Australia - Brisbane to Adelaide to Alice Springs to THE RED CENTRE to Cairns

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Hey all!

I am now in Australia which has been very exciting especially seeing Hannah (Drew's sister) and Anthony (Hannah's fiance) so the Coles/Gillies family you may want to pay particular attention to this update and have a good look at my photos (Hannah is not sure she's ever put up any photos of Brisbane?).................!!!

Caryl and I are also back together and we have done sooooooooo much in the last week or so..................

BRISBANE to ADELAIDE
Sunday 28th March:
I was over my baggage allowance when I checked in (have no idea where I've accumulated all this stuff from - have gained 8kg in 3 weeks!!!) but they were very nice and didn't charge me. I was on a Qantas flight to Brisbane which was ok, nice food (Tip Top Ice cream for pudding!) and nice service. The film was The Blind Side and I made sure I watched it as Gemma had recommended it. It was brilliant, but I cried again which was very embarassing as I had my earphones on and not many people were watching it the film so were looking at me funny. It was GREAT though a really good film, Sandra Bullock deserved that Oscar. My first view of Australia from the plane just gave me the impression of a huge vast land, it was sunny though. I went straight through immigration and customs after declaring my Twiglets and Chocolate Easter Eggs (thank you Jenny!). Hannah 'surprised' me at the airport and it was so BRILLIANT to see her!!! I couldn't stop smiling and we both kept saying we couldn't believe the other was there. It was so cool and random to see her, especially as we've only ever really seen each other in 'the village'. Hannah drove me out of the airport in her 'K1CKASS' car and into Brisbane. We drove along the Brisbane River which apparently sometimes has BULL SHARKS in it and to 'All About Fruit', Anthony's fruit stall. It was sooooooooo exciting to see him and I got a huge hug. We then drove out towards Greenslopes, the area of Brisbane in which Hannah and Anthony live, over the Storey Bridge as the sun was setting. We stopped at Kangaroo Point for a view of the city which was so nice with the sun setting behind it. We arrived at Hannah's house which is very smart and chilled out for a bit. Hannah cooked a really nice spaghetti bolognaise (with veggie mince as Han is now a vegetarian). Danny & Katie came home (and English couple who are are living with Hannah and Ants at the minute) and just watched Australian TV including 'Banged Up Abroad', which might not have been the best thing to watch as I'm due to be travelling in Asia on my own but at least I'll be prepared! I had a nice sleep, but dreamt of spiders which was not so nice.

Monday 29th March:
I woke up at 8am, confused about the time difference as it's 3 hours behind NZ, think I had a bit of jet lag. Hannah and I went to the local shopping centre then to Hawthorne to catch the City Cat (a water bus) up the Brisbane River to South Bank. It's a really nice way to travel (would not mind that as my daily commute) and the earlier rain gradually turned into sunshine which glittered on the water. There were so many different types of houses along the river bank. I took lots of sightseeing photos and made sure I got lots of Hannah (who was pretending to be tourist for the day) for the family 😊 The South Bank is a really nice area, we 'did lunch' surrounding by Ibis birds who look scary but Hannah assured me they are not. We went for a wander in the mini rainforest (within a city, you don't get that in London) and to the lagoon where there is a man-made beach overlooking the river - Hannah spends a lot of time there. We then got the boat back (it went VERY fast, we look a bit windspet in the photos), past the Kangaroo Cliffs from which we had taken pictures the night before, and Hannah & Anthony's Australian Wedding Venue (I've taken pictures) which looks very nice and posh. We got back to Hannah's and were confronted by a huge spider hanging from a tree, it looks horrific (zoom in on the photo if you can). Nobody knew what it was so we Googled it and found it was a 'Golden Orb Weaver'. Not poisonous to humans but the largest spider to be found in Queensland.
That night we went up Mount Coot-tha for a view of the city lit up at night. It was amazing, just hard to get a good picture. The city lights were all glittering and there was a perfect full moon with only a scattering of clouds around it. We could see the Southern Cross and planes flying over the city. We had a funny five minutes when we saw a bright object in the sky. Between us all it went from being: a pole with a light on (Hannah), the North Star (Katie), Venus (me), a plane (Danny & Ants), a UFO (me) and a meteorite (Ants). It eventually turned out to be a place. We then went for pizza at Arrivederci which was so nice, we were so full but stall managed ice cream and Baskin Robbins which was lovely (have since found Caryl now has an addiction to that as a replacement for Tip Top). We had a bit of a mishap on the way there when I thought something flew went down my top; poor Hannah was faced with a freaking out me and had to help me sort it out. When we got home Hannah cut and coloured my hair (thank you Hannah), she had brought her scissors home specially. I had another night dreaming of spiders, hope this doesn't become a pattern!

