It was bucketing down overnight in Coober Pedy - 34 one day, and then a big muddy puddle the next. We were very thankful the camper was packed up tight and we'd stayed underground that night - however there were a few drips down the ventilation pipes.The night before we'd had an amazing dinner at a Greek restaurant called Tom and Mary's -not sure I've had many better - and made all the more enjoyable as our neighbours from Wilpena Pound arrived just in time to join us for a lively meal and chat.It rained pretty much all the way up to Erldunda, the roadhouse at the turn off for Uluru. We'd been going to stop here a night before venturing west, but the thought of setting up camp in the rain didn't appeal in the slightest, so we continued on another 2 1/2 hours west (rained up until 1/2 before arrival so didn't get to see Mt Connor at its finest) to the Ayers Rock campground - a total of 720km travelled that day. The girls travelled really well, catching up on movies, drawing pictures and writing on their whiteboards, making nests and eggs out of playdough, and of course the ubiquitous Loom Bands! Think I found approx 1000 on a clean up of the car floor in the subsequent days.The Uluru - Kata-Tjuta National Park has come a long way from the days of Lindy Chamberlain and Co camping right up alongside the Rock itself. Now, the township of Yulara, approx 18km from Uluru, is the only place you can stay and there are about 1000 people here at any one time supported by a massive infrastructure of 5, 4 and 3 star resorts, restaurants, petrol stations, supermarkets etc. The campground itself was enormous, with camper trailers, caravans, and hired campervans arriving every afternoon for a quick look at the main attraction. As we'd sped up our proposed stay by choosing not to stay at Erldunda, we booked a leisurely 6 nights, and the very helpful girl at reception gave us 2 sites to spread over at the back of the campground away from the school groups and one-nighters coming and going. A real treat. We've had our first technical challenge in that the directional valve between the 2 gas tanks at the front of the camper developed a leak and few days earlier and had been getting progressively worse, so we decided to keep it off until we could fix it - thankfully on a powered site so fridge ok to run. Adding to the cooking woes though, our 2-burner campstove had some issues so for a couple of days we had one burner in total to work with. We forgot we had some luxuries however and ended up putting the litte-used microwave and electric element to use. The super helpful "yardies" around the campground did try to help, but it seems we'll have to wait until Alice Springs to get the whole gas thing refitted. Suppose there are a lot worse things that can happen.We'd arrived close to sunset, and with no time to go out to the Rock, we headed straight for Geckos Cafe for a very decent burger and glass of wine before having an early night.I rose early the next morning while everyone was still sleeping soundly and headed up to the lookout within the campground for sunrise. Despite seeing pictures on a very regular basis on tv, books and film, it still hadn't really prepared me for the absolutely immense rock sitting in the middle of a flat landscape. We fluffed around the rest of the morning, and then headed into the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park after lunch. The closer we got, the more spectacular Uluru is. The girls thought it looked a bit like a sleeping giant under a big red blanket (that is a bit moth eaten with holes). It had a lot more ridges, holes and valleys than I'd expected too. We thought the girls might need a gentle intro so we drove right around and then stopped at the Kuniya Walk, taking in some cave paintings, a sacred waterhole called Mutitjulu, and plenty of trees and leafy plants to make the whole scene quite beautiful. We headed back to camp to cook up some dinner and went back into the park to the sunset carpark to take in the ambience and amazing colours of Uluru at sunset.Day 2 - Off to the Olgas today. Very excited as I've heard some are even more blown away by this formation than Uluru. Known as Kata Tjuta, meaning 'Many heads', the formation is markedly different to Uluru - made up of a conglomerate of gravel, pebbles and boulders cemented together by sand and mud. Our rocky path led up through the Walpa Gorge, past rare wattles and small streams to a grove of spearwood at the end of the gorge. Back to camp for a late lunch and a catch up with our neighbours from Wilpena Pound, who'd just arrived, so the kids had a couple of hours to ride around the campground, before we headed back into the park for our second sunset viewing. Managed to arrive a little earlier this time, so caught the few minutes of start shadows against bright red - amazing stuff.Day 3 - Paul, Ash and his son Will, rode around the base of Uluru in the early am. Harri skyped her class and the girls did some schoolwork, and then we headed into the park to meet up with the other kids and walked along the Mala trail to the Kantju Gorge. There were some wonderful caves that looked as if waves had been crashing into them for eons with painting over paintings educating the young boys on ways to survive in the bush - there were women's caves further along for a similar purpose. Afterwards, we met at the Cultural Centre where we had a very decent coffee and bought a few touristy items like music sticks etc and headed back to camp. We also popped into the camel farm, and enjoyed patting an orpaned camel found in the wild called "Milkshake" who was very friendly and happy to have everyone pulling its ears and scratching its chin.For our last sunset (the pass to the park allows for 3 days only), we headed to the Talinguru Nyakunytjaku lookout, where the sun sets behind Kata Tjuta and both it and Uluru are in sillouette. While we didn't have the colour of Uluru to look at, it was spectacular and very worthwile nonetheless, and my favourite spot I think.Day 4 - we decided not to buy another Park pass, and instead joined in the resort fun of the Outback Festival, wandering around the market stalls, watching the local women paint, listening to some music and doing a little shopping. The kids enjoyed some of their own rock painting by finding small rocks around the campground and using their paint pens to make up some very impressive artwork of their own. A quick swim in the pool, followed by tacos for dinner and off for a walk to view the stars.Day 5 - off to the Outback Festival camel races tomorrow, which should be a hoot. We decided not to attend the Calcutta tonight, nor the Frock Up ball tomorrow night - not sure the kids would appreciate it. Perhaps when they're older.Off to Alice the day after - hoping for a look at the Macdonnell Ranges and get some repairs done.