Alice Springs 25th to 31st Dec

We decided to go for a little drive down to the big red rock to have a look around. It's a bloody boring drive 4000km there and back, along a very straight road. The only changes in the scenery is that it changes from green in the top end to brown as you head down to the centre.

We left late on Christmas day so we went to Litchfield National Park for the night, about 2 hours south of Darwin. The park has some great swimming spots, its the second trip we have made to the Park. The next day we traveled down to the Devils Marbles an hour south of Tennant Creek, after spending a night in TC on our way to Darwin we decided not to do it again, its not the nicest place. The Devils Marbles are large rocks that have eroded into giant Marbles, we got there just as the sun was going down, changing the colours of the rocks. The next day we drove on to Ayers Rock. Liv was quite impressed by it, her first comment being "it's just a f***ing big red rock" second comment "we drove 2000km to see a rock". We decided against climbing the rock, as much as to respect the local aborigines and as it being too hot. We ended up staying two nights at Yulara, which is about 15km from the rock, though apart from walking around the rock and taking a few photos of it, there isn't a lot to do at Yulara. We went out to the bars in Yulara on Liv's birthday, all two of them. One, an upmarket joint with a piano being played in the corner, it was empty. The other was an open air bar with a band and it was crowded.

The next night we spent at Kings Canyon after spending the afternoon walking around the rim of the Canyon. The Canyon is more impressive than Ayers Rock and a lot less busy. That night we nearly had a dingo climb into the boot of the car when it came scavenging for food. After our night at Kings Canyon we started the two day drive back to Darwin. On he drive back we saw a couple of wild camels on the side on the road.

While it was good to see the the most famous landmark in Australia, I don't think we will be coming back for a second look.