Monday 30th March:
I had to sort out my stuff today before my flight to Adelaide as it really was ridiculous, have so much ****/rubbish! Once that was done Hannah took me to the airport via All About Fruit to say bye to Ants. I felt really sad to leave, was so nice to see them but am so excited to see them again in a few weeks! The airport was pretty straightforward until the board telling us which gate to go to changed at the last minute so we all had to trek across the airport only to find that it had changed back again. Then before boarding the plane there was some really depressing music playing..........The flight was OK but there was a lot of turbulence and I didn't like that being on my own, had to have a quick Bourbon & Coke to calm me down. I managed to pour some of it, and some of the Greek Yoghurt Hannah had got for me, all over me. It was OK though, Tiger Airlines don't have a great reputation but I was really pleased with them. The scenery out the window was still flat, and vast. It was very hot in Adelaide when I arrived. I got the bus to the hostel and Caryl met me in reception. It was so great and exciting to see her, didn't seem real at first! We didn't have much time to catch up (thought we'd save that for the long long bus journeys) as we had to sort out the East Coast. We did that thanks to Caryl, who had got it pretty organised before I got there 😊 (I will update itinerary ASAP). We then had a quick change to go out with Caz's previous tour friends, they were very nice and I met Davide (aka Elvis......!) who was very nice. It was fun. I then had to go back to my first dorm in 3 weeks, on the top bunk, but thought it best to get thrown in at the deep end. It was OK but I dreamed of spiders, again.

ADELAIDE to ALICE SPRINGS
Tuesday 31st March:
We were up at 5.15am for a 6am pick up for our 'Groovy Grape Boomerang' trip to Alice Springs via Coober Pedy. I slept on the way out of Adelaide and woke up to less and less.......The scenery on the first 300km changed from periodic houses to no houses with different selections of trees, bushes and the odd range of hills. At Fort Augusta we went through our last traffic lights until Alice Springs and I saw a 'Galaa' (as in 'flamin' Galaa) on top of a street lamp. The bus was very cramped and it was a long journey, so uncomfortable. The roads were really staight with the odd bend but there was stuff to look at, I expected it to be more barren. The drive is mainly through cattle country, there are huge cattle stations (some the size of Belgium) with huge herds of cows, we didn't see many though, they find shade to escape the heat of the day and drink from underwater springs that come up from the Artesan Basin which is a huge underground lake about 40m under the surface of Australia. We also saw wild emu and kangaroo, unfortunately dead on the road (Terry - hope the kangaroos aren't going to be as elusive as the possums in New Zealand!). We stopped at Lake Macdonald (aka Island Lake) which is a salt lake (there are lots of them about, but they are not used for anything as too far from anything to do anything, if that makes sense). Caz and I attempted to have a nice picture taken but after several attempts gave up. We did manage to learn the 'Australian Wave' though (you learn it pretty quickly, the flies are AWFUL!). I saw a bird in a tree which I later found out was a 'Butcher Bird'. They are apparently vicious! We saw road trains which I found really exciting; they can be over 50m long and have 3 or 4 trailers on them. If you're asleep and one goes past the other way the vibrations wake you up! We drove past Woomera where up until recently there was a 'top secret' base used by the British to test weapons and then more recently as a space launch......or something like that. We saw a huge Wedge-tail Eagle on the side of the road, they are HUGE, the biggest bird in Australia. I was not quick enough to get a photo though.
We arrived into Coober Pedy (aka 'white man in a hole', which is what the Aboriginals saw when the Opal mining started) at about 6pm. We took a look at our underground accomodation which we'd been a bit worried about but it wasn't too bad, nice and cool. It was a big tunnels which cubby's along each side with 4 bunks in. Caz and I shared with Davide, we thought he might help with any creepy crawlies. We then went on a tour of an Opal mine (90% of the words Opals come from Coober Pedy) after receiving a warning from our guide not to go randomly digging for Opals as we risk getting shot at by whoever owns the rights to that bit of land. I don't think I've ever seen an Opal before, they are really pretty. They used to dig by hand, now they use a combination of machinery and hand picks to remove the Opal when they find it. 50% of the population of Coober Pedy live underground and we saw an example house, it was really nice. I think I might get a bit claustrophobic if I lived there but it was really modern, had everything you needed. They buy their land and can then build into the rock as much as they like once they have permission (i.e. if they need or fancy a new room they just dig one). The houses cost $70000-650000 depending on the location and it costs $100per metre to build more space; the building has to be done by a licenced builder. We then went for pizza at the only fast food restaurant in town and then for a drink in an underground bar. On the walk back we went back over a hill we'd had to walk over on the way to the restaurant. On the way over we had a struggle to jump down a big drop but on the way up we realised there were actually steps, bit embarassing. I actually got off to sleep pretty quickly (poor Caz struggled) and didn't dream of spiders (not confident it won't happen again yet though) but was woken up at 1.30am (at first I thought it was 5am and getting up time) but it was actually 4 really drunk noisy girls getting in. I was so cross, they were not even trying to be quiet but failing because they were drunk, they just didn't care. Davide sorted them out (there were no creepy crawlies, but at least he came in useful).

