I apologise in advance if I repeat myself at all but I’m aware that I’ve barely a written a thing about my travels since January so I’m gonna go back in time to when I came to Melbourne for the Australian Open and the Big Day Out. Glenn, a fellow radiation therapist, offered to let me stay at his place and luckily for me where he lives is close to the CBD and the Melbourne tennis centre. Glenn’s’ flat is in Richmond which is a funky suburb of Melbourne, just to the east of the city centre.

These two weeks in Melbourne passed by in a haze of heat, sunshine, tennis, hangovers, boys and a vigorous work out for my credit card. I bought several items of new clothing and, to be honest, I could’ve just kept spending there are so many great shops in this city. I had the best time over these two weeks and while I was in town Glenn very kindly offered to let me stay at his place when I planned to come back to the city to work.

I went back to Q&A, the gay indie night and had a blast dancing to some great punk rock tunes and rocking out with some fellow homo boys and girls. I popped into one of the nearby hospitals, the Epworth, to have a quick meeting with the boss of a new radiotherapy dept. I gave her my CV and we sorted out a start date there and then, result!

My last day of the fortnight included the ladies final at the Australian open. I was super-excited to be a spectator at a grand slam final and even though Kim Clijsters didn’t win, I still had the best time. After the tennis Glenn drove me to the airport. I flew back to Sydney and that evening crashed at Matts place. I was in Sydney a mere few hours before I was back at the airport to catch a flight to Alice Springs.

Despite the fact that I ‘officially’ left the UK on my own to go travelling, I hadn’t really done much at all on my own. I was a little nervous before my flight to Alice, partly because I was on my own and partly I was going so far into the centre of Oz. My flight was fine, a little boring though one of the Stewards called Michael came and had a chat with me and showed me a couple of really quite impressive magic trips. He was quite cute too. I had a middle-aged American couple sitting next to me on the flight and though they were very nice, they did rather smell of stale tobacco, which forcibly reminded me of Mundungus Fletcher (Potter reference people!).

When I arrived in Alice I was a little surprised to find the sky overcast but it was still hot. I was a good little monstarr and got the shuttle bus to the YHA rather than catch a cab. While this was a good decision in terms of money saving, the shuttle bus went all round the houses and it took forty-five minutes to get to the YHA! The YHA was only 10km from the airport! Unfortunately the YHA turned out to be one of the worst ones I have stayed in though I did have a large dorm room to myself. There were quite a few people staying at the hostel but none of them seemed particularly friendly.

I had a wander around the town, which was extremely quiet as it was a Sunday. Despite the towns geographical isolation I was dismayed to find KFC, McDonald’s, subway, pizza hut, very indigenous Australia! I avoided the take out food option, instead heading to the local supermarket. As I expected there was a heavy aboriginal presence in the town.

After eating I went in search of Anzac Hill, one of the towns tourist spots, which has a commanding view over the town and surrounding outback. Being the silly monstarr that I am I miss-read my map and ended up on top a hill called Billy goat hill. It wasn’t until I reached the top if billy goat hill that in the distance that I saw Anzac hill. I emitted a loud “d’oh!”, which echoed around me a little and I made my way back down the hill. I walked over to the other side of town and made a second climb, this time up the right hill! I was sweaty to the max by the time I made it to the top but the view was so worth it. There was a war memorial on top of the hill and a plaque explaining the aboriginal significance of the hill.

I ate some food and had an early night. My coach to Yulara (the Ayers Rock/Uluru resort) was going to leave at 6.30am and I had only got five hours sleep at Matts place. I woke up several times during the night due to heavy wind and pouring rain! Pouring rain! In the outback! This wasn’t what I was expecting weather wise.

I nearly missed my coach the next morning by waiting in the wrong place but luckily my brain kicked into gear in time and I ran up the road, swearing and sweating profusely. I made it though, woo-hoo! I would’ve been royally screwed had I missed the coach as there is only one a day! The coach itself was far from luxurious but there seats and a toilet so what more could you ask for! As the coach made its way into the surrounding outback I was surprised by how much plant life was around. It was far from lush green foliage and there was plenty of red mud but I was expecting totally barren land. We passed a maximum prison (I didn’t take a photo) and after that it was just outback. I listened to Belle & Sebastian and took in the surroundings. I had butterflies in my tummy; I was so excited to be in the outback.

We had a brief stop at Stuart Wells Camel farm for some brekkie and a couple of people on my coach had a camel ride. I didn’t bother, I didn’t really fancy it and heavy rain clouds were gathering over-head. At the camel farm I saw my first dingo, which was tied up but was very cute. There were lots of other animals there, emus and the like.

We left the farm and the coach driver pointed out the McDonald Ranges in the distance. After a while the weather dramatically changed from rainy and overcast to blue skies and blazing sunshine. En route we also passed a huge salt lake there stretches over 500kms into Western Australia and Mount Connor, a huge rock which is wider and older than Uluru and has a kind of table top look to it (see my photo album.). As you get closer to Yulara you get teasing glimpses pf Uluru and they only served to increase my excitement.

At about one thirty pm we finally made it to Yulara. The various hotels, lodges and shops at the resort are built in a circular formation. In the middle is an area of bushland which you can walk across to reach various parts of the resort. The hostel was actually part of a hotel so when you got the off the coach there were porters to carry off your luggage, result! I was very impressed with the hostel facilities and the resort as a whole. The only thing that was lacking was affordable internet access but, hey, you can’t have everything I guess. One of the coolest things about the hostel was that there was a look out point a short walk away from which you can see both Uluru and the Olgas.

One thing that I realised was that I didn’t feel the isolation of the place as much as I thought I would. The whole journey had been so comfortable and easy. You hear so much about the harshness of the outback. I felt privileged to be there and in awe of my surroundings. It must’ve felt out of this world to have been amongst the first colonial explorers who first came across Uluru. I couldn’t wait to get closer.