My mind is completely saturated and blown away by all we have seen and heard over the last five hours or so. It is now 11am and we have just come back from the Uluru sunrise and cultural walk. OMG. This rock is awesome and so are the stories, beliefs, ceremonies and culture that surround it.

I'm so awed by it all that I know I am going to go on rather a lot - apologies - up to you whether you read it all. Otherwise here's a potted version:

- Up at 4.15 and taken out to watch the sun rise turning Uluru into a myriad of oranges and reds.

- Joined a cultural walking tour around some of the points of specific interest around the base of Uluru. Learnt how and why the rock is so important to the aboriginal people.

- Temperatures rocketed to 42 degrees or more.

- Spent afternoon watching the amazing ever changing colours of Uluru from the air conditioned comfort of our hotel bedroom.

- Sounds of Silence dinner in the evening preceded by watching the sun set behind the domes of Kata Tjuta, casting its glow on Uluru, and ending with some star gazing in a perfect sky. Never seen the Milky Way quite so clear!

Ok, so for more detail, here's what I've written for my personal diary that I'm keeping alongside the blog.

We were up well before the crack of dawn - obviously - and on the coach by 4.45. Don't normally do coach tours but this was really the best way to see what we have seen and hear the explanations that go with it. We could have hired a car and done our own thing but we would have missed so much. So, putting our reservations about coaches to one side we climbed aboard, picking up people from a couple of other hotels before heading out to the sunrise viewing area - just 14 of us as it worked out, though there were many many more at the viewing area.

Parked up and helped ourselves to tea in the dark from one of the trestle tables set up for this, then walked about 500 metres up the walkway to where there are big viewing platforms. The sky on the eastern horizon was just starting to go pinky orange as we walked up but the rock was just a dark hump to the west. Little by little the sky lightened behind us and the rock began to brighten, changing colour until eventually it was its true bright red, various crevices and orifices showing up either darker or lighter as the sun lit the rock in parts.

Again everything is much greener than normal so the contrast between the flat land with vegetation in front of us and the red rock beyond was fabulous. There are quite a lot of trees of different varieties. Our driver who had taken us up to the rock explained on the way about the development of the desert oak that is very prevalent. Early oaks grow with a single stem/trunk and no branches, just lots of feathery fronds shooting out all the way up this. The infant tree can remain in this state for decades, even as long as 70 years, during which time it is putting down tap roots to seek out water. It is only when they find a source of water deep down that it will begin to branch and eventually turn from its shrub like state to become a tree. They look like two completely different species.

By 6.40am the sun was properly up and we made our way back to the coach where we met our guide for the morning - a Canadian called Jo who has been an Uluru guide for two years. She certainly knew her stuff and told it in a very entertaining way.

After an orientation she gave us the geological background to the formation of the rock - basically a shift in Teutonic plates pushed the sea bed up and on its side. The striations in the rock that show what were the horizontal layers of the sea bed now run vertically. The red colour is due to iron ore in the ground and this is also what protects the sandstone mass and had prevented it from turning into pile of sand. The aboriginals (which I've picked up is the correct way to refer to the indigenous people, rather than aboriginees - aboriginals, aborigine, the indigenous, these are the correct terms), they are totally dismissive of the geological origin and believe the rock was placed there for them and that every blemish on its surface is clear evidence that their ancestors were there - fissure several metres long is the mark where one ancestor slashed a snake in two, a pile of boulders are the fossilised eggs of another ancestor and so on. And this is what our cultural walk was all about.

We began with a 4km walk around the easterly and southerly base of the rock, stopping at several points along the way to hear the centuries old stories of why the rock is a sacred place. The tales all have a moral and have been passed down through the ages he teach what is right and what is wrong, the importance of respect and honesty.

There are areas of especial sacred importance where you aren't allowed to take photos, for example where the men carried out initiation ceremonies with their sons and where the women went to give birth. To this day aboriginal men and women are not allowed to see the places that are of particular significance to their opposite sex. It was all totally fascinating.

So too was a learning cave where there are cave drawings, some of which are thousands of years old, and the old people's cave where the elders would sit and rest and the kitchen cave.

