17/12/08 Unfortunately we didn't have time to look round Alice, for the same reason as Tennant Creek - we had to press on with our journey, because of the sheer distance we had to cover and of having to be in Cairns by a certain day. We were going straight to Yulara, the nearest place to Uluru that you can stay overnight. This time we made only one stop, at Erldunda Roadhouse, which lies at the turnoff from the Stuart Highway (which we had been driving down for about the past three days) onto the Lasseter Highway. They had an emu sanctuary there, which proved diverting, and we bought some postcards and some lunch at the roadhouse itself. Then it was a couple more hundred km to Yulara! We passed Mount Connor, which is sometimes mistaken for Uluru, and then eventually we caught sight of Uluru itself in the distance, before it went out of sight again. As we approached Yulara, the ground on both sides of the road started turning into miles and miles of red sand dunes - quite a striking sight. We pulled up once by the roadside so that Dave could get a photo of him standing in front of one, before carrying on. Once we arrived at Yulara, I was half expecting there to be no spaces left for us, due to it being the start of the summer holiday here, but as it turned out there were loads

After setting up the tent, we drove into the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park itself, to see Kaka Tjuta. This lies about 30-40 km from Uluru, and it made from the same sort of stone. It's a collection of massive domed rocks, the highest peak of which is 200m taller than Uluru. We stopped twice at different viewing points before driving up to the rocks themselves. You can't deviate from the paths given because of it's spiritual significance to the Indigenous population, and the longer walk was closed off either because of the high temperature or because of the chance of strong winds, but we did walk down a lot of the shorter walk. It was so incredibly hot, though, we didn't go all the way to the end of it before turning back. After that we drove to the sunset viewing point for Uluru. We arrived there while the sun was still properly up, so we could watch the way the colours and shadows on Uluru change as the sun gradually went down. It just looked so iconic, standing there in the middle of the bush scrubland, so incredibly old, and strong in colour; it's almost magnetic, the way you can't take your eyes off it. As the sun went down, it looked to me as though the parts not pitted and thus caught in shadow looked as though they had been coloured in using soft pastel, as the surface looked so smooth and the brown-reddishness so creamy. The dark shadows contrasted strongly to the colour, creating an even more aesthetic affect. Gradually the colour got darker and darker, until finally the sun dropped below the horizon and all of the rock was in shadow. We decided to drive home then, because if we'd left it any later there'd have been more of a chance of kangeroos, and other animals who come out most at dusk and dawn, jumping out in front of our car. 18/12/08 At about 6 in the morning we got up, took down our tent and drove back to Uluru. The reason why we were doing this so early was so that we could catch it as close to sunrise as possible (the Park doesn't open until 6, after the sun has risen already.) I still managed to get some photos of Uluru with the sun above it, making it a silhouette (which I'd really wanted to get), so it didn't matter that we didn't actually get there until after the sun had risen above Uluru. After this, we went on the Base Walk, circumnavigating the entire rock - that's nearly 10 km! Luckily, it was cloudy and relatively cool for at least the first half of this, and there were water fountains at each end at which we could top up our water bottles. You could tell that most people do shorter walks, not actually going round the whole thing, because after a while we were pretty much the only people there, with only the odd person passing us - no tour groups ventured as far round as us. You don't really appreciate just how huge Uluru actually is until you're standing next to it! The surface looked more pitted close up, as well. At about four points round the base, you can't get close to the rock or even enter the area surrounding it, because it's a sacred site to the Anangu clan, who are the Traditional Owners of Uluru. Once we'd finished the walk, we visited the Cultural Centre before continuing back to Yulara. This had information about how the Anangu traditionally lived, and in some ways still live, and a couple of shops selling art made by them. I chose one small painting to have as my Christmas present! It's small (bigger ones went way out of our price range) but very well painted, and I really, really like it! We carried on back in the direction of Alice Springs, stopping at Yulara for some drinks and at Erldunda for a toilet stop, but instead of sleeping at Alice, we slept overnight at the Tropic of Capricorn statue, for novelty purposes and because it was free.