So I managed to blag a cheeky bit of unlimited internet so I can complete my story up to date.

So Uluru/ Kata Tjuta/ Kings Canyon tour:

Day 1: Picked up at 6.30 am (urgh!) We got on our bus and were very very excited by the free pillows which are those tube shaped bean bag type things- we didnt even know we got to keep them at that point, but seriously, they are AMAZING. I have a lot of love for my bean bag pillow. It makes bus trips totally easy! So Anyway, we stopped at a weird little camel farm where they encouraged us to pay more money for a 3 second camel ride (I didn't oblige- they will not take my money... but I did buy a muffin...) and saw a few kangaroos and some cakes. We finally got to our first camp site at around lunch time, all pretty starving and tired after a long morning of travel. We stuffed ourselves, a little overexcited by the sight of actual salads and being allowed to eat for free (sort of). That was the first sign to our guide Pete that we could wolf down a decent meal. At one point I'd just stood up to get more, when he decided to make a speech or say something. I sat down. He stopped talking, I stood up, he tried to say more, I sat down- this continued for a while. When he was finished, he said 'OK Sarah you can get more food now'. I don't hide my love of eating well...

In the afternoon, we drove to Uluru in the sunshine (yay!) and had a little walk around the base. It may sound stupid, but it is very big. It looks really tall and not at all like a normal mountain- it's flat desert and then suddenly almost a cliff like thing that sprouts out of the ground, with big cracks and holes all over it. Pretty cool. Some Swiss guys from our bus who were basically the only other young ish people came over and Daniel started to (try to) talk to me in very limited child-like English. Laura had held back to take a photo, so was soon harassed by his friend Pascal, who apparently took off his top when she turned around... she was scared. Haha! Anyway, we had a nice walk, it was pretty hot, but not too far and all flat. We bumped into Nicole and her mum Ann half way round- their tour group had been made to walk the total way round the base and they were NOT impressed! Daniel and Pascal quickly became our little fan club and followed us round laughing at us posing for photos and asking if we liked everything that we talked about. Oh the joys of talking to people who have no idea what you are saying! We drove a little way to a look out point where we were met with a few bottles of champagne and some crackers, veg and dips to keep us happy whilst we watched the sun set and Uluru change colour. We were told to take a photo every 2 minutes. We did, to start with, then when they were all the same, gave up, looked away for all of about 5 minutes, looked back to find it was totally different coloured. Typical! Still, it was pretty cool.All the older people on our bus got really drunk and regressed by a few decades, stealing other groups' champage and wine and generally being roudy. Pretty entertaining!

We returned to our camo for a BBQ and to discover that our tent had been overrun by man-eating ants, including a huge army of them on my bed and dovering my toiletary bag (maybe they needed a good wash?). We hunted down some bug spray from Pete and set about attacking them, accidentally spraying my legs in the process (they seemed intent on competing to see which ant could reach the highest point on our bodies) before deciding it wasn't worth the hassle and moving tents. Needless to say, we checked our tent doorway thoroughly for ants nests and spreaying the edge of the tent just to be sure! We were safe. Phew!

Day 2: up at 4am. Drove to Kata Tjuta- it turned out to be actually more amazing than Uluru- how come we'd never heard of it?! We were supposedly going for a sunrise walk but the clouds stopped the sun from really ever rising! BUT it was pretty cool. We did a nice 7km walk up the mountain, finishing at about 9am... this is not something that should be allowed. I may write to the keepers of the mountain and complain. About half way up, I got typically starving suddenly (as I do), got the shakes (as I do) and Laura told Pete to give me a snack. Apparently he heard the tone in her voice, saw the look on my face and ignored his usual rule of waiting until designated snack spots- he clearly didnt want to risk his life! All good, though, cake got us through! I think Pete began to undertand the extent of our need for constant feeding and we got in a stop to a tiny 'town' called Yularu where we stocked up on crisps and chocolate (Frodos! Known to all but Laura as Freddos...) We had lunch and spread ant powed around our tent for preventative measures at our new KingsCanyon campsite. (I should point out that these campsites were luxurious, with permanent tents and actual beds. Nicole and Ann spent their nights in swags, in the rain, under the 'stars'... or clouds!) We had a pretty awesome dinner which was cooked on a capfire, then sat around toasting marshmallows on sticks. They all laughed at my half a tree, until they realised that their hands had been burnt and I was fine! HA! Seasoned marshmallow toaster right here!

