Woke up early with a cracking headache from a winning combo of beer, wine and not enough water…your never really learn do you. I thought Rod was similarly afflicted, however (he tells me) it was his chronic ghost abdo pain that hits randomly and flattens him for a couple of days.

I took a very excited Hamish to the breakfast buffet; his face not masking the joy he was feeling. We walked into the lavish spread; Hamish didn’t even sit at the table we were shown to: “I’m going Mum!” He came back quickly with two mini muffins and a pastry. I suggested having a bit of a look first before grabbing the first attractive thing he sees (there’s a life lesson if ever I’ve read one) but dashed off for a couple of mini sausages. I finally convinced him to make a bit of toast, get a drink…you know, like we’d do at home, but there was so much choice on display it muddled his decision making.

We had a slow relaxing breakfast and headed back to see how Rod was faring. Hamish pulled two additional mini blueberry muffins out of his pocket – you know, like a breakfast chaser, we ate them on the way back to the room. Two bites and they’re gone.

We were surprised to see Rod had dragged his sorry butt out of bed, was dressed and had just enough constitution to go to our first friends catch up for the day. Our beautiful friend Pushpa had a 4 hour stop over in Alice (flying home to Sydney) so we saw her at the café at Araluen. It’s funny how time is both a reality and a tangible concept, but when you haven’t seen good friends for years, time melts away. Lots of hugs, a few teary eyes and that bridge of time vanished.

Much of our day has been spent preparing for the next 3. Tomorrow we leave early for Uluru, we’ll go to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) in the afternoon then set up in our powered campsite. We’ve camping gear and swags for the night, courtesy of Michelle and Stewart. We also have one of their 4WD’s. I forgot Alice is a town with more 4WD’s than people…Monday morning I’ve booked bikes so we can ride around Uluru, then we’ll head to Kings Canyon where we’re staying in a 4-bed room with shared bathroom facilities.

Essentials have been purchased and I’ve just made up an entire loaf of bread into ham and cheese, and chicken and cheese sandwiches. There’s lots of driving the next few days and we have a car fridge, so figured this would save both time and money. Of course, I suggested to Rod he needs to buy some honey bourbon as it’s going to be super cold camping. He couldn’t find the brand he was familiar with: “Just get ANY brand!” I say, the tone of my voice reflecting the exasperation of me having to deal with the worst check out chick in Australia.

Re-reading that paragraph, it looks as though ‘the essentials’ consist ONLY of sandwiches and bourbon, please be assured we have pasta, yoghurt, fruit, cereal, coffee, chocolate and chippies (some of the other essentials!).

I’ve unpacked and repacked our bags for the next 3 days. Our excess luggage is now safely at our friend Suellen’s house, where she’s kindly offered us two of her rooms to stay in when we return late Tuesday afternoon – our Alice friends are friends for life.

Missing Jess – partly because we love her and partly because she loves Alice as much as we do. Buying her gifts so she doesn’t miss out completely.

Wish us (me) luck with our camping tomorrow night – overnight temp of 3. Honey bourbon may not be enough to get me through. Oh and we also went to Flynn’s Grave – on the way there Hamish asked “Was Flynn a friend of yours?” Little cutie.