Friday 1st April (Good Friday):
When we did get up we watched sunrise at The Breakaways (not sure what they're about yet, apparently we find out at Uluru) which was pretty. I was so tired though couldn't really appreciate it. We also saw 'The Dog Fence' which is the longest fence in the world and built to keep the dingos away from the sheep, it pretty much crosses Australia. We also learnt about the Rabbit Fence which Western Australia built to keep out the rabbits that were introduced in Sydney (12 pairs introduced and 50 years later there were millions). The rabbits do so much damage, one town had to be moved as a sand bank covered the town after rabbits ate all the vegetation. I saw my first wild kangaroo there with its joey (Terry - not so elusive as the possums!) and then another huge Wedge-tail Eagle on the road, got pictures this time. The drive from there was long and uncomfortable. We varied between listening to music, sleeping, the odd break at a 'service station' - at one we saw another horrible looking spider, this one was a 'Golden Orb' spider aka a Bird Spider (called that because it eats birds and although not poisonous it would make a human pretty sick) and playing games (our driver Peter who was GREAT tried hard to stop us getting bored). We arrived in Alice Springs at 4ish (after another time change when entering the Northern Territory, I'm so confused about what time is here and at home), checked into our hostel and then went into town. Alice Springs is interesting, we'd been warned a lot about safety and this made us feel vulnerable. Alice Springs has the highest population of Aboriginals in Australia, who are still adapting to new ways of life. It's very sad as some struggle to find jobs and a smaller few have turned to alcohol to pass away the day and the town used to be a scary place. It has now been made a 'dry zone' and you can't purchase alcohol before 3pm, this has helped and more is being done to help those Aboriginals out of work. We had dinner and then home to sort our stuff for another early morning and our 3 day 2 night tour around Kings Canyon, Kata Tatya (the Olgas) and Uluru (Ayers Rock). We were not in the same dorm room, which was a shame but I suppose we were just sleeping.


