Day 6 - Outback

Kings Canyon to Alice Springs

Today was our last early start - leave by 6 - although we didn't end up heading out until 6:30. Everyone was a bit slow this morning. I think 6 days of getting up before sunrise has started to get to everyone. We will all sleep in tomorrow - hopefully!

I slept outside on top of my swag last night - and with only 1/2 my sleeping bad on me. It was extremely warm even during the night - and was hotter than the night before. So sleeping outside in the outback is probably one of the best experiences I have ever had. I woke up a lot last night because the dingos were out howling and snooping around the campgrounds, but it was still a great experience. At one point a girl in our group woke up and saw a dingo standing over one of the other girls. She went to grab her camera, but it ran away. Makes me wonder how many of us had dingos visiting our swags...it was a new experience for me being that close to wildlife and nature.

Once we all got going, we headed to Kings Canyon for a 3 hour hike along the rim of the canyon. It was a nice hike, but we stopped a lot so Scooter could explain different trees and plants and what the Aboriginals used them for. He also gave us a lot of history about the rocks and formations. For most of the hike, Scooter, Andy, Nikki and I were together. It was so much fun because we were just making jokes, picking on each other and acting stupid - a very memorable hike. The worst part though was stopping for people to have a smoke. It is crazy - most of the tour guides smoke. There was also a nice water hole in the middle of the canyon where we took a break and some people swam. It was a good thing we started so early because by the time we got done (at 10:15am), it was already up to 35 degrees. We all were sweating pretty hard. On the way down, I saw a sign for a different 22km hike - I would love to come back a take on the challenge...maybe in the winter though!

Inside stuff: the Koreans wanting pictures with all the girls, "Sweet!", "Smooooth", "Rooouuughhh", pushing Nikki off the edge, "I need a picture of a rock, I haven't gotten any!", images of Peter (70 year old Irish bloke) carrying Linda (the 40 year old German teacher) on his back, "Is that Uluru?", "why is the rock red? What's rust?"...

We went back to the resort for our last lunch. Janine, Nikki and I ran through the sprinklers to cool off and others went to the pool. I preferred the sprinklers - much more fun! we are now headed to Alice Springs - I can't believe the trip is almost over. It had its low points, but all in all was a great and adventurous trip for me. From beginning to end, we covered 3,105km, visited 4 Aboriginal countries and used 713 litres of fuel. That is a lot to do in 6 days...

When we got to Alice Springs, Scooter dropped us all off at our different hostels and we all checked in and showered and then met for dinner at Alice's Place. It was nice to meet up again to say goodbye and dinner was only $5 each, so yay! We had a great time and made heaps of memories together. It was a good trip because even though I was with 24 other people, I still felt I had a lot of alone time to take in my surroundings and enjoy all of it. Tomorrow will be a day of relaxing and laundry. I plan to sit by the pool all day - it is supposed to get up to 40 degrees tomorrow...