Uluru and Kings Canyon

Hello again! We're back from a three day bus tour to Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) and the Kings Canyon where we roughed it in swags (outdoor sleeping bags) and hiked like we never hiked before in sweltering heat. Actually, due to an arachnaphobic Su, we slept in a tent but we got the gist. We were the oldest people on the bus and got christened Mum and Dad by the tour leader (who was 25) but we didn't mind as what we lacked in youth we made up for in wisdom and experience (yeah right). The group was good old craic and we were able to fulfil our role as parents by given out worldly advice to all the kids about what to do when they got to New Zealand (as most of them seemed to be doing after Oz). We gave them Martin and Catherines address in Hastings so there should be about 20 or so hungry smelly backpackers looking for free food and lodgings in the next few weeks (not really).

Here's a photo of what the whole tour was in aid of:

It's a big rock in the middle of Australia! It's pretty awesome!

We also went to Kings Canyon another day - also pretty awesome! Awesome!!!

Notice our hats - we spent ages picking them out. Mine is made from Kangaroo leather! It's very springy and awesome.

After a bit of a climb down we came to a watering hole (maybe it was a billabong - I don't really know) called the Garden of Eden. Also awesome!

Notice how Su has her hat off in this photo.

So finally a photo of the whole tour group - we had a mix of Irish, Swiss, German, Japanese, Korean and a couple of Italians. For fun, see if you can figure out who is from where. A prize for whoever gets it right:

We has a couple of days in Alice Springs afterwards where I recovered from either a bout of flu or exhaustion from being on a tour where we had to sing songs on a bus for three days (probably the latter). We flew to Perth and what did we see from the plane? Uluru again! We would have been gutted if we paid for a helicopter trip over it just to see it for free from our plane. It was, again, AWESOME!

Off to collect another camper van tomorrow - Hyacinth Mark II. Up and down the West coast over the next couple of weeks.

Oh yeah, belated Happy Saint Paddys day!!!!