Sydney to Alice

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Up at 5:15am. Have wash, breakfast and leave for the Kingston-Smith International airport at 6:15am with Bryan.

Arrived at the airport with twenty minutes or so spare, which was ideal. As it was an internal flight, my flight took off from the domestic terminal, whic was different to the one I’d arrived at when I first landed in ‘Oz’. I had a short wait to get through check-in, but other than that I had no problems. I didn’t have to go through the stringent checks I’d experienced at Bangkok.

It was a good flight, and didn’t seem to take long, although it was a three-hour flight. The only bad thing was that I had no one to talk to, as the two passengers I had sitting next to me were German. Not that I wouldn’t talk to them if they spoke English, but they didn’t so I left them to it. We flew over cloud level for most of the flight, which was a shame as we did actually fly over the Blue Mountains, and also the Murray-Darling River system.

We landed at Alice Springs, and I immediately felt the climate change as I was walking across the runway tarmac from the plane. It was a dry type of heat, and noticed the strong sun beating down. When I booked the tour, it was arranged that I would pick up the Aurora minibus, which would take me to Heavitree Gap. This only cost a small fee of $10 (£3), which was a return fee allowing me to get back to the airport on the Thursday.

Get that no problem, and arrive at motel resort at about midday Sydney time. I’m in room D70, and it’s a bit basic, but more than adequate. I was just concerned that the doors don’t lock. I padlocked my bag closed, and locked it to the bed. That should stop anything going missing.

I thought I would be on my own tonight but I wasn’t. I had to share the room with a guy called Lance. He had just completed his 13-day Connections tour from the Darwin down to Alice Springs. He was from South Dakota in the United States. I was a bit bored today, as I had nothing to do. I was literally bored out of my brain. The rooms have a television in, but they only pick up three channels: some racing channel showing Australian horse and dog racing, an Aboriginal-run news/children’s channel called ‘Imparja’, and another that sometimes played old music videos. The radio on the clock/radio didn’t work either. I was hot and bothered and just didn’t want to do anything. This was my acclimatising time. I just wished I wasn’t there. I hoped it wasn’t going to be like this for my entire time out there. I must admit it gave my plenty of time to think and reflect on things.

I went to the local grocery store on the edge of the resort, which was used also by the Aboriginal locals. I had been warned to be wary of them, as some are not very trustworthy. Some of them smelt big time, and weren’t hygienic, but the majority I did see, seemed ok. They just wanted to keep themselves to themselves. In the grocery store I bought provisions for dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast.

Also went for a walk up Billy Goat Track, part of the MacDonnell Ranges, which were behind the resort. Our room backed onto the range.

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