Alice, Uluru & Kata Tjuta

We flew from Sydney to Alice Springs. We had one afternoon to explore Alice and browsed in the shops on the main street. We were quiet glad of anything that had air conditioning it was that hot!!

The next day we began our 3 day trip which will take us to Kings Canyon, The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) and Ayers Rock (Uluru).

We arrived at Kings Canyon by mid-afternoon after Panky (our driver) had driven some 200 miles through emptiness, with only a couple of towns (with a house and maybe a shop) to break up the journey. We had stopped en route at Stuart's camel farm and Kate & I had a ride (or run!) on a camel!

We climbed up to the rim and had a brief geology lesson before walking around it. The views from here were spectacular! We stopped at the Garden of Eden pool for a well needed cool down!

That night we camped out in swag bags under the stars! For those of you who haven't used a swag before - its like a thick sleeping bag with a mattress in it. It is also waterproof(ish) and has a section to put over your head if it rains!

The next day we got up before dawn so that we could see the sunrise!! We'd pulled off the road and climbed up a small sand hill and this was the view that we got - it was so worth getting up!!!

We then carried on to see The Olgas or Kata Tjuta (in Aboriginal). We walked to the base of them and Panky gave us another geology lesson before we did a 2 hour walk through them. They were massive but what we see above ground is only a fraction of their height!

That afternoon, we headed over to Ayers Rock or Uluru. We parked up and began to cook dinner (which was spaghetti bolognese made with camel!) and ate dinner watching the rock while the sun went down.

That night, we slept out in the outback - Panky had been driving along and suddenly pulled off the road and drove us out into the bush! After collecting fire wood, we sat round the camp fire playing the odd drinking game! We went to sleep under the stars again in our swag bags

The final day of the tour saw us getting up at 4am again! We jumped into the van and pulled up near Uluru before sunrise. We grabbed breakfast (before the army of flies descended) and saw the sun rise to the left of the rock. Due to the clouds, the rock didn't change colour but it was a pretty impressive sight!

We then drove to the rock and did the 9 km walk around the base of it. It was a pretty impressive sight! We saw some of their sacred areas, lots of rock art and learnt about the Aboriginal stories about the rock.

We then began the long trip back to Alice (thank goodness I wasn't driving!) It was also a relief to be able to get into a shower and away from the flies! That evening, our group got together for dinner before finishing off the night in Bojangles.