The walk was spectacular and I really loved seeing Uluru up close, noticing the little flakes of sand crumbling away and the black algae from where the waterfalls run down.

Look, it’s been a really amazing few weeks and I’m incredibly sad to be leaving Alice Springs. I’ve filled up almost every day with sunset walks, coffees, beers, and music events so that I can soak it all up before I have to hit the road again.

This walk ended up being one of the most spectacular things I’ve done on my whole trip. It was a really vast and varied landscape, starting with fields of wildflowers and a slight ascent, before opening up to the flat expanse of the Ormiston Pound

From Alice Springs, Sam and I set off on a short camping adventure in her 4WD. Since she’d just gotten off a string of night shifts, she had a few days off, and we capitalised on the time together (and I used her for the car since mine doesn’t have a hope in hell of getting to some of the amazing 4WD only places around here).

After that first week though, I knew I was in trouble. I was way too in love with the place!

Whenever I travel anywhere, my dad always asks three questions upon my return. “What was your highlight, lowlight, and one thing you learned?” For years I’ve been following this, asking my mates the exact same questions whenever they go away, and preparing my answers at the airport whenever I’m on my way home.

The following day was Territory Day, a day to celebrate the NT becoming self governing. And what better way to celebrate than by letting anyone and everyone buy fireworks and set them off anywhere in the street?

I have to keep reminding myself that it’s June because back home I’m certain there’s snow on the mountain, but here I’m sweating by 10am. For the two days that I drove west, I found the scraggly rocks to be blindingly beautiful.

My dad wrote me an email in which he reminded me that my goal while I’m away was to do things on my own terms. I think sometimes I get a bit caught up in the idea that I need to do particular things – I need to work the jobs I’m committed to, I need to be in a certain place at a certain time, I need to put up with all the shit – but I guess that’s not true. All I really need to do is what’s best for me, whatever that might be.

I’ve been getting a little sick of the 6am wake up, the full day of driving, the bedtime by dark and doing it all again the next day. Being on the move can be really exhausting, so I planned on spending a full TWO NIGHTS in Airlie partly because I was over all the driving and partly because it looks beautiful.

Anyway, off I trot (or off I roll, rather) to Bowral for a week. Set in the highlands, everything was misty and eerie after the rain, and the trees looked like they’d been set alight with blazing red leaves.

My little loop around the country is drastically changing every day, with backtracks and retracing my own messy steps becoming pretty common practice. But hey, that’s the actual point of all this.

Overall, it’s been a very hectic few days, but I’ve really valued the time that I got to spend with everyone. Some friends that I saw at the wedding I haven’t seen in a very long time, and my cousins I generally only see at big family events, so finding space and time to see each other for something totally unrelated felt very special.

The van was packed to the rafters with a swag and surfboards, and even though she’s a three-seater, I think three adults is pushing it.

Emma and I signed up for five days of volunteering over Easter in exchange for free tickets to the festival, and even though the forecast said it would continue to rain, we were well set up and excited to see some bands.

While I sit on my friend’s couch in Lake’s Entrance, and a storm boils overhead, I’ll go through some highlights from the past week…

The campsite that we pulled up at was more beautiful than I’d let myself hope; a vast open field, surrounded by towering trees which provided very welcome shade.

It just got me thinking about sociology really; I wonder when this shift started, and why. When did we decide that degrading others was a viable way to establish status or self-worth?

The following morning, I hopped on the ferry with a belly full of seasickness tablets and waved goodbye to Alex and Jules.

Right now, I have a belly full of chipotle scrambled egg roll and coffee, and I’m sitting looking out over the beach in Penguin while my bathers dry in the morning sun.