Hello all from Alice Springs,

Since I last wrote from Adelaide, I've done quite a lot, namely a lot of hikes at Uluru, The Olgas and Kings Canyon. but today is rest day and I'm in Alice Springs having a dose of civilisation before it's back to the outback again until Darwin.

It's also been very hot - far too hot for me.  The Winchester office in summer doesn't even come close - my thermometer was reading 44c the other day!!  And the flies, there are millions of them everywhere and they all swarm all over you, I've even got a very stylish fly head net to try and be able to breathe without them going up my nose and into my mouth.

I spent my birthday in Coober Pedy (meaning white man's hole) and spent the night in an underground bunkhouse.  Coober Pedy is famous for opal mining.  The place is so in the middle of nowhere that they get one delivery of fresh food weekly on a thursday and all the residents queue at one of the town's two supermarkets early to get their food for the week!!

Uluru was gd.  We watched the rock apparently glow during sunset and our tour leader provided us with a champagne dinner.  The Olgas though were a lot more stunning.

This morning I got up at 4am in order to see sunrise from a hot air balloon.  We had to wait quite a while to find a suitable spot to take off from where the winds were not too strong, but the whole experience was really gd but very noisy in the balloon itself.

Tomorrow we're heading for the Devil's Marbles and then the National Parks at Katherine and Lichfield before driving to Darwin.

Our campsite has this huge inflatable pillow which is just like a bouncy castle and I had great fun on it last night with Kerry and Heike - very knackering though!

I don't think I'll be able to get any photos uploaded again from this internet cafe.

Thank you for all the happy birthday wishes.  I'll def remember this one!

Until Darwin probably,

Monica