Alice Springs is nestled in between the McDonald Ranges. A mountain range of 9,709,870 acres. The range is 400miles (644km) of parallel ridges, which run east and west of Alice Springs. The highest peak is Mount Zeli, 5023ft (1531m). The ranges were named after Sir Richard Macdonald, who at the time was the Governor of South Australia. They were named by John McDouall Stuart, whose expedition of April 1860 discovered the mountain range. In 1872 William Whitfield Mills, from Plymouth, Devon, England, finished laying a 3200km overland telegraph line from Darwin to Port Augusta in South Australia. The southern Entrance to Alice Springs is situated at a water gap in the McDonald ranges. W.W.Miles named this gap Heavitree Gap, after the school he attended in Plymouth. Nowadays it houses the main road and railway. The Heavitree ... read more

If you are a regular reader of my blog you may have read “The Drive Down”. The last sentence of that blog said, “I'm hoping that for the rest of the trip we can find free sites and not have to pay to camp again!” How wrong I was!! After we went to Uluru and Kata Tjuta we decided to visit Kings Canyon. Neither of us had ever seen a Canyon and even though it wasn’t exactly on our way we thought it would be worth a visit. We left the campsite (still free) midmorning after planning to drive to the Canyon in one day, camp then spend the next day hiking and exploring. Unfortunately, we never made it to the Canyon. We had arrived in the National Park where the Canyon is and our van ... read more

Our next main stop was Alice Springs and then Ayres Rock. However on the drive down from Kakadu we stopped at a few different places. Our first stop was Edith Falls. A waterfall flowing in to a big pool and a hike that takes you up to the start of the fall. We spent most of the morning in the bottom pool then decided to do the climb to the top one. It was a circular walk so after choosing the shorter route up, we started climbing. The overall result was worth it. There were two big pools at the top and another little Falls. We swam and read there for hours before doing the rest of the circle back. On the way back we saw our second snake. A tree snake, which apparently won't kill ... read more

Litchfield is a 1509 sq Km national park situated in the top end of the North Territory. The park historically belongs to the Aboriginal Wagait People. We spent two nights and three days here. On the first day we arrived pretty early and after having our breakfast we went and saw the Magnetic and Cathedral termite mounds. There were mounds everywhere but the biggest stands at two meters high. The termites had built them with great care allowing the least possible surface area to be facing the sun. We then went to Buley Rockhole, a series of small waterfalls and rock holes where we swam and relaxed. While we were here we saw our first wild snake! After a few hours in the holes we moved on to the Florence Falls. Florence Falls is a double ... read more

Monday 31st July - Tuesday 15th August I went home. I had told my parents I was arriving on the Tuesday but had arranged for my brother to pick me up from the airport on the Monday. I left my apartment in Shenzhen six hours before my flight. I got a taxi to the border and from there I got a sky taxi, which is a minibus that takes you directly to Hong Kong Airport. It took just over an hour to get there so I had plenty of time to relax after I checked in before my flight to Manchester..... Or so I thought. A few days before leaving for the airport I had contacted the airline to ask how much extra luggage would cost. I knew I'd be over I just wasn't sure how ... read more