Last night was a later night than I'd hoped, but looking at the state of some of them that rocked up this morning, I'd had a lot more sleep and a lot less to drink than they had. Up at 5.30am, breakfast 6.30am and left at 7am. Back on the road. They really weren't joking when they said this coach becomes our second home! This morning we had to 'pack down' which basically meant packing an overnight bag for tonight and tomorrow day. It's our swag night under the stars tonight (shiiiit) and there's not much room so we could only take small bags. Trying to do that half asleep at 6am is more than challenging! I've bought myself a fly net too as I've finally found something in life more annoying than my little brother. The flies in the centre are crazy, seriously crazy. So these nets are essentially like those washing machine tablet bags that go over your head and make you look majorly retarded. It will stop them landing on me in the night though and should hopefully stop anything crawling in my ears. Needless to say I'll be tieing my swag up until I resemble Kenny from South Park - may not be able to move much but the b******s won't be able to get me!
We've just made one of two right hand turns that we make today - the Stuart Highway is sooo straight but we've just turned right onto Lassaders Highway (I think that's what it's called anyway) which is the road into Uluru. Was very exciting for Tim the driver so he honked the horn and we clapped, bless him.
This morning we started the day with our Dreamtime Bushtucker Tour - a look into the life of local aboriginal people. We had bush tea heated on a fire and some bush bread which was similar to a hot cross bun. We learned about family names, marriages, mourning and beliefs. We got a chance to try some different foods and I ate kangaroo tail cooked fresh in the ground this morning (yes there is photographic evidence on my other camera)! It tasted a bit like lamb, only fattier and made me gag a wee bit when I remembered what I was eating. Thankfully there was only one grub and the 'know it all do it all' girl did that. We had a chance to look at aboriginal paintings that the ladies had done and I bought a small one off a lady called Janet (her English name!) and although essentially its quite a s*** painting, it's still a good memory! She let me take a picture of her with the painting too. We were shown different aboriginal weapons and had the chance to throw a hunting boomerang. I passed up this opportunity for fear of throwing it at the annoying Canadian girl 'by accident'.
We stopped at Alice Springs airport for a toilet break and headed to Mt Ebenezer for lunch.
We then had a 2.5 hour drive to Kings Canyon, during which we watched Pricilla Queen of the Desert. Well ok, I didn't, I had a massively uncomfortable sleep instead.
We arrived at Kings Canyon in 32 degree heat, ready for our 6km hike up, round, across and down. Jesus Christ on a bike, I nearly died going up. We only climbed 150m but it was not far off vertical (slight exaggeration), very steep and known as cardiac hill. We stopped twice on the way up though thank god. Once at the top someone told me I looked pretty red - my reply was "of course I'm f*#cking red, I'm about to go into cardiac arrest". I soon got my breath and legs back and we headed off on our 3 hour hike. It was tough in the heat but so so worth it. The colours of the orangey rocks were amazing against the blue sky and the views from the top of the canyon were stunning. The pictures won't ever do it justice unfortunately. My feet ached like hell when I got back to the coach but for a lazy moo like me, what I had just done was a real acheivement.
We rushed back from the canyon to Kings Creek Station - swag night was finally here, the night I was dreading, and we had to set up camp before it got dark. We played pass the parcel with the swags and sleeping bags till they were all out the trailer. We each then took one, putting the sleeping bag inside the swag and the sheet (which was a human sized pillow case) inside that. Our beds were ready. We had a pasta dinner and then got showered and changed during which time the camp fire was started. We grabbed our wine or beers and sat round the fire roasting marshmallows and playing games. This went on for a few hours before we finally got into bed. My fear of the bugs and insects had totally gone, partly due to the wine, but mostly due to the stars. I have NEVER seen anything like it. The sky was so clear and thousands of stars were so bright, including the milky way, the scorpion, orions belt and a few others. After a massive giggling fit a few of us seemed to have (I havent laughed that hard in a long time) we settled down in our swags. I just laid there for about an hour, watching the stars. I was lucky enough to see a shooting star too. Just amazing, and although they wouldn't come out on my camera, it's something I'll never forget......