THE RED CENTRE - Kings Canyon, Kata Tutja (The Olgas) and Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Saturday 2nd April - Kings Canyon:
We are up really early for a 6am pick up by our guide Heath (aka Wilbo). We were on a mini bus with a group of 21 and had a really long drive to Kings Canyon. It was a really uncomfortable journey back down the Stuart Highway and Caryl somehow managed to get covered in the ink from her carrier bag so she looked a bit like a Smurf. We had lunch on the bus and arrived at Kings Canyon at about 12.30 for a our 'hike'. It was really really hot, we started with a big up-hill climb that was harder than it looked but from there it was pretty flat but it was still difficult because of the heat. It was worth it though. The canyon is interesting, we learnt a lot. The rocks all over the area are red from the iron oxide in the soil and sand that is blown over it, although the whole area is greener than normal because there has been so much rain recently. We saw various bugs, caterpillers, lizards, plants (one was a really prickly grass which was REALLY prickly if you walked into it, which I did frequently) that aboriginals use for various things (Heath put sap from one of them on a cut on my finger, it does seem to have helped it heal quicker). We saw Ghost Gum Trees (which Terry had told me about in New Zealand); they're clever as they have adapted to their environment. We stood on the edge of a cliff where if you shouted you could hear it echoing all of the way round. And saw 'dead sea ripples' and 'trace jellyfish fossils' which are evidence of the area being covered by inland seas millions of years ago. We also saw some crazy birds, can't remember what they were called, but they were so unafraid of humans they would fly right up to you, almost into you, we were afraid of them! There was a swimming hole at 'The Garden of Eden' which sounded nice but it didn't look nice so we gave that a miss, in hindsight though it would have been a good idea as I completely overheated and ended up with a REALLY bad migraine. I had to knock myself out with some tablets and sleep on the minibus for a couple of hours which was a bit embarassing as I didn't really know anyone at that point! I woke up when everyone was getting out to collect firewood for our camp fire, I felt better so helped a little bit.
On the way to our bush camp at Curtain Springs we drove past Mount Connor which looks a bit like Uluru. It's 340km high (50km smaller than Uluru) but is a mountain (whereas Uluru is so famous because it's one huge monolith/rock). From there we could also see Lake Amadeus (another salt lake) and the drive from there to bush camp was really nice as we were driving into the sunset, which of course I love 😊. Although we nearly crashed into some cows which were on the road, none of us saw them until the last minute, good job Heath was awake. The camp was very basic with just a place for the fire, shelter if we needed it and toilet which wasn't very pleasant so did not use it. We all had jobs to do like starting the fire and getting the swag bags out; Caryl and I were on chopping vegetables for the lovely Chilli Con Carne Heath cooked for us, accompanied by cheese, pasta and damper bread. We ate dinner around the camp fire with a beer chatting to our new friends Kara (an Aussie from Sydney who is currently working in the hospital in Alice Springs), Sarah (an Aussie from Melbourne who is currently working in Darwin), Nick and Lisa (from the UK) and Alex (from Germany). We got our swags ready (big canvas bags that you put your sleeping bag in, we were basically sleeping on the floor out in the open) which for me involved Caryl and I checking inside the swags and sleeping bags to make sure nothing was inside. For Caryl it was a whole other story! As Caryl is so scared of spiders (I'm so proud of her she got through these few days so well) she brought her mosquito net to put around her in some way, Kara helped her sort this out (thank goodness, I would have tried but really had no idea!). So Kara got it rigged up on a tree and tucked it under Caryl's swag bag, I wasn't sure at first about the whole idea but it was pretty genius! It did attract some things because it was white but once they were sorted Caz was happy. It was quite funny when the guide from the other group (Dom) came over to see it, I have a funny series of photos of him talking to Caryl about what a daft idea it was which include her pointing a stick at him to make her point! We sat chatting on our swags eating Ovaltinis that Sarah had with her until we got tired (all except for Alex who wanted to go party, not sure where he thought he was going to go?!) and then settled down to sleep. We had a good laugh, especially when Alex (who is German) asked who was 'snorkelling' (aka snoring!). I started off covered in absolutely everything (even my fly hat) but got so hard I had to get brave and get out of the swag and sleeping bag for a bit. The stars and moon were amazing, not the best I have seen though, had to wear my eye mask as the moon was so bright. It wasn't as bad sleeping in swags as we'd thought, it was really warm and cosy and both Caryl and I had a really good nights sleep. I had to get up 2 times in the night to pee though which was a bit annoying.

