Day 9 Monday 17th
Poor JD coped it all guns blazing about his snoring from the girls, obviously the vans curtains must be a sound barrier!

After a massive buffet breakfast, we settled the girls with their ipads and TV and James and I set off the climb the rock! Yes we know! Wrong thing to do but as it's been on our bucket list and there is a massive push for it to be closed permanently this was our one and only chance. We had been told by many friends that if the walk was open then we should do it. It is often closed due to hot weather, high wind, rain, low cloud cover or cultural reasons.

We mean no disrespect to the aboriginal people but it's something we have always wanted to do.

I was not exactly prepared for the difficulty of the climb. It makes Duck Reach stairs look like an easy stroll. James pointed out as we almost reached the summit that it was "just as well we weren't with the Edwards or we'd be on the way back down already".

We were astounded at how steep it was! Amazingly only 35 recorded deaths, mostly from heart attacks.

As we set off we passed a couple of people who had been overcome by anxiety and were laying prostrate on the rock unable to go up or down.

Thank god for the occasional divots to plant your feet in. No wonder they close it if its wet! Already slippery at times!!

Literally on all fours at times, and slid down most of the slopes on my behind and wore a hole in my pants!

Amazing that the rock has been open for climbing since 1940's and JD pointed out how little wear there was despite the number of people who do climb it. In fact if it wasn't for the chain and the overtaking lane painted on the top you'd hardly know.

Well conquered the climb but only due to the fact that James was there, to literally hold my hand at times, I couldn't have done it without him!

Feeling of satisfaction, gratitude and in complete awe of Uluru!

Going to feel it tomorrow!!

Spent the afternoon by the pool until our helicopter flight with Ian the pilot.

SPECTACULAR!

The girls had never been in a chopper before and James and I were both kids when we went in one. "Marvellous Contraption" he says. JD sat in the front.
Me in the back with girls who were probably more excited about their headsets than anything else.

Matilda did her best impression of Darth Vader making it fairly hard to hear Ian's running commentary about Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
she sang in our ears and told us all to Ian's ammusement that she could see my knickers!

We traveled at a speed 110 knots equivalent to a ground speed of 200 kms/h it cost $10 per minute each!

We flew over Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) sacred place for Aboriginal men.

Boys up till the age of 15 stay home with the women and go gather and learn the aboriginal laws.At 15 boys are taken to Kata Tjuta for an initiation ceremony where they were circumcised and left for 3 days to recover and see if they could survive and hunt for them selves.

We then flew to Uluru over the spinifex plains from our birds eye view it's clear to see inspiration behind the aboriginals paintings. The 3 sacred spots Mt Connor, Uluru and Kata Tjuta all line up and are often painted as circles

Saw the aboriginal community township behind the rock this was where the camping ground used to be before the land was handed back. It is now aboriginal and houses their school and community.

30 minutes later we were safely back.

As soon as we hit the ground we took off in the van to watch the sun set over Uluru we pulled up on the road side and set up drinks nibbles before the national park cause we didn't want to miss it, we had more time than we thought and our view, interrupted by a big red sign, wasn't the best for our second attempt at a family photo in front of the rock!
We need to work on our selfie stick skills too!! Haha!!

AWSOME day!