After posting last night's blog, we went back to the car and listened to Coffee with Scott Adams daily Youtube. I was already falling asleep. Mark too. He ended up shutting everything down. It was maybe around 9 pm when we went to sleep. We were both very tired out. Our sleeping bags were nice and warm. It was peaceful enough in the park except for the late vehicles that drove by and lit up our car. Woke up a lot. Around 1 am, we were both awake. Took a walk over to the restrooms and checked out the stars. Quite a nice view despite the lights around us in the park. Then back to the car. I was expecting the car to be cold with the overnight drop in temperatures, but it felt pretty warm to me. So, I undid the sleeping bag for a while and changed positions. The alarm woke us up at 6 am. We survived our night sleeping in the Ayers Rock Resort Campground. We drove over to the Sunrise area of Uluru National Park. Had a light breakfast in their parking lot. Lots of people were already there waiting for the sunrise. They walked the path over to an area with good viewing of Uluru in the distance. We joined the crowds. I wore a sweater and jacket and Mark wore his jacket as the breeze was cold. It was only around 13C. We also took our fly nets, but the strong breeze kept them away, at least for a while. We made a few phone calls while we waited for the guided walking tour to begin at 8. Lots of people attended. It was good to hear some of the stories about the aboriginals that still live in this area. There was one area with what looked like a cave and it had several ancient drawings. We didn't stay for the whole tour. We ended up doing our own thing which included a nice meditation for me while sitting on a rock close to the path. The flies found us, so we had to wear our fly nets around our heads. I am not sure how anyone can spend a lengthy time in that area, unless it is seasonal. We walked back to the car and decided to head back towards Ayers Rock Resort where we could access our wifi. We wanted to see if we could find a hotel in Alice Springs instead of going back to the hotel in Erldunda. Mark was able to find one and we canceled with a small fee. We left the area around 10 and got to Erldunda around 12:30. I actually slept a bit on the way as there was no wifi or AM or FM radio channels to listen to. The speed limit 110 kph. We stopped at the roadhouse cafe for lunch. It took forever to get our order. Mark selected the ham & cheese pizza. I had the cooked vegetable dish and helped Mark eat his pizza. I really didn't care for their pizza. We said hello to the Emu's in their zoo like area and were on our way to Alice Springs. The speed limit increased to 130 kph so we made great time. We passed several vehicles and many more going in the opposite direction. The road was windy with flat terrain and then hilly, almost mountainous terrain before we got to Alice Springs. We found a gas station around half way thru and we filled up. Fuel was $1.79/litre and they also had a camel farm with one very young camel. There were also a couple of emus there and some ducks. We did notice that the Northern Territory rest stops, mostly had something called 'long drop' toilets at their rest stops as apposed to South Australia which normally had none. Some places were just a paved stretch for truck drivers to pull over and rest along their drives. We did not see any dead carcasses today. There were birds in places, but really very dry looking shrubs, trees and orange-red soil. We arrived in Alice Springs around 4 pm. We have not seen so many houses and shops in many days. We did notice that their river was dry as was all the creeks that we passed along this leg. I cannot imagine what the place would look like if it happened to rain here. So very dry. Our shoes are coated with reddish dust. We checked into our hotel and unpacked our bags in our room. Then we walked over to check out their swimming pool. The temperature rose to 28C today. The sun felt very hot. The pool had a lot of tree seeds floating on the top, so I didn't want to get in. Instead, we had a nice rest and then showered. We walked from the hotel to one of the pubs, expecting to find pokeys, but they didn't have any. They suggested we drive a short distance to the Crown Casino. So, we walked back to the hotel, stopping at the K-mart across the street to get some thread. They did not sell any, so we walked back to the hotel and collected our vehicle. We drove over to the casino. Mark was our big winner yet again on the $2.50 chip roulette wheel. I didn't have his luck. We played some of their pokey machines too. I played for a long time and cashed out up a little. Then we headed back to our hotel. The sun had just finished setting. We had a light dinner and are watching some tv. Also, accessing the hotel's free wifi. Thanks for all the emails and messages. Enjoy your day.