Sunday 3rd April - Kata Tutja (the Olgas) and Uluru
We were up at 5.30 for breakfast (weetabix with cold milk) and to get packed up. We had to collect firewood for that night on the way out of camp and saw the sunrise as we were driving. Just after sunrise we got our first glimpse of Uluru, it was quite special and very exciting. It is massive; very reddy brown and very imposing (no matter where you were in the area you always knew it was there, it was a bit like it was watching you). We went to that nights campsite at Yulara (the town near Uluru, where all the hotels etc are based, was built in the 70s as the hotels etc close to Uluru were ruining it) and saw Redback Spiders (!!!) in the campsite showers (luckily they were in the boys side - we didn't actually have to go in there to see them!). We drove out to Kata Tutja (the Olgas) which are not as famous as Uluru but just as impressive in my opinion. As we were driving towards it we stopped to take pictures of wild camels with Kata Tutja in the background (there are around 100,000 wild camels in Australia which were set free by the early exporers and have just multiplied and multiplied). Kata Tutja (meaning 'many heads' in aboriginal) is made up of 36 rounded domes. We walked through the Valley of the Winds, which lives up to its name!, to the two main lookout points. We could have walked further but again it was so hot. One of which looked out over a huge green valley (this isn't doing it justice but it looked a bit like a scene from Jurassic Park). It was the sort of place where you could have done with some time to just sit there are look at it, it was beautiful and silent other than the odd bird singing. We saw River Gum Trees (greener than the ghost gums) and oche paintings (painting with crushed rock/stone). Heath told us a lot about aboriginal culture and beliefs here, including the Dreamtime which is the aboriginal belief of the world and how it was created. These beliefs include how Uluru and Kata Tutja were created; the belief is that Uluru was created by two children playing and making a mud pie (it does look like a huge mud pie when you see it) and that Mount Connor (that we'd seen yesterday) was one of the boys who had got sick whilst playing, laid down to rest whilst his brother went to get help but died before he returned. Kata Tutja is believed to be resting warriers from the Dreamtime, but under aboriginal law only those that have earned the right can learn these stories, they are therefore not open to the public (we are lucky to know so much about their beliefs surrounding Uluru even they are still 'childrens' stories, what aboriginal children are told before they have earned the right to more knowlege). The 'scientific' explanation involves erosion, folding and tilting of rock (as the Earth's crust moved) and more erosion - put simply Uluru is a huge rock that got stuck in a hole (they think 2/3 of it is still under the surface). To be honest I didn't really get the scientific explanation, the aboroginal children's stories were much simpler.
We also talked about Australian history which really made us think. I think it's a sad story. Before Captain Cook arrived in Australia in 1788 there were many many Aboroginal clans all over Australia (the Anunga were in the Uluru area). It's estimated that there were 1/2 a million to 1 million Aboriginals in Australia at the time (there is evidence that they were there 50 million years ago, the landscape would have looked the same at the time); now they account for 1% of the total population. Many were wiped out due to their inability to resist the disease that the Europeans brought with them. The British did not recognise the Aboriginal ways so the country was declared as having 'no law' meaning the Europeans (aka the British, initially) felt they could create their own. There was mass genocide (the Australians in our group told us a lot of about this and how they feel about it, which is basicially very sad). The British then brought their convicts to Australia and when they were realeased they populated the country and gradually more and more Europeans came bringing with them Western culture. The last Aboriginals to 'see whites' did so in the 1970s so the integration of the two cultures is still very new (it was shocking to hear that it was legal to shoot an Aboriginal until 1966 - they were not recognised as humans) and the country is still adjusting. The Australians in our group felt that a lot of the attitudes towards the Aboriginals were simple ignorance, but some of the Aboriginals treated in such an appalling way are still alive and they remember. Their traditional lifestyles do not fit in with Western lifestyles and they find it difficult to learn the English language and work in a steady job. Heath explained there are 3 groups of Aboriginals in Australia now: the ones who have adjusted to the West and live like those in the West, the ones who live in Aboriginal communities and practice their traditional ways of life and those that are a bit lost. The last group are the ones we hear more about, because they sit around on the streets and some drink a lot (we saw this in Alice Springs). It's such a shame. (There is also a rumour that some still live completely as they used to in the very remote areas of Australia). The goverment are trying to do a lot to help (the Australians in the group