Well, on Sunday after the Blue Mountains trip, I got showered and packed ready to leave for the airport the following morning. I then went to meet Maggie and Sinead for food and a couple of drinks. I thought that this would be the last time I would be seeing them, but as it happens Sinead is staying in the same hostel as me in Sydney when I'm there for the last weekend. After meeting them I went back to my room, which was empty. I read for a while and then went to sleep. At 1:30, 2 of the girls came backand were really noisy. One of them went to bed and the other went back out. She came back in at 2:30 again, but this time with a guy. Talk about being unlucky - this has happened to me twice in 3 nights!! I tried to ignore them for a while, but got really annoyed so switched the lights on and told the guy to leave. He said that they were about to go to sleep, but I told him it was an all girls dorm and to get out. thankfully, he did. It took me ages to get back to sleep after that!!
When the alarm went off on Monday morning (5th) I wasn't amused to say the least!! Anyway, I checked out of the hostel and caught the train to the airport ready to fly to Alice Springs. The flight was almost 3 1/2 hours long. There was a time difference of an hour and a half here from Sydney too. At Alice Springs airport, I caught the shuttle bus to take me to the hostel and checked in. The hostel seems really nice. It's pretty small and close enough to town so that I can walk in. I wondered in after checking in, so that I could pay for the rest of my tour that I was supposed to be doing the next day. I then went for a walk around town. There were a lot of Aboriginies in town, but they all just seemed to be walking around doing nothing, while everybody working in the shops were white. I was quite disappointed by it, but found out later that the aboriginies here are ones that have been thrown out of their tribes for misbehaving, so theyr'e not all like the ones I saw. Also I found that a lot of people in Alice Springs smelt!! Seriously!! They can't wash that often!!
As I was walking around the town I got a phone call from the people I'm doing the tour around Uluru with asking if I could change the date forward a day. It suited me to do this as it meant I didn't have to get up too early the next day. Walking around Alice Springs, I found that there wasn't a lot to do there so I just walked back to the hostel where I read for the afternoon. I got chatting to a girl who'd been to the Desert Park, and she recommended that. I figured that there wasn't much else to do so I may as well do it. I booked to do it the following morning. The tour company then phoned me again to ask if I could actually go the next day after all. But by then I'd booked a trip for the next day, and changed my accomodation around, so said I couldn't. I then got chatting to an English girl in my room who happened to be doing the same tour as me, so that was good.
Tuesday 6th - I got up around 8 to get ready to catch the bus to take me to desert Park. Here you see different types of deserts and the animals that live there. We saw a bird show that showed how buzzards cracked open emu eggs using stones. It was pretty cool!! Not all the birds in the show were trained, some were wild, but had learnt what the different sounds meant so joined in!! After finishing there I went for food in a place called Fawlty's and then headed to the cinema to see Brad Pitt's film the curious curse of Benjamin Button. It was pretty good. I then spent the evening in the hostel with a couple of people I'd met and prepared for my tour starting the next day.
Wednesday 7th - I had to get up at 5:15 this morning ready to go on the rock tour. It was a long drive, we did around 800 kms that day. On the first stop we all bought fly nets. Such a sexy look!!! Definately needed them though!! Our first walk was at King's Canyon. It was a 3-4 hour walk that started with Heart attack hill. At over 40 degrees it was really tough. During the walk though ,we got to swim at the Garden Of Eden. That was really refreshing!! I was so proud of myself when I finished the walk!! We then drove to a camp site. There was nothing at all at the camp site. No toilets, lights or anything!!! We lit a camp fire, and then cooked chilli con carne for food made with kangaroo!! We slept in a swag under the stars. I woke up in the middle of the night, and the stars were amazing. I could see the milky way. Other than that I slept really well.
Thursday 8th - we all woke up around 5am and had breakfast. Our first walk was Kata Tjuta. It was tough, but nothing like Kings Canyon. We then headed to a different campsite (this one had toilets and showers!!). We had lunch there, and then I jumped in the shower. Afterward we went to Uluru cultural centre where we read lots of info about Aboriginies. we then did the Mala walk, which is about 1km long at the start of the Uluru base walk. We saw lots of caves there and paintings on the walls. After that we went to see sunset at the Rock (Uluru). It was really pretty and you could see the rock changing colour. After that we went to the campsite where we slept in a swag again.
Friday 9th - We were up at 4 this morning. We drove to watch the sunrise over the rock and had brekkie there. We then did an 8km base walk around Uluru, and finished that by 9am. After that we started making our way back to Alice Springs. We stopped at a camel farm on the way, where I rode a camel for the first time ever!! It was pretty bumpy but fun! We got back to Alice around 5 and planned to go out for food and a few drinks with the group that evening. we went for food at Toddy's bar and the went drinking at Bojangles. It was a mad outback bar, with boots niled to the ceiling, etc. I got to bed around 1.
Saturday 10th - I had to get up early again today, as I was startin a 2 day tour from Alice Springs down to Adelaide. Our driver was Steve. It was a long day, and I spent most of it asleep on the bus. We stopped at Coober Pedy for the night, which is the World's Opal mining capital. Most people there live undergroud, as it remains a constant temperature all year round. We had pizza for food and then went to an underground bar for drinks, and then went to sleep underground!! It was actually a really good night's sleep!!
Sunday 11th - we were up at 6 this morning, and had to do the rest of the trip down to Adelaide. Again I spent most of the day asleep!! We got to Adelaide around 6pm, and I checked into my hostel, The Guest House. It's a nice hostel. I was pretty hungry by then so went on a search for a food shop that was open. Not as easy as I thought on a Sunday evening, but eventually found a convenience store. Though it was really expensive!!! My ankles were really swollen and aching aswell after all the travelling. It's not happened to me before so was really strange. After eating I had to wash all my clothes - they were all pretty disgusting after all the tours.
Monday 12th - this was my first chance for a lie-in in a while. Of course that's not gonna happen though. I had people checking out of the hostel room, and they were so noisy!!! Tyical. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do in Adelaide today, probably just walk around. I've got a wine tour of the Barossa Valley booked for tomorrow though!!!
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