Central Australia, CHECK!

9 mei: At 11:20 my flight to Alice Springs was departing. I arrived at the airport around 9 and was done with all the checking in and customs stuff at 9.30. Sooo.. 2 hours to kill. I read a little and watched the people walk by. I arrived in Alice Springs at 1.15 PM and there was a girl waiting with a 'Toddies' sign. I was in the right place. At bagage claim I saw a girl from the plane. Turned out she was going to Toddies, doing the Rock tour and she was Dutch...coincidence? After arriving at the hostel, we had to walk into town to check in for the tour. We walked around town for a bit, had some food and walked back. Back at the hostel I made a bag ready for the tour and had a shower, something I wasnt doing for 3 days haha. I went to bed early because we had to be ready at 5.30.

10-13 mei: At breakfast I talked to some people and it turned out that they were all on the other bus. Well pre-work shattered! So I was in another bus with 20 other people and our tourguide named Adam. The first actual stop was Ayers Rock, were we did a 3 hour hike. It kicked my ass and made me bleed, literally! Thanks to some nice people in my group I was able to finish it. There were a lot of lose rocks, steep hills and uneven all the way. After that we had lunch and made our way to our campsite. Befire arriving we had to collect fire wood, which was suprisingly a lot of fun! At the campsite we had dinner and sat around a campfire. We were sleeping in swags, which are like sleeping bags with a thin matres. In the swag you had an actual sleeping bag. I thought it would be freezing at night so I had a long pants on and a vest, but halfway I was sweating soooo much. It was too much work unzipping, so I just stuck it out. But 5 min in the swag and the rain thought it be good to show. Most of us thought we could ride it out, but Adam had been shouting for us to get under the shelter. Eventually we did and 5 min under that the rain stopped.. No visual stars unfortunately that night!
The next day was an early start again, 5.30. We drove to Kata-Tjuta and prepared for another 3 hour hike. This was was even worse! I needed help the whole way and halfway in I called it quits. I waited for the group to return and walked back together. A Canadian girl named Heather helped me the whole way! It was sooo nice of her. After this walk we had lunch and drove to spot number 2 for hike number 2. This wasnt as intens, but still. This was at Uluru. Its very impressive and pretty! We saw the sunset at Uluru as well and had dinner in the meantime. After the sun had set we drove to the 2nd campsite where we had anither campfire. This time we made a pitstop before and I got smore stuff together with 2 girls, Heather and Kendra. We played games and ate smores/marshmellows. It was a good nigth! And this time we were able to see the stars!!
The last day started early again, because we wanted to see the sunrise at Uluru. We had breakfast there and the sunrise was beautiful. After we drove to Uluru to do a base walk. Adam dropped me halfway so I could enjoy it more and not stress about the time, he was right! It was very pretty, just a little lonely since I was the only one. After this 2 hour walk we started heading home. It took about 6 hours, with a stop at a camel farm. Back at Toddiex we got ready for dinner at the Rock Bar. Except 5 people everyone was there and it was a great night! We all chipped in to buy Adam shots. It turned out to be 7, so you can imagine how his night was. You've maybe seen the pics on facebook ;).

14 mei: I had another day in Alice, because tigerair didnt fly to Melbourne on this day. I hung out with tour peeps and did some laundry. At night I met one of my dormmates at KFC and had dinner together.

15 mei: I had the shuttle at 9.15 to the airport. My flight was at 11.45. In the shuttle there was one other girl from mu tour, so I was able to talk to someone. We were both flying to Melbourne, so had 2 hours to kill together, we talked the whole time. The flight was about 3 hours. At the airport we said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways. I took a Skybus to Southern Cross and heard while arriving there they do drop offs for free (paid with your normal ticket). This meant no walking for 25 min!! So I took this shuttle to my hostel, United Backpackers, and dropped my bags there. It was weird being in Melbourne again, but oh so good. I really like this city. I went to Starbucks ofcourse and walked around for a bit. I was kinda beat so I went to bed early.

16 mei: Souvenirs shopping!! I had made a list of stuff I wanted to get, but the least amount of time logging it around. The time had come. Around 5 I was meeting 2 girls from the Rock Tour in Alice Springs. We had coffee and later on some dinner. It was fun seeing them again! I went back to the hostel around 9, packed my stuff for my flight to Bali tomorrow and went to bed.

Bali will be discussed in my next blog!
XOXO