are not sure they're doing enough) and have recently apologised in a 'round about way' for the way the Aboriginals were treated and have also recognised that in the Northern Cape there was law when Captain Cook arrived and has therefore given that clan their land back (this made world news). And in 1985 the land surrounding Uluru was returned to the traditional Aboriginal owners, the Anangu clan, after 10 years of negotiation (from that point onwards the rock has been referred to as Uluru, not Ayers Rock). The land is leased back to the Australian government, initially for 99 years, and there is an agreement that tourists will continue to be allowed to climb Uluru (this is forbidden under Anangu law) - this point was the main reason the negotiation took so long, the Anangu do not want people to climb Uluru, more on that later. The Anangu no longer use the sites around Uluru in the traditional way, too many tourists.
This all prompted a lot of debate and made us think about the way the 'British Empire' has shaped the world and the lives of the people in it. Although there are positives there are a lot of negatives when you look at how devastating it has been for some people, made me wonder why I'm so proud to be British, as I've always thought I am, and what 'Rule Brittania' is all about, it's not a nice song if you think about it. But we were not around when all the bad stuff was happening so have to concentrate on making the world as nicer place as possible for everyone in it. We did wonder what more the Australian government could do, this part of their history is not even taught in Australian schools, it's like they are in denial. There seemed a big difference between the way the Aboriginals have integrated in Australia and the way the Maori's have integrated in New Zealand; New Zealand seems a lot further forward.
We went back to camp for lunch and for some to have a swim then made our way to Uluru for a short walk. As we were getting into the van Caryl's head got shut in the door which wasn't nice, especially as she already had a headache. Uluru really is MASSIVE. I didn't expect it to be that big. There are lots of crevices and as we walked round Heath told us some of the Aboriginal stories, we were lucky to be there and hear them especially as some areas and stories are only supposed to be heard and seen by men or women as the sacred sites are exclusive to either men or women). These included four 'watchers' (4 boys from the Dreamtime who were taking part in a circumcision ritual which was interupted by the women fleeling from attackers, they were frozen there as the women hadentered a men's sacred site) and a headless women (who was beheaded by her foe in an act of revenge, the image of the foe winking can be found on the side of one of Kata Tutja's domes). There were also images of a emu footprint and 'devil' dingo paw. Heath left us to go for a walk on our own and we came across some people who had just seen a snake eating a mouse (one of the chaps had video!). We couldn't see it so walked on but when we came back Caz and I saw a snake in the same place (no sign of the mouse, not sure it would have digested it that quick so think it might have been another snake) and stopped to take photos. A bit of a crowd gathered and it started moving away then all of a sudden it jumped about 3 metres towards us onto the path right in front of us! We all shouted FUCK (interesting that was the word used even though there were 5 different nationalities with different languages there) and Caryl and I left pretty quick (the others stayed?!). It hadn't actually gone for us but we took it as a warning. Heath later told us it was a King Brown (or Mulga) snake, second most poisonous in Australia. We were lucky to see one and even luckier it just decided to give us a warning.
We then went to the sunset point to watch sunset over Uluru. We got there early to get a good spot which was good as there were so many people (some had champagne and all sorts laid out on tables!). Uluru changed colour so many times during sunset, from dark reddy brown, to red, then a burnt orange then darker again as the sun set. Heath cooked us dinner whilst we watched with a beer. Again it was the sort of thing I'd want to watch in the quiet but it was noisy, can't complain though as I'm a tourist too. It's not the best sunset I've seen (the ones on the River Nile are still my favourite) but it was special. The pictures came out ok, but any with us in made us look superimposed (Drew - I look like a proper cardboard cut out!). As soon as the sun had set all the other buses left (it was like the way people rush out of festival/football match car parks!) until it was just our tour left ('The Rock Tour', totally recommend them) so that was nice as it was quieter. Until a bug flew in Sarah's ear which nearly prompted a medical emergency, lucky we had a trainee doctor (Kara) and trained doctor (a Korean girl) there!.We went back to the campsite to prepare the sleeping bags (lots of checking with torches again and rigging of Mosquito nets for Caryl) and for a shower and change then sat around the campfire with Heath sharing spider stories (that Caryl didn't listen to) and scary stories (that I didn't listen to - unfortunately the last one I heard was about a dingo so with my general fear of dogs that freaked me out right before I went to sleep).

