Date: 13th August 2011

Place: Alice Springs - Uluru

Weather: Sunny

Woke up to my alarm at 4.30am and it felt completely wrong to be getting up in the middle of the night. There were only 7 of us in our group which was really annoying as if some of the people from the same tour but the day earlier had gone on this trip I could have gone on my bus as normal and not paid the extra $70 for a train journey.

It was a long drive to our first stop but we saw a great sunrise and the moon was all red from the dust. Before heading to Kings Canyon we stopped off at a camp site to have some lunch. This was provided by Adventure Tours and was some cold meat and salad sandwiches. We sat in the sun on the grass and got to know each other a bit. One of the ladies on the trip, called Joan, was actually 79. I couldn't believe it she is such a tough lady!

We were all regretting eating so much when we got to Kings Canyon as the first part of the walk was up a lot of uneven steps. It was hard work but well worth it when we got to the top. The view was awesome and we could see just how flat the outback is and how long it goes on like this; we could see for miles. Ben, our tour guide, showed us some of the plants and how the aboriginals used them to make weapons and which ones were used for food or for tobacco.

The walk took about 3 hours and was all walking over rocks and through a place called The Garden of Eden which was a really pretty little valley with a stream through it. The canyon was apparently created by just a crack in the earth which gradually got bigger. We could see the original opening and all the colours of the rock underneath it. The other parts were made up of layers of sand that had built up and compressed over time.

After becoming exhausted from walking the whole rim of the canyon we got back in the bus for another long drive. Ben had warned us before we got into the bus that we were going to see a large rock that looks a lot Uluru but it isn't! Apparently he has had a lot of people getting really excited when they have spotted it, a girl even started crying!

This was called Mount Connor (I'm not sure if that's the right Connor or not). This is apparently bigger than Uluru and I personally think it looks more impressive. Since it looks a lot like the pictures of Uluru a lot of people apparently drive all the way to that, stop in the viewing site and then drive home without seeing the real thing. It doesn't seem all that big of a deal until you actually do the drive; it is about 4 hours until the nearest city from there.

The Aboriginal creation story for Mt. Connor is linked to the 7 sisters. One of the sisters had many admirers and one of them was a very evil man but still wanted to be with her. She therefore ran away with her 6 sisters and little brother. When they had stopped somewhere the little brother had started making a pile of sand. They then found out that the evil man was following them so left in a hurry and the older sister stepped in the pile of sand making it have a curved look, which is the shape of Mt. Connor. The girls then came across a witch who granted them the wish of being turned into stars so they could hide in the sky. This is how the 7 sister stars were created.

Luckily we made it to Uluru for sunset. Apparently this doesn't normally happen and isn't in the itinerary but I think because we were such a small group we got there earlier. There was a good viewing point at our campsite where we went to watch the sun set and get some good pictures of Uluru. I also got a good silhouette picture of Kata Tjuata (aka the Olgas).

It was BBQ for dinner that night with Kangaroo and Camel sausages yummy!! We actually saw a Camel on the way to the camp site which just seemed to stare at us for ages. It is apparently legal to shoot camels because the outback has become overrun with them ever since the owners hundreds of years ago didn't want to shoot them when they didn't need them anymore so they have just multiplied.

Dinner was awesome and there was soooo much food! We then all set up our beds for the night. It was pretty easy as we basically had to roll out our swags in the middle of the camp site. A swag is like a sleeping bag which has a little mattress in the bottom and is water proof and designed to sleep outside. You then put a sleeping bag inside it to sleep in. We were all sleeping outside under the stars that night which seemed really cool until we kept seeing mice run around, then I was just paranoid about mice being in my bag, especially since I had been told that it happens by someone I met on Fraser Island!

Well once we were all set up we sat and had a little chat and then got into bed. It wasn't actually too cold but I did have a lot of layers on and essentially two sleeping bags. I couldn't sleep well at all though and I actually jumped at one point because I heard a squeak sort of noise and then swear something jumped onto my swag, there was nothing there though. Louisa actually had something scratch her finger and she thought she saw something run into her swag.

I woke up every few hours and had to get up at one point to make a toilet stop since I had drank too much before falling too sleep (rooky mistake "/). I then couldn't get to sleep because I could hear things howling. It didn't really click to me that it would be dingos, I was just a bit freaked out because it was full moon!