We head for the airport at 7am for a 9.40am take off. Same old. The view from the plane is amazing, though. Adelaide's suburbs suddenly and dramatically change to a harsh redness, to the horizon, hundreds and hundreds of miles of it. There are lumps, river beds, occasional green patches, farms and rare water holes. It's amazing, so vivid and stark.

Two hours later, it still is. How incredible. As we draw near to Alice, we can see the Mcdonnell Ranges, a mountainous tract spanning East-West. We can't see Uluru (Ayers Rock) yet, though; I am disappointed.

How scary is the landing?! I am terrified as the plane goes hurtling down the runway and screeches to a halt. Think the runway is quite short! The airport is small, we are in a 150 or so seater plane, which pretty much fills the place up.

There's a bus dropping people at accommodation, which we catch. The hostel is a few minutes walk out of town; Alice is small enough to walk across in about twenty minutes, if you don't mind the heat.

We check in. It's the first non-YHA place we've stayed in; not quite as clean, but very friendly. It's quite small, and has plenty of communal areas, which people seem to be using, and chatting in. We then walk to town for lunch, over the dry river Todd (named after an explorer [Um. Actually, it was named after the South Australia Director of Telegraphs, Charles Todd. Alice Springs exists because it was a repeater station on the Overland Telegraph from Adelaide to Darwin. Read "The Singing Line" by Alice Thompson - Iain], who named the town after his wife [It was named by Todd's chief surveyor. - Iain.]). We eat in a recommended restaurant called the Red Ochre Grill; fab food, but not cheap.

There are more Aboriginals than whites in town; the first time I've seen them in number. Aboriginals live in larger numbers in Alice and the Outback than the places we've been so far, and some own their own art shops in town. Unfortunately, many also seem to live in poor communities in the outskirts.

Alice is a small place, and although full of tourists, it's quiet and unspoilt (although a local I suggest this to disagrees; guess it was once a one-horse town). There's a McDonalds and Pizza Hut, but largely, like most of Australia, things are owned independently.

[RFDS base]

We go to visit the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) which has its HQ in Alice, where it was founded by a pastor who saw people in his remote congregation dying from lack of medical facilities. Fantastic and uplifting film showing how they rescue and help people, and run clinics across the desert. It's all so worthy and dedicated I feel very humbled. And I wonder what happened to the small child and his mother who were being flown to hospital.

We have a wander around the artshops, of which there are many, largely overpriced, selling Aboriginal art, boomerangs and didgeridoos. You wouldn't believe the number of people walking round Australia with backpacks and didges.

We have a long spod (which updated to the previous entry), then eat dinner at the Red Ochre again (incidentally the name of the dye Aborigines use as body paint), partly through laziness, and partly because it's great. Iain has a mixed grill of kangaroo, emu, crocodile and camel. He's just showing off now. Apparently the kangaroo is best. Crocodile a bit tough, unsuprisingly.

The centre is far greener than I expected, with plenty of trees and scrubland. No water though; it hasn't rained in Alice all year. Last year the River flowed six times.

We go back and read in the common room, then sleep, excited about picking up our campervan tomorrow.