Monday 4th April - Uluru and back to Alice Springs then out again....
I did sleep though and this time it was even better as I didn't have to get up to pee! I did keep getting woken up by mosquitos buzzing round my head though, think one ended up in the swag with me as I've been bitten to pieces. We were up at 5.15am to get out to Uluru to see sunrise (we went back to the sunset point to get a different effect, apparently the effect from the 'designated' sunrise viewing point is the same as sunset). We were the only group there which was really nice. The sun came up behind Uluru meaning it was totally silhouetted and we watched the colours change as the sun came up whilst we were eating breakfast. It was the best sunrise I have even seen but still didn't 'get me there' as I thought it would. We then walked around the base of Uluru which took 2 hours. We did not have plans to climb the summit as it's very disrespectful to Aboroginal beliefs. It's an honour only bestowed on elders so is a big insult for anyone who hasn't gained the appropriate knowledge to climb it. The Aboriginals didn't want this to be a term of the lease with the Australian Government but in the end had to agree to it to be re-instated as owners of the land (7% of income from the park goes to the Anangu and 93% towards the running costs of the park). As the climb is very dangerous (it was closed the day we went due to high winds, we were soooooooo disappointed !!! for those in our group who wanted to do it) with 36 people having died doing it (mainly heart attacks due to the heat) it may end up being closed anyway. I can't understand why anyone would want to climb it if they understand the reasons why you shouldn't. I guess a lot of people who do haven't had the benefit of a guide telling us why not (Heath had done it at 12 with his family, when it was known as Ayers Rock and when he didn't know anything about it) but couldn't believe how some in our group could put their hands up to say they were going to do it right after Heath had explained why not. I might not belong to the Aboriginal culture or share their beliefs but I respect them and that I'm in their place. I was even more disgusted to hear that 1 in 4 people who climb it piss or shit (apologies for my language) at the top!!!!! What is wrong with these people?!!!!!! We were pleased to hear that when the climb first opened 70% of visitors to Uluru would climb it but now only 38% of visitors do, so progress is being made.
We were really surprised by Uluru as were walked around. The obvious picture of it doesn't do it justice. It's even bigger than it looks (goes back as far as it goes along, is more in a triangle shape I suppose) and there are so many crevices, different colours and shading. It towers over you and I'm really sorry if you get bored by the photos because they might all look the same but they are all different. It did get confusing with the photos though as in some places you were not allowed to take them (because they were either men or womens sacred sites and photos that have been taken before have ended up on the internet meaning that the men have seen a womens sacred site and vice versa); the signs were confusing though, you never knew where the prohibited sites started or stopped, I hope I haven't taken any photos of anything I shouldn't have. We could make out shapes in the rock, we saw what looked like an Egyption Kings head with wig and an aliens face (Drew - thought this might interest you given your theories on ancient cultures........). We saw an actual (i.e. not a shape in the rock) dingo/dog (nobody is quite sure what it was, looks like a dingo but it was black, apparently that it is unusual for a dingo) which freaked us out (expecially as Caryl and I were on our own the first time we saw it) but it was very friendly, just plodded along with you. We also saw procession caterpillers which are pretty cool.
After our walk we started the long drive back to Alice Springs and were just dropping off to sleep when Heath slammed on the breaks and jumped out of the car without a word. We thought he must have seen an accident or something but then he came back 5 minutes later with a Thorny Devil, they are fascinating, look at the pictures! The drive back was pretty boring, other than being attacked by flies whilst having lunch and learning from Kara that the Flying Doctor Service was actually a charity and Heath getting pulled over by police and getting breath tested (he was all clear)! When we got back to Alice Springs Caz and I had to do a quick change and re-pack ready for a quick dinner with the group and then the first bus journey of our very long journey to Cairns. We had a nice dinner, said our byes (shame to leave as they were such nice people, we've made some more lovely friends) and got on the bus to Tennant Creek.

