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Well it's back on another plane and off to Alice Springs we go (ooo two plane journeys inone week - I'm such a jet-setter!). We stayed in a cute little hostel in the town for a night before heading off on a camping trip to Ayers Rock. The bus picked us up at 5am in yet more blistering heat so, needless to say, we weren't fully with it. We climbed aboard to a load of cheering and yelling and thought "well isn't this a friendly bunch". We then realised that only three people were yelling and they knew my name. It slowly filtered through to my sleep-deprived brain that I recognised these three nutters as my old flat mates from St Kilda. It was ace to see them and by the end of our three-day trip we were greatful of their company. Our happy group of about 13 campers turned out to be two Germans who couldn't speak English and a troop of very rude Americans (some students with rich parents, some travellers and one guy from the US army who was "taking a break" from Iraq!). Please don't misunderstand - I don't think that all Americans are rude - it's just that these people happened to be American and they were INCREDIBLY rude! Between us and my flatmates though, we had a ball!
We hiked over Kings Canyon (another sweaty affair - I WILL go to the gym as soon as I get home!) and then set up camp. We camped out in swags under the stars - which was a great experience until it poured down upon us at around 4am. We were up and out of the camp for 5am to see the sun rise over Ayers Rock which was beautiful. It would have been much more beautiful if our guide (a trainee poor love) hadn't taken us to view it on the wrong side but it was beautiful just the same.
More sweaty climbing in store for us as we set off to climb "the rock" - imagine our combined relief and despair when we were told that, because of the rain, the climbed was closed - but thank you for paying the park fee and you're more than welcome to walk around the base instead. Ah well - we had lots of fun on the 9km walk around the bottom of a big rock and half way around my old flatmate Morris proposed to his girlfriend and warm champagne was whipped out from Angela's day-pack to shower everyone with. Congratulations Morris and Siobhan!!!!!!!!! We rounded the last bend of the base walk just in time to see the climb being re-opened so we bounded up part of it and then cam back down again so we could go and see the Olgas before heading back to Alice Springs on a 7hour bus journey - this country is just so BIG!!!
Back on another plane up to Darwin where we went to the Mindl Beach Night Markets. We arrived in time for the last one of the season and the atmosphere was amazing! There were hundreds and hundreds of people milling around, stalls selling everything from bits of old tat to beautifully hand-crafted jewellery. There were food stalls representing every country and culture known to man and I think we ate a full meal from each one - seafood, roadkill (possum, kangaroo and emu), thai, chinese - there was even a Spud-U-Like!
Worrying slightly after our eat-off that we'll have to pay extra to get us on our next plane!
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