This walk took in various sacred areas that we weren't aloud to take photos of. What we were aloud to take photos of were the cave drawings that had been there for thousands of years and nobody really knew their meaning. There are certain parts of Uluru only a particular gender of the local Aboriginies are allowed to visit. There was a "school" area that only the men can visit and a "kitchen" area that only women can visit. That's not me adhering to a stereotype or being sexist, that's just how it is. While on this walk I started to feel a bit queasy and nauseous. This was slightly frustrating as I'd drunk so much water throughout the day but there wasn't any other explanation for why I felt ill, apart from the heat. I had some Powerade which is supposed to be good at rehydrating but it didn't really help the situation.

We pulled up to where we were having dinner which was a fantastic viewing point across to Uluru with the sunset illuminating the rock while we ate. I sat on the van doorway and after getting some food into me, I did start to feel better. While we were sat around, we watched as endless tour coaches pulled up, filled up with posh British tourists, and hordes of Chinese and Japanese groups, watched the partial sunset, had a glass of champagne and moved on as quickly as they had arrived. After the sun had long gone, we packed up and headed to the campsite we had stayed at the day before as that was where we would be staying the night. As we drove in, Matt asked us to sing and clap along to 'We Are The Champions' to annoy the coach loads of champagne swiggers in order to wake them up, as they had arrived at the site long before we had. After a shower and a chat around a table, we all settled down into our swags for the last time.

Wednesday

We had an even earlier start on our final day and didn't even have time for breakfast before departing the campsite. The reason for the rush was because we were off to the same site as the night before to see the sun rise. We ate when we arrived and waited for the sun to pop over the horizon behind Ulruru. We'd spoken to people who had said that there tour guide had played "The Circle of Life" from the Lion King when the sun started to pop up which we both thought was a little bit cheesy. So it was a nice treat when "Here Comes The Sun" by The Beatles started playing behind us, which made it a very nice moment, particularly for me having grown up with that song being played on the tape player of the Nissan Sunny and Ford Escort we used to have. After the sun was fully up we packed the things away and headed to Uluru for one last hurrah. While it was still slightly cool we were going to do the Uluru base walk, which picked up from where we left off the day before and circumnavigated the rock until we would have covered all 360 degrees of it.

This walk was really easy and pretty flat the entire way round. Everyone took it at their own pace though with some people, like Charlotte and I stopping to take plenty of photos along the way. There were a few spots dotted around that we were unable to take photos of but the area was so huge there were plenty of places we were aloud. We were fairly near the back and were quite alarmed when we looked at our watch and realised we were running quite late. We picked up the pace, skipping past the posh group who had got up after sunrise and missed the good bit, and made it to the bus bang on the suggested walk time. We had so many photos and had spent so long around Uluru that we had almost got to a point where had seen enough of it. It had been fantastic, a real cultural experience as well as a real tourist experience. We'd had a fantastic, enthusiastic tour guide, the majority of the group had been great and good to mingle with and the weather had been pretty good too. We got to the time when it was time to start heading back to Alice Spings. After dropping a select few off at Ayres Rock Airport in order for them to catch connecting flights, we hit the road due East. We stopped at Mt.Ebenezer again in order to have a lunch of wraps and salad again. The bananas were almost unbearable and I'm pretty sure it was them that filled me up and not my actually lunch. We had to laugh when Sigurd the Norwegian came back from the toilet remarking how he was in utter disbelief that he had just seen people (from a different group) eating their lunch in the toilets. We also noticed a sign on the side of one of the buildings saying "4 pipes - 1 water, 3 Unknown". When consider that the building could have been built within someone's living memory, that's rather strange, it may have been a joke though.

We had one final stop on our journey which was a trip to a camel farm on the Stuart Highway where everyone had the opportunity to ride a camel, for a small fee of course. We turned the opportunity down as we had both ridden a camel before on separate occasions in Egypt but a few people did give it a whirl, the most entertaining being George the Korean who found it very funny. It was only a short trot round a track so we didn't feel like we had missed out on much. 

As we were driving back into Alice Spings to the sound of "The Boys Are Back In Town" by Thin Lizzy we stopped off at the "welcome to Alice Springs" sign for one final group photograph and a couple of personal ones too.

That evening we all met up in town at a place called 'The Rock Bar' and had dinner, few pints of lager and ale and maybe even an After Eight flavoured shot. I had Ostrich Steaks which came out pretty medium rare, but they have to be done that way otherwise they would be very tough. Charlotte had Chicken Parmagiano, which is pretty much chicken with a pizza topping but it was absolutely colossal. It was a really good evening, nice to relax after some very long days and we managed to secure a place to stay in Norway when we head there, thanks to Sugurd and his wife Suzanne. After assuring Charlotte we wouldn't be late home, we actually turned out to be the last ones to leave just after the Norwegians, so we thanked Matt and headed back to the hostel for a good nights sleep.

James and Charlotte