Alice, Alice, who the fu*k is Alice???

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Yes, I finally made it to Alice with no more problems. Greg was definitely please to get rid of us and even drove us to his company's head quarters so that we could have it out with his boss! Luckily for him, no one was home, but they'll be getting a few poison pen letters in the post to be sure.

I stopped for one night at Melankas and now I'm sitting on another swag, in the near-freezing cold, under the dying sun somewhere on the way to Uluru with another tour group, wondering whether I should get in my swag, warm up and fall asleep or make an effort to talk to the new group.

Think I've made the mistake of not having enough time off between tours, and now I've started my final tour hungover and in a really bad mood. Yes, one of my 'black days' had decended and I was finding it hard to make eye contact with the rest of the group, never mind smile. Not sure what brought it on, probably a lack of sleep as I'd been out on the razz a lot, but what didn't help was when we stopped outside the YHA to pickup Offilie and Charlotte, who were 2 French girls that I'd gotten to know on my previous tour, and I'd been looking forward to seeing them again - I've got a big soft spot for French girls!

When I first saw them I jumped off and gave them big hugs before returning to the coach while they stowed their bags, or so I thought. It was all taking a rather long time, which wasn't helping my black mood! After 10mins Offilie came to the window with a really flushed red face, shaking her head at me. I got off and had only just managed to say "What's wrong?" when she bursts into tears, hugging me. Turns out the travel agent had messed up the dates and booked them on the tour for tomorrow, meaning they'd have to miss or forfeit their pre-booked flights, but worse than this: Tomorrow's tour was being taken by Greg!!

I really and truely felt her pain! I couldn't believe her luck, and if it had been me, I would have cancelled the tour - and probably cried too!

Still, I suppose shit happens and it's not the end of the world, but we swapped numbers and promised to meet up back in Alice after our Uluru experiences.

Since then my mood hadn't improved and apart from talking a little to a friendly Pole called Darik, I kept quite, had some beers, watched some bush TV and went to bed early under the stars.

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Photos

Tree
...I like trees...