Alice? Who the f@*k is Alice?!

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Alice Springs was our next destination in Australia and we flew over from Perth. We arrived to torrential rain and grey skies, so being one not to judge a book by its cover (!), I hated it instantly. We were soon informed that it was the first rain Alice Springs had seen for 13 months...a good thing for the locals, not so much for us.

Apart from an awesome western themed bar, which we frequented a few times during our stay, Alice Springs didn't have an awful lot going for it. Unless of course you like aboriginals, because then you're in luck.

But, it is of course the gateway to Ayres Rock, so well worth the trip. With time constraints we just did a day trip to the big red rock, which meant a 5 am start - ouch. We had 2 legendary tour guides who helped make the early start a bit more bearable...funny guys.

Despite a long old coach journey, we eventually arrived at our destination and went to visit another awesome rock formation, called the Olgas. As we arrived and got out of the coach the sun made an appearance for us. Sounds lovely, but when you're in the middle of the desert, sun is not good. We did a half an hour walk, which was really quite enough in that humidity.

We also did a guided walk round part of Ayres rock, which was pretty interesting with the tour guides knowledge. Because of all the rain they'd had we did get to see a bit of water coming off the rock - apparently only 1% of people get to see that, so we were pretty chuffed I guess.

Having seen so many pictures of Ayres Rock previously, we didn't think it could be that impressive. But, it really is quite amazing and so bloody big. Luckily because of the time of year the bit where you can usually climb the rock was closed off...phew, atleast I didn't have to make any excuses! Being the adventure kid that he is, Si was genuinely disappointed that he didn't get to do it. He got over it though you'll be pleased to know.

Best bit of the day was a bbq close to Ayres rock at sunset. We had a huge feed, which is always a bonus as a backpacker and drank champagne as we watched the sun go down over the rock. Very pleasant indeed.

Another highlight was when the guide pulled over because he saw a little creature called a Thorny Devil in the road. He picked it up and brought it on the coach to show us, it was such an amazing little creature, bright yellow with little spikes all over it. Much more exciting than a hedgehog before you ask!

Then for the mammoth coach trip back, which involved lots of swerving in order to dodge animals in the road - always fun!

But, the best bit came when we stopped at a service station so that they could get petrol. I really needed to go to the toilet, so in I went.....and out I came again. The floor in the ladies toilet was absolutely covered (no exaggeration) with bugs. Not only was the floor covered, so were all the toilet seats and all the sinks. No way was I going in there, this wee could wait. Yuk. It was probably due to the fact that it was the only light in thousands of km's, so you can't blame the poor buggers (no pun intended!).

We had a full day to spend in Alice Springs before heading off again, so we decided we'd take a stroll into town. If I had to describe the place I'd probably say it had similarities to Bracknell...with character. That character being the aboriginals. Wow...need I say more.
Unfortunately as we started to walk back to the hostel to make a getaway, it started to rain and got heavier...and heavier. In the end we crusied into KFC (obviously it was the closet building to us and obviously we'd have to get lunch seeing as we were stuck there!). We sat in there with a few abo's watching the rain fall and fall and fall. It got to the point where there was no point waiting for it to stop, so out we went. The roads were flooded, as in knee-deep water - we have never seen anything like it. Needless to say we got drenched, but on the plus side we walked in knee-deep rain water, which we may never do again. All good fun.

Throughout our stay in Alice Springs a few people told us that if you see the Todd River (river in Alice Springs) flow 3 times, then you're a local and you'll never leave. I panicked slightly, because during our 3 days there we had certainly seen it flow that many times, but we sure as hell did not want to stay there!

And so the story ended, we got away...PHHHHEEEEEEWWWW!

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