Red earth, strangely decorated with green now after lots of recent rain.
I met a delightful 85-year-old gent, Peter, who had the sleeper opposite mine. He told me about his most recent stint as a butler in the Director's Cottage in Broken Hill! Which I believe came to an end twenty years ago. Some times I thought I might nod off if I had to hear about one more sailing chum, or another anecdote from his working life, but he was generally pretty good value. Met a Dutch woman whose boyfriend dropped me off at the hotel.
Been wandering round Alice Springs since I arrived in the Alice, and I've never seen so many Aboriginal people in my life. Another piece of culture shock was being asked for my driver's licence when I bought a bottle of wine in Woolworth's. At first I thanked the boy for his compliment about my age: thought I must be hot stuff now that I've relaxed a bit on holiday. But no. . . "Some people have restrictions on whether they can buy alcohol."
Tomorrow, at 6 in the morning, my tour leader will pick me up and transport me by 4WD van, with a group of my fellow adventurers, to a campsite at Yulara , from where we'll explore the area around Uluru. More later when there's more to write.