It was 9 years ago since I last visited Ayers Rock, and that visit was with my parents. It was my mum's favourite place in Australia, and my parents still recall the time we cooked up some steaks on the barby whilst listening to 'Waltzing Matilda'.

When we arrived at Ayers Rock (or Uluru as it should now be called) I could see nothing had changed since my last visit. We were picked up from the airport by the free resort shuttle bus. When visiting Uluru, everyone stays at a resort in Yulara. It basically consists of six places to stay (catering for all budgets) and a town (more like a village) centre. All these places are situated around a large ring road, and a free shuttle bus takes you from place to place. For our first night we stayed at the Outback Pioneer Backpackers Lodge. Although on my last visit I stayed in one of the other hotels, we went to the Outback Pioneer for the barbeque and music. Walking through the bar area, it was like time had stood still. That evening Charlene and I cooked ourselves up a couple of fillet steaks on the barbeque and listened to the guy on stage play songs on his guitar. It was a nice evening.

The following day we started our 3 day tour of the outback. We were told to bring sturdy shoes for hiking, sun cream and insect repellant, along with the obvious essentials. When bus turned up after lunch, 5 other people loaded their huge backpacks and cases onto the trailer. The guide seemed a bit confused by us since we only had small backpacks. "Is that all you've got?" she asked. "Yes, it's only a three day trek" I replied. "But where is the rest of your stuff? Is that all you've brought to Australia?" she continued looking more confused. To which I answered "No, we put the rest of our bags in storage at our hostel." "Oh, because we aren't coming back here, the tour finishes in Alice Springs." It turned out that our travel agent who booked us on this tour a year ago had overlooked this fact. We had accomodation booked and paid for in Uluru for when we returned, along with flights from Uluru the following day. We were taken to the office to see her boss to work out some options. Option one was to do the first part of the tour around Uluru and the Olgas, but to miss out on Kings Canyon which is where you stay on the second night and visit on the third day (it's 300km north and nearly half way to Alive Springs.) Option two was to do the tour as normal, but get back our own way from Kings Canyon - a bus costing £100 each. Lastly was option three that we do the tour as normal but if there was another tour heading south from Kings Canyon on the third day, then we could get a lift back with them. It was a big 'if' and he seemed doubtful. He said he would let us know that evening.

We picked up the remainder of our group (15 of us in total) and went to do a walk through the Olgas or as it is now known: Kata Tjuta. It was a strange place with weird rock formations. The hills were very steep but imcredibly smooth and rounded on the top. We walked through 'The Valley of the Winds' and true to it's name it was very windy. It took about an hour to get to the end of the walk, and our guide, Teegan, told us geological facts along the way. Kata Tjuta is more important to the Aboriginals than Uluru, and they still practice sacred ceremonies to this day. Other people are not allowed to go near the places where the ceremonies are carried out. At the end of our walk we got a fantastic view. It reminded me of 'The Lion King'. We were on a rocky lookout and could see a valley in front and beneath us stretching out to the open outback. Fantastic. Dark clouds were coming though, so we quickly set off back to the bus. We weren't quick enough though as it started to rain heavily and we all got drenched. Who would have thought it, being in the Australian Outback, the "red centre", where 40 degrees is not unusual, and it was raining. Teegan was so excited, she hadn't seen it rain at Uluru before and was getting to try out the windscreen wipers. Kata Tjuta changed colour in the rain and went from red to silver. Everyone was feeling glum on the bus though. We all knew that the sunset over Uluru would be disappointing with so much cloud cover and rain. Teegan was doing her best to cheer everyone up but it didn't seem to be working. When we got to the Uluru sunset viewing spot the rain stopped and some of the clouds started to part. Charlene and I found a good spot away from the whooping tour groups and saw an unbelievable sunset. Looking at the actual sun set was fantastic in itself. The clumps of cloud in the sky meant sunbeams were shining though and the result produced so many colours. It was beautiful. Looking at Uluru, the colour changed through all the shades of red you could imagine. Halfway though the sunset a rainbiw appeared, looking like it was actually coming out of Uluru. A very rare sight. Our guide was apparently pushing tourists out of the way to try and get a photo. The rain turned out to be a good thing after all. After the sun had set, we headed to the campsite and everyone had to help in preparing the evening meal. We had a barbeque consisting of beef steak, kangaroo steak and camel sausages with heaps of potatoes and salad on the side. Afterwards we had the option of sleeping in a tent or in a swag. A swag is basically like a big sleeping bag with thin matress inside. Seeing lots of ants and bugs around, we decided to opt for the tent rather than just sleeping on a patch of ground. Before we went to bed, the tour group boss came to talk to us. He said that he'd sorted things out so we would be able to do the full tour and then return to Uluru with another group on the third day. Perfect. We were so relieved. After all the excitement of the day, we slept very well that evening.