ALICE SPRINGS to CAIRNS
Monday 5th April and Tuesday 6th April
I slept all of the 7 1/2 hour journey because I had a migraine, again. We got to Tennant Creek and were picked up by the hostel (it was a bit 'ramshackle' just as Lonely Planet described, but they were really nice people) where we were given a 'Delux Suite' (just look at the photos....!). After dealing with a spider incident (where team work was involved - well done Caz!) we slept again waking up at 10am. We spent the day doing not a lot, it was too hot (Caryl's milk chocolate buttons melted). We watched two films and went to the supermarket. The highlight of the day was finding ENGLISH MARMITE (called 'Our Mate', assume it's because they already have their own version of Marmite out here, which for the record is AWFUL). It was made even better for me when I found Wonkas Gobstoppers (Maff, do you remember them? I got addicted to them one holiday in Guernsey and Mum & Dad had to take them off me). We spent the day literally melting until the end of the day when one of the local mine workers that lived at the hostel pointed out the air conditioning (!). At 10pm that night we got on the next of our buses, 7 1/2 hours to Mount Isa. There were only 7 of us on the bus which was good because we had lots of space to sleep but it was not reassuring when the bus driver had his 'little' chat with us before we left and told us how it was hard to stay awake on this journey, especially on the 140km stretch of straight road. He told us he sometimes swerves a bit and it's helpful if go and chat to him if we're awake!!! He cheered us up by telling us he'd put on a film but we were wrong to get our hopes up as it turned out to be a really old film about farming in Western Australia. It was amusing to see what the presenter called 'James Bond technology'. It's prehistoric to us now! I didn't sleep much that night, it wasn't comfy and I was worried about the swerving (every time I woke up we did seem to be swerving!) so I spent a bit of time up front with the driver. It was quite interesting. He spent time on the radio to the road train driver in front and had to regularly stop to pick up mail from boxes on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere (Greyhound transport all the mail across the outback and from Western Australia to the East Coast). We made it to Mount Isa at 6am after a worrying half hour where the driver was telling me he couldn't see (I felt sorry for him, didn't think they should have to do that drive on their own, in South America they'd have 2 drivers, Caz think we should report him for scaring us though!). He did come up to me after to tell me I'd done a 'good job' keeping him awake! We had 1/2 an hour then before getting on a 12 hour bus journey to Townsville. The scenery out of Mount Isa was more interesting, very green with lots of jagged sharp hills and dried up river beds. It did get boring though and we spent the 12 hours alternating between sleeping, reading, listening to iPOD and for Caryl doing Sudoku. We arrived into Townsville at 6.15pm and there was no food available. We were starving and had an hour to wait so with 3 others we met at the bus stop (it's amazing how quickly you make friends) took ourselves and all our bags to the Casino which looked like our best hope (on the way there there were really big bats flying around, the size of birds). They wouldn't let us in with our bags and thongs (aka flip flops) on so we had to 'check in' our bags at reception and change our shoes. We expected it to be really expensive but it was ok and the food was lucky although we had to rush it to get back for our next bus (the couple we were with had to fill in a disclaimer form to take out the food?!). We made it to the bus for a 7.30pm departure and spent another 5 hours on the bus to Cairns. We watched an OK film and slept a bit, I was woken up by the REALLY heavy rain on the roof of the bus. We got picked up at the bus stop and into the hostel for 1am. We were put in a 4 share room which was nice but smelt really damp, it wasn't until we got into bed that we realised our sheets were damp and as the aircon was on it was freezing cold, even with our aeroplane blankets.

We are now on the East Coast of Australia..............

I miss you all LOADS! A lot today as I'm writing this.

Xx

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