THE MAGNIFICENT 7 GO ON TOUR TO THE RED CENRE!!! We had the most AMAZING time!! we flew into alice springs on the thursday 29th May with Tiger Airways after having a beer at the airport before hand! After a 2.5hour flight we arrived at Alice Springs airport and immediately had to strip our clothes off because it was so hot!! we caught the shuttle bus and headed towards our hostel, Alice Lodge which was small, cute and comfortable! we got showered and changed then headed out for some dinner. We headed to the only pub in Alice Springs, Bojangles! It was very interesting! I had crocodile for dinner in a spring roll with asian veggies, which was weird, didn't really have a taste, it was quite bland! after a few drinks we headed to bed so we could get up for our 5am start the next day!!

Day 1- Kings Canyon
After a very early start, our tour guide Dan picked us up from our hostel and we headed towards Curtain Springs, via Erlunda and a camel farm. We had the opportunity to ride some camels but ours actually ran which was pretty uncomfortable!! We stopped off every now and then for pick up fuel and munchies then we headed to Kings Canyon. We started on a 3 hour hike starting with a climb up 'heart attack hill' which was aptly named, me and girls thought we were going to die atfetr doing it! Kings Canyon was beautiful, we hiked for 6km over rough terrain and in the hot sunshine which was gorgeous. We climbed over gorges, bridges, up mountains and rock and stood right on the edge of the canyon which was pretty scary, its a long way down!! Just as the sun started going down we stopped to collect some firewood for our bush campfire! We headed back to curtain springs to set up camp for the night, literally in the middle of no-where. We lit the fire, set out the swags and started putting our layers on, it was pretty cold! We sat round the fire and ate Chilli that Dan had made, and drank some Goon and Sprite! I cooked kangaroos tail, which consists if burning and stripping off the fur so it can be cooked. We all stayed up until midnight so we could celebrate the start of my birthday and when it happened we danced around the campfire to 'show me love'! happy days!!

Day 2- Kata Tjuta/ The Olgas and sunset at Uluru

Another early start to the day as we headed towards Kata Tjuta or The Olgas to start on a 8km hike through the Olgas. It was again over rough terrain but it was beautiful so we didn't mind! The whole thing looked like a film set, it was so beautiful. For lunch we set up on top of Mount Ebeneezer at a picnic spot where we had wraps and I sat and opened my birthday cards in the gorgeous sunshine! After lunch we headed to the Aboriginal Cultural Centre at the base of Uluru which we took our time to find out more about the spiritual nature about Uluru itself. After this we headed to the base of Uluru and did a short walk and Dan taught us some more about the culture itself and showed us some Aboriginal Cave paintings.
For dinner we headed to the sunset viewing point and got some amazing pics of Uluru at sunset. Afterwards to we headed to the ayers rock campground and set up camp again. Dan had bought me abirthday cake with sparklers, and a 23 shaped candle!! So we had cake, Goon, 'show me love' playing on the speakers and a game of chickens going on, what more could i want for my birthday!? we snuggled down in our swags and went to bed very happy indeed! i also saw the southern cross star constellation which can only be seen from Australia and New Zealand- awesome!

Day 3- Uluru base walk

After another early start, we headed to the sunrise viewing platform to see Uluru. Watching the sun come up with a bowl of porridge in our cold hands was amazing! it turned from black to dark red to brilliant orange, it was awe inspiring. After the sun came up we headed to the base of Uluru and we started a 9km hike around the base which was pretty cool, the weather was gorgeous so we got some amazing photos! We started the journey back to Alice Springs in the afternoon and Dan took us to his office to show us a 5month old kangaroo which was very cute! Afetr we got back to our hostel to get washed up ready for our farewell dinner with the group!

Farewell Dinner- we haeded to Toddy's backpackers to have dinner all together as a big group and even got a free bottle of wine! We listened to some live music and we had the opportunity to play the didgeridoo! We headed to annies backpackers for some more drinks and more Jagerbombs...lethal! Dan was loving being surrounded by 21 girls! At the end of the night, me and Louise ended up at Dan's place and carried on drinking until we all fell asleep! Very unexpected end to the night but it was top class!

The whole trip was unbelieveable and my 23rd birthday will definately be one to remember. Seeing Uluru is something that lots of people can only dream of but to be there on my birthday was just something I cannot put into words. This is what I came to Oz to do!!

xxxxx