Day 5: Tuesday, March 18th

we both slept very well in our tents that had electricty with a fan and a lamp. my watch alarm kept going off at 4am, but we were getting up at 5 anyway, so oh well.

when we did wake up and get out of our tents, the stars were still out in all their glory and the milky way was big and bright.

so now we're off to walk through King's Canyon.

we had the option of a 3 hour walk or a 1 hour walk.

my sister and i were kinda getting tired of all this outback nonsense, so we chose the 1 hour walk and everyone else went on the 3 hour walk.

the first part of the 3 hour walk is called "Heart Attack Hill". it's so steep and high that there are 3 break areas along the way and i guess it causes heart attacks.

my sister and i did the first 1/3, and that was good enough for us.

we left our group and my sister and i went to head out for our 1 hour creek walk that goes through part of the canyon, whereas the 3 hour walk you go to the top and walk the rim of the canyon, walk down in it, then walk out of it again.

our creek walk was just fine. we climbed rocks, hugged trees, saw crazy bugs:

and took lots and lots of pictures.

then after our walk we went and read and napped on some picnic benches and waited for the rest of our group to meet up with us.

once they arrived, we went back to that resort that wasn't ours and used their picnic table and pool again. we ate our veggie burgers and that was where we ended our Outback trip! we hopped on a different tour bus that took us to Alice Springs (a 5 hour drive) while our original tour group had another night out there going to McDonell's Range or something? maybe it was McDonald's Farm.

Anyway, we were very ready to be finished. it was beautiful and educational and we were certainly happy we did it... but 3 days of hundreds of flies, of 100 degree weather, and of non-stop cultural walks around rocks... we were ready for something a bit different.

and we didn't find much in Alice Springs.

we had to spend a night there since there are a limited number of flights out of that city that is in the middle of nowhere. our tour bus dropped us off right in front of our hostel and we made plans with the tour guides and the group we just joined to meet up for dinner at 8pm.

oh, and on the bus ride home, i had to pee for the last 2 hours.

we got our room, i got to pee, and the room was huge. it was a "private family" room that had 3 twin beds and a full bed. my sister immediately grabbed the big bed. thanks. but we had a tv, clean sheets, ac, a private bathroom, and a couch.

i showered, my sister did laundry, then we sat down to watch "The Moment of Truth". is that what it is called? where contestants are asked "embarassing" questions while hooked up to a lie detector and we're all supposed to care about their lives. it's a horrible show. this one guy, well he said he had, yes, stolen from a business and let someone else take the blame. and when the machine said he was telling the truth, the audience cheered cause he didn't lie. but also.. he was a thief. do you cheer for that?

so then he wanted to explain himself: he was a teenager perhaps, and working at a concession stand and he was either over-charging people for hot dogs or charging people for things when they were free and keeping the extra money. and then the boss confronted the workers and said there was a thief among them, and he knew who it was, and then he pointed to a different guy. charlie took the fall for truth-telling guy!. and the audience laughed! what a funny anecdote! charlie's in jail, but i'm glad you explained yourself! now we'll clap even harder for you.

so, it was 7:55 and time to start to walk to the restaurant and we saw one of the tour guides in the lobby (Jane) and she was ironing some clothes and said they were running late and they would come by our room in 10 minutes to get us when they left so we could all walk over together.

so we went back to our room and at 8:13 realized no one had come by to get us yet, so we went out to the lobby. and no sign of jane or the other tour guide. we sat and waited til 8:27. and finally decided we had been left. what losers we are!

we were starving so we walked the 3 blocks to a pizza place for dinner. we put our order in, then thought we should find some forks and stuff at the neighboring k-mart. i knew we should have walked down the main road. you know, the big road with street lights on it, but my sister thought we could get through the back. so in the darkness of the night, through a scary and very poor town we walked down an alley, and then another alley, then finally got to the front of a closed k-mart. my sister insists i 'ran' during part of the darker and sketchier areas of her detour, but i was being alert and walking quickly because i didn't want to get attacked by the drunk man walking towards us. so we went back to the pizza shop and waited for at least 30 more minutes for our pizza and pasta. the employees kept leaving the store and not returning. eventually it was like one 15 year old kid doing everything.

well we got our food, headed back to the hostel, and found an elderly man practicing his violin, and a girl practicing for what seemed like ribbon dancing gymnastics in the front. we quickly walked by to go to our room to be normal and had a pizza party while watching 'kitchen nightmares' with gordon ramsey which is an awesome show.

then watched some horrible australia soap opera-like show: "life begins".

the son wanted to be in a boy band, but then he froze on stage. the mom was thinking of going to europe with another man. and employees were fighting over customers in a travel agent office. my sister loved it.

tomorrow we get to sleep in until 8am!! and we are soo excited. and i'm sure our pizza was better than that silly ole' restaurant with the tour group anyway!