Every nook and cranny, every blemish in the surface of the rock has a meaning to the indigenous people and they can explain every aspect of their own evolution through these interpretations.

By the end of the first walk the temperature was soaring and it was truly gruelling, even though the paths are flat and easy to walk along. We had a timely stop at the Uluru Cultural Centre where, among the many exhibits, we stopped to watch a film about the battles between the indigenous people and the Northern Territories government over the years - the government of several decade ago basically stole the rock from the people who had a rightful claim to it. Recognising it's worth as a tourist attraction the rationale of the government of the day was that the aborigines had owned the rock for 40,000 and hadn't made a profit from it. Unbelievably crass.

The land close to the rock was devastated by the building of hotels and even an air strip, but the pressure was on for the rock to be given back to the true owners, the Anangu aboriginals, as this was their land, their home. This eventually happened - need to check the date - on the proviso that the rock became part of a National Park. Now it is owned by the local aborigines who still live in the Park, and they loan it back to the National Park. There is mutual respect between both sides.

A controversy that remains is whether or not people should be allowed to climb the rock. There is a handrail but the indigenous say the rock is a sacred place and also that it is dangerous to climb so why would one even want to. They have a sense of responsibility for the safety of people that visit their land. The other side of the argument is that it was believed people wouldn't want to visit if they couldn't climb. Currently climbing is allowed under certain conditions - when the temperature is not likely to exceed 36 degrees, when the wind is not likely to exceed 25 knots, when there's no danger of rain or thunderstorms, but against this the aboriginals politely ask people to respect the sanctity of the site and politely request that they don't climb.

It has been agreed that if the percentage of visitors wanting to climb drops to 20% or below climbing will be banned. Currently it is around 25%. Little by little more people are wanting to visit to look and to hear about the culture.

History lesson over .... We then had a further, shorter walk around a section of the western side, learning more about the interpretations given and the way of life. So fascinating, but by now the temperature had hit 40 degrees and the tour is scheduled to finish just as the heat becomes unbearable so it was back to the resort and the cool air conditioned hotel!

We took a trip on the shuttle bus round to the Outback Pioneer Centre in the resort where there is a more casual bar and eating facility than in the posher hotels, then again back to our hotel for a much needed siesta.

It is now coming up to 6pm and for the last couple of hours I have been sitting in our room looking out at the rock which is constantly changing as the sun moves around. It has been incredible to watch. In half an hour we are back on a coach to go to the sunset viewing area and then into an open air dinner known as the Sounds of Silence.

Sounds of Silence

Well, we had expected there might be a couple of hundred people at the dinner but in fact there were only around 60 or 70 which we were pleased about. Could have been hellish with a huge crowd. We were driven out to a spot with a viewing area at the top of a small rise, with Uluru to one side and Kata Tjuta to the other. Glass of sparkling wine in hand (and canapés doing the rounds) we watched the sun drop down behind the domes of Kata Tjuta. Sunset was reflected on Uluru but to be honest the sunrise on Uluru and then the ever changing colours of the rock seen from our hotel room this afternoon were more spectacular. We had already seen Uluru in so much glory that this couldn't better it. However, the view of the sun set behind Kata Tjuta was sensational.

Then walked down the other side of the viewing area to where circular tables were set out, each for 10, starched tablecloths and napkins, the works. We thoroughly enjoyed the company on our table - a bright young woman from Shanghai who had studied in Melbourne and now works in Sydney with her Mum, a couple from the States, another from southern Spain and finally a couple from Rome. Really interesting conversations backwards and forwards across and around the table.

Before dinner was served we were entertained by a didgeridoo player and then by a couple of men dancing traditional aboriginal dances. By the time dinner was served night had completely fallen. Dinner was an extensive buffet clearly designed to cater for all tastes - various salads including crocodile Caesar salad, and hot dishes of barramundi, kangaroo, chicken (passed on that - too boring) and lamb cutlets with a quandong (indigenous fruit) preserve (sweet and spicy and a great accompaniment). Dessert buffet followed, but first all the lights were turned off and we were given a tour of the night sky which was completely clear, totally unpolluted, black as ink but with a million stars. Incredible.

Back at the hotel at 11pm. So tired after such a full day but totally full of the sights and sounds of the day. Wonderful.