Alice Springs to Darwin trip

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The rest of our time in Alice Springs was mainly spent lazing around the pool. The night before we left for our trip up to Darwin, Emily and the others got drunk and Em left her flip flops, so had to leave the hostel barefoot on to the bus, lol.

The trip didn't start off well, with Heather and Em being put on a different bus from Clare, Oli, Mike and I. But our guide, Emma, was pretty sweet (though a bit scatty!) and so she sorted it all for us.

And so we were off, on the way to Darwin. The first day (the 29th April) we stopped off at Barrow Creek, where Peter Falconio was allegedly murdered. I thought it would be a dirt road, middle of nowhere place, but it was just like a normal highway. Then we stopped off at Wycliffe Wells, which is the UFO capital of Australia! Didn't see any aliens, but it was a cool place to visit - small town with aliens painted all over the shop walls etc, and an alien display with loads of newspaper cuttings about UFOs. That afternoon we stopped at Devil's Marbles (more red rocks!) which were huge boulders, which have naturally formed and are just stacked up. Weird but cool!

That night, we stayed in Banka Banka. It was a campsite with a pub which had seats made out of bathtubs to sit on! There was a dog running around, and turkeys! (The dog kept stalking the turkeys). We sat around the campfire that night and Emma told us strange and scary stories about things that had happened on tours, because nobody knew any good ghost stories!

The second day we drove to a random petrol station (known as a servo here) where we could hold a python. I did hold it, but as soon as I had a photo taken I demanded it be removed from my neck, ugh! We had lunch that day at Daly Waters - the oldest pub in Australia. Really cool. Everyone who goes there is supposed to leave something, so there is a thong (flip flop) tree, and people have left their business cards, student cards etc, pinned up all over the place. It had a nice vibe. In the afternoon, we went to Mataranka Springs for a swim - it was a natural hot spring and looked tropical and gorgeous. Got chatting to this guy, and he turned out to be the son of my uni lecturer at Oxford Brookes - small world!!! That night, we stopped off at another campsite, this time in Katherine. Heather and I spent most the evening chatting to this lady called Debbie - she was SOOOO nice, a nurse who had taken time out after raising her own kids. She wanted to volunteer all over the world and told us loads of cool programs there were to do. Some people had a go at playing the didgeridoo, but I didn't have a go - I already KNOW I can't play it, from the one Dad bought me years ago!

On the final morning of the trip, we hiked around Katherine Gorge. Nice, but not a patch on Uluru and Kings Canyon. I'm kind of surprised I have enjoyed the hiking so much, to be honest!!! But it's good.

We had lunch on the balcony and a helicopter place while some people paid for a helicopter ride over the gorge. We visited Edith Falls (I think?) in the afternoon for a swim, and got into Darwin around 6.30pm. We didn't like our hostel at all! (It got better since). Went out to the Vic for a free meal (hurrah!) which was nice - kind of like Cheeky Monkey's in Byron Bay. The others stayed out that night but I was FREEZING in the aircon, so went back to the hostel and just hung out with Katie for a bit.

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