We were woken at 4am the next morning and headed out to the Uluru Sunrise observation spot. Again there were lots of big coaches full of tourists, but they all made their way to the viewing platform at the top of the hill. We went just a bit lower down the hill, where we got a view that was just as good, but we were away from the whooping and hollaring. Although the sunrise wasn't quite as unique as the sunset we viewed, it was still a beautiful sight. After the sun had risen we headed straight for the base of Uluru to see it up close. It's a very strange formation. When you see the side of a normal cliff you can see lines going across horizontally due to the various layers of rock types and environmental conditions when the lines were the top soil. Uluru is different because the lines go vertically because thousands of years ago it rose out of the earth. Uluru was part of a sacred path for the Aboriginals, and around the rock are a number of 'sensitive sites'. There are a mixture of women sites and men sites, and each has a story related to it that neither outsiders or Aboriginals of the other gender can know. As a result the sites are clearly marked out and it is forbidden to enter or take photographs there. We walked all the way around Uluru and it took about 2 hours. By the time we finished (about 9am) it had started to get very hot. We went from Uluru to visit the Aboriginal Cultural Centre which housed information about Aboriginal customs, stories and art. We then returned to Uluru for a tour around a small part of the base called the Mala Walk. The walk was conducted by an Aboriginal man called Wally, and his translator. He told us about the old Aboriginal stories and traditions. Aparently non-Aboriginals are only ever told a very small part of the actual Aboriginal stories. The complete stories are passed down through the generations from grandfather to grandson, and are the most important part of Aboriginal life. They are a collection of myths and legends, but unlike our myths and legends they have an important purpose. If you understand the stories properly they are like a map and will guide you through the vast outback to waterholes and places of life. They also contain moral lessons as well as other survival information. It was all very fascinating even though by this time it was 11am and scorching hot. After the talk was complete and Wally had handed out his business cards, we returned to camp for lunch and then set off north on a 4 and a half hour, 300km journey to Kings Canyon where we would be staying for the evening. On our way we stopped at a huge salt lake and a camel farm. When white folk first arrived in Australia they used camels for the long desert journeys. The camels were imported from the Middle East. Over the years these camels have been bred to be the fastest camels in the world, and so now Australia exports their camels to the Middle East for racing. That evening we experienced some crazy weather. First came the high winds, and along with it, a sand storm. After that there was one of the bigest lightning storms I'd seen, with huge forked lightning stretching across the sky. Next came the rain, but by the time it got heavy we were in our tents and drifting off to sleep.

Due to a weather forecast of 38 degrees, we were again woken at 4am in the morning so we could do our walk at Kings Canyon before it got too hot. When we woke up though, it was pouring with rain. Our guide was concerned about whether or not to go ahead with the trek as the Canyon rim walk would be slippy and dangerous. In the end she gave the group a choice of either doing the Canyon rim walk (where it was slippy, and then get very very hot) or actually walking in the Canyon itself where it was flat and shaded. We elected to do the latter. Inside the Kings Canyon is called the Garden of Eden. Unlike the surrounding bushland, inside the canyon are trees, flowers and springs. During our walk we saw lots of birds and lots of beautiful flora and fauna. After our walk had finished we returned to the campsite for lunch and said goodbye to our group, as they were all heading north to Alice Springs. We had to wait a few hours for our new group to arrive, and then we set off south back to Uluru. It was quite late when we got back so the guide of the new group very kindly invited us to share their barbeque back at Uluru and then he took us back to the Pioneer Lodge, where we stayed for the evening.

The next morning we left Uluru. We had enjoyed our time there, but we were more than ready to leave. We had a lunchtime flight to Sydney and our flight took off and arrived a little earlier than scheduled. Little did we know what was happening at Qantas HQ during our flight. The boss of Qantas was so fed up with the ongoing industrial action by staff and unions that he took the decision to ground the entire fleet. If our plane had taken off an hour later, we would have been stranded at Uluru. We were extremely happy to get to Sydney.

D