Day 3: Up at 5am (apparently a lie in as we were such an efficient group!) We drove to Kings Canyon and gathered under the shelter just as the sky opened and the rain started. Heavily. I donned my waterproof jacket and we fashioned Laura a bag to wear... the height of fashion! We went for a very wet walk through another totally amazing place- definately the best of the 3- the rain only made it easier to cope with 'heart attack hill' and the rest, as it was actually cold enough to manage a long mountain trek in the Australian desert. We saw Prescilla's Crack (very funny to our tour guide...) from Prescilla, Queen of the Desert- and we saw some men doing the walk in dresses in ode to the film. Pretty entertaining! The rain meant that we walked through a lot of rivers and there were beauitful waterfalls everywhere. Did I walk into a tree? Yes (always!). Did I fall on my bum in a river? Of course. Did we eat soggy biscuits as a snack? Yup. Was it worth a massive hike in the rain? Totally!

When we were done, we huddled inder the shelter, our clothes dripping wet and our bags (and their contents) sopping, a lady from another group (she was about 50 and clearly had no shame) decided that the 5 mintue walk to the toilet block was just too far, and began to strip. First she took off her top, then her bra (at which point we realised she had no intention of doing this in any modest fashion. She seemed to be happy with that for a while, then we caught her changing her trousers, and pants (!!!) in the middle of the shelter. This started a trend amongst older ladies from that group and soon they wereall half naked. Strange what unexpected rain does to people! We sat on towels on the bus to get to the showers and the place we were going to have lunch, like civilised people... Then went to change into our only clean dry clothes with us... basically bikinis and PJs... Laura and I were the entertainment during that lunchtime and I think that the locals and workersat the following toilet and tea stops found it pretty funny too. Ah well! We began our drive back to Alice Springs and Pete decided he needed an adventure wee (basically an outdoor one) and, despite telling us we had to take the long route due to the rain and the bus being too heavy to not sink on the shorter dirt road, he pulled over onto... dirt. The bus got stuck in the sand. He tried to make it move and it sunk firther. Basically this was followed by about 45 minutes of rock and stick hunting to make the ground behind the tired more grippy for the bus and allow us to de-stick ourselves. Eventually some smarty pants man decided that all the moany old ladies who weren't helping should get onto the back of the bus to add weight (haha!) which actually worked, and we were once again wet (in our PJs) but FREE! Woop!

We celebrated our return with a super amazingly tasty kangaroo steak at Toddy's... very very yum.

The next day we flew to Cairnes- again, another eventful flight, with no real promise of the airline bothering to fly, as a response to the strikes, and them trying to swap us to longer flights via Brisbane. We got to Cairnes and found the free phone to call for our hostel's free pick-up. We rang evey number we could find and did not manage to get anyone on the end of the phone. Bad times. We paid for a shuttle and eventually Ann (who was on the same shuttle) managed to reach our hostel (Asylum... so appropriate) on the phone- they said they didn't pick up as they were all out of the office, having a party. Could only happen to us! Anyway,. they assured us they were actually open and that we were not too late to check in. We arrive to a building that appeared to be basically a cage, with no apparent door, and were soon met by a man dressed as the joker, who appeared to be in the right place. We were shown to our room (a twin prison cell- upgrade due to booking on hostel world and them wanting a good review, haha)- the room opposite was painted with 'devil's lair' and told to just pay some other time. We were given sheets to make our beds and sheets to use as pillow covers as he had no idea where the real pillow covers were. This place is pretty amazing, and everything appears to be cheaper or free (free dinner, breakfast, cheper tours, free unlimited internet as I told him we'd paid for a shuttle, etc etc... and all for less than a third of the nightly cost in NZ- score!),but its name is definately fitting! We woke up this morning to a reception full of just-got-home-and-still-drunk guests and staff with backcombed hair, inmate t-shirts and face paint... I like it here- we plan to stay about a week :)