Day 77 – Alice Springs to Darwin.

I needed to check out by 10am but lucky for me the airport shuttle was picking me up at 9.55am. I checked in alright and because it’s only a domestic flight I was even allowed to take my own big water bottle through customs with me which was a bonus! Today I was flying with Qantas and the flight was barely full so I had a whole row to myself, which was awesome! We even got given an inflight mean for a 2 hour flight which I didn’t know I was getting, I’m glad seeing as it cost me an arm and a leg to fly with them, not that I had any other choice seeing as they are the only airline who fly north. I watched The Book Thief on the plane and found the movie dragged and didn’t tell the story anywhere near as good as the book. I didn’t even get to finish the whole film before we landed, 15minutes early I’d like to add!

The shuttle to the city was easy peasy and the guy dropped me right outside. It wasn’t the sunny here but bloody hell was it hot! I’m staying at Melaleuca on Mitchell which is in an awesome location and walking distance to pretty much anything you want to do, bonus points for coles being a 2 second walk across the road. I went for a walk around and down to the waterfront to see the lagoon and wave pool which I’ll go to at some point, it doesn’t look like there is a lot here to do but it’ll be nice to rest after an intense 3 days along with the early starts! I probably walked about 30k in the past 5 days as well as paddle boarding on Monday.

Day 73 – Sydney to Alice Springs

The first of many early starts this week, Valerie dropped me off at the airport just gone 6am which was super helpful of her as getting a bus or train at that time of the morning would have been near impossible. I was the only person at the check in counter making it quick and easy, my luggage has gone up to 16.6kg… I’m not quite sure where it’s come from as I’ve only added a dress since my last flight but oh well; at least it’s not over.

The flight left on time and arrived on time, I could get used to this! The package I booked includes my airport transfer so I went and got my ticket from the desk and jumped straight on the bus. These have been so easy in Australia; I hope it’s as easy in Asia! I was dropped right outside my hostel but unfortunately I had to wait just over an hour to check in, good news was they had free wifi so that occupied my time and I even managed to write a little bit more of this blog.

It was cooler in Alice Springs than I first expected, don’t get me wrong it was bloody hot but not as humid as I was expecting. I walked into the little town which was only about a 5minute walk from my hostel on the hunt for a fly net, a supermarket and a large lunch so I didn’t have to go out or buy anything for dinner.

Success! Fly net was about $6 and I spent about $12 in Coles on water and other things. I then found a little pub to have some lunch in which was alright too. I made my way back to the hostel, sorted out my bags as I was leaving my big bag here but it had to be in the locker before 7pm meaning I needed to be organised! I took two little rucksacks with me on tour so one for all my clothes and stuff whilst the other one would be the stuff I wanted to take on walks with me. The evening was spent chilling, reading and sleeping.