We wandered up and down the main thoroughfare which is a mix of souvenir shops and art galleries selling beautiful aboriginal dot paintings, restaurants and cafes and regular clothes and food shops. We stopped into a cafe for some lunch and then headed to a didgeridoo workshop for a free half hour lesson. We selected our didgeridoo (Bi pulling faces and wiping hers about million times to remove the germs from all the people who had used it before her!!!) and then sat with the instructor who made it all look very easy. 
It was really quite hard to get a decent sound out of the didgeridoo and to get the hang of circular breathing but by the end of the lesson, Ash was starting to get the hang of it. Bi got puffed out and gave up as most of the time her playing sounded like a 'fart' noise! At the end of the lesson Ash decided he had to have a didgeridoo and where better to buy one than in the Outback! After much debate we decided to invest in a good one and so Ash selected a locally handcrafted 'didge' carved from Bloodwood Eucalyptus. It was almost as tall as Bi and has been posted directly to the UK. It will be a nice surprise to meet up with it, amongst all the other things we have posted during our travels when we arrive back in the UK in March 09. We spent the rest of the day we spent wandering the town and admiring the work in the many galleries. 
The following morning, Wednesday, we were picked up at 6am for our 3 day tour to Ayers Rock and the King's Canyon. After roughing it through South America and now earning we had decided to take a more relaxed tour and booked ourselves onto the 'Safari in Style' tour. Our vehicle was a large 16 seater 4WD truck with air conditioning. Funnily enough we were the only native English speakers on the bus besides for our tour leaders.. everyone else was German! 
Ayers Rock is actually a 5 hour drive from Alice Springs so we spent the majority of the morning in the truck. It's amazing how barren the centre of Australia is.... after leaving Alice Springs we saw literally nothing but red sand and shrubland for 5 hours. We arrived at Yulara, the name for our accommodation base near to Ayers Rock in time for lunch before heading to the Uluru Cultural Centre to find out a little about the Rock. We th
en proceeded to drive an hour west to Kata Tjuta National Park where we walked among a group of 36 huge domed red rock formations called 'The Olgas'. We walked to a viewpoint as the temperature pushed towards a blisteringly hot 45oC for some good views before returning to our bus. We then drov
e to the sunset viewpoint of Ayers Rock and in true style drank a glass or two of champagne as we watched the sun set and the Rock become an ever deeper shade of red. 
It was a great experience. The Germans were restrained in their drinking so Ash finished off the bottle! After sunset we returned to our 'luxury campsite' in Yulara and were very surprised to find that the permanent tents we were staying in were really quite good... 
each contained two full-size single beds with mattress, duvet and pillows, clean sheets, a bedside table with lamp and a fan! After all our basic camping in South America it was a treat!
On Thursday we were up at 4am (ouch!) and after an early breakfast we headed back to Ayers Rock for a sunrise viewing and then walked the 9.6km around the base of the Rock. 
It was a pleasant and pretty walk, improved by the cool morning air which would have been perfect had it not been for the thousands of pesky flies that are common in the Red Centre! Ayers Rock is an huge and impressive monolith and regarded as sacred by the Aborigines. For that reason and for the fact that it was closed because of rising temperatures we decided not to climb the Rock. After an early lunch at Yulara we jumped back in our bus and drove 4 hours north to our accommodation at the King's Canyon Resort in Watarrka National Park. We were at another 'luxury campsite'
, this time with a bar, shop and swimming pool so we spent the remainder of the baking hot afternoon swimming in the pool and eating ice creams. In the evening a delightful cold change came through, lowering the temperature by about 200C and with it came a huge thunderstorm. The sky was lit up with all the lightning and the rain was extremely heavy. It was a genuinely exhilirating experience going to sleep in our tents with the net windows open, able to see and hear the full fury of the thunderstorm overhead.
It was a pleasant and pretty walk, improved by the cool morning air which would have been perfect had it not been for the thousands of pesky flies that are common in the Red Centre! Ayers Rock is an huge and impressive monolith and regarded as sacred by the Aborigines. For that reason and for the fact that it was closed because of rising temperatures we decided not to climb the Rock. After an early lunch at Yulara we jumped back in our bus and drove 4 hours north to our accommodation at the King's Canyon Resort in Watarrka National Park. We were at another 'luxury campsite'
, this time with a bar, shop and swimming pool so we spent the remainder of the baking hot afternoon swimming in the pool and eating ice creams. In the evening a delightful cold change came through, lowering the temperature by about 200C and with it came a huge thunderstorm. The sky was lit up with all the lightning and the rain was extremely heavy. It was a genuinely exhilirating experience going to sleep in our tents with the net windows open, able to see and hear the full fury of the thunderstorm overhead.
We were up at 4.30am on Friday and after breakfast we drove to the King's Canyon. With all the rain, the road had severely flooded and at one point had turned into a 60cm deep creek. This was impassable for some of the coaches but as we were in our 4WD truck we plowed through, rock music blaring! 
We took a 3 hour scenic walk up and around the rim of the King's Canyon, which is an impressive red stone gorge carved by an ancient river. After all the rain the normally dry and dusty river bed was in full flow. It was a beautiful walk with great views. After lunch we packed our bags and returned the 5 hours to Alice Springs, with a short break to view the Mt Connor tabletop mountain. On returning to Alice we were dropped off at the Crowne Plaza Hotel... we had decided to finish our dusty desert trip with a little luxury! After some needed showers, we smartened up and had dinner in a great thai restaurant attached to the hotel. We had a well earned lie-in the following morning before catching our early return flight to Melbourne... it was a great finish!
