May 1st (Friday) - Day 61 - Ayers Rock (Uluru)
We had a really early start as Ayers rock is a good 6 hours from Alice Springs. So after about 4 hours sleep met the group in reception and we were on our way. Our group was made up of about 12 Germans a few eastern's a few Irish then Sarah and I. We had this mad crazy lady driver who was called B.T. but (luckily) she had hurt herself or something and we were meeting the trip coming back that day and exchanging guides. Our first stop was a camel farm were we had the option to ride them. Shockingly being 7am in the morning no one did! Next we stopped at a looked out point for Mount Conner nick named fool-a-ru because a lot of people from a distance think it is Uluru (including most the group). We then swapped guides and drove down to the resort. Unpacked the trailer and drove into the park. The pictures just don't do the place justice. The rock is huge and stands in the middle of no where. Firstly we drove around it and then had the option to whether climb it or walk around it. The locals don't like you climbing it so a lot of people didn't, but the thing is the walk to the top is only open about 50 days a year and it happened to be open so we just had to do it. Half the group wanted to do it too. We started to walk up it and very quickly it gets very steep. it's a flat surface under your feet so all you have to pull you up is a chain. It took ages to climb the main part. Everyone was stopping every few minutes because it was really hard work and the heat did not help either. I thought we were not going to make it at numerous points. Finally we got the worst of it over and done with and it becomes flatter on top. We pressed on despite the really high winds and made it to the summit. The view from the top was one of the best I have ever seen. You could see out back for miles in every direction the only exception was a few odd hills. Getting down was even harder than going up. It is so steep your toes are pushing into the front of your shoes which gets very painful after a while but we made it down safely. Once back at camp we setup a huge fire and had some dinner while sitting around chatting with everyone else for most the night. We then slept under the stars in swags which are basically a bit of foam covered by a ground sheet. It was so nice randomly waking up and seeing millions of stars!

May 2nd (Saturday) - Day 62 - Kata Tjuta
After a night in the swags we got up at half 6 and watched the sun come up over Uluru. We then jumped on the bus and headed for Kata Tjuta. This is another rock formation about 50km from Uluru that is even more sacred to the Aboriginals that Uluru. They are 36 domes, similar to Uluru, smaller but spanning a larger distance. We walked to the main look out and as we were doing really well for time we walked the rest of the walk. It was about 10km but really hard going in places. We finished about 11 and had an early lunch. Following that we visited the cultural centre. This goes into detail about the area and what it means to the people. One exibit stood out for me really boldly. There were hundreds of letters from people who had taken sand or stones from the area, all of which are meant to be cursed. One lady had lost 5 members of her family to cancer in 1 year and was sending some sand back to try and save her sons life who had just been diagnosed with cancer. I therefore even checked there were no stones in my shoes before leaving! After a 3 hour drive to we set up in the camp site close to Kings Canyon. On the way we stopped to get fire wood and I got the job of lighting the bonfire - perfect as I love burning stuff hehe! We had dinner and sat by the fire and then camped under the stars once again.

May 3rd (Sunday) - Day 63 - Kings Canyon and Cairns
We were meant to be up at half 4. At 4:45 I woke up and released the guide had over slept. I ended up having to wake him. Not ideal when I like getting up at 4:45 in the afternoon… nevertheless everyone got up and we were on our way by 5:45. We drove to Kings Canyon and started the hike while it was still dark. By the time we had climbed the massive hill it was starting to get light. Kings Canyon is a large Canyon formed 200 million years ago. Again my pictures do not do it justice. By sun rise we were half way around near the back and could see the large scale of it all. We then did the final walk back to the bus. The whole walk took about 3 hours. Again not easy terrain. It was then a 6 hour ride back to Alice Springs. Sarah, one of the girls we made friends with and I got dropped off at the air port. We were so early and had to wait hours for our flight. We took off on time and landed in Cairns. The hostel I had booked said they would pick us up. I had to ring for the bus and it just seemed so disjointed. However the bus driver did arrive and he was so odd. He was telling us 'jokes' the whole way and all we said was 'okay then'. Once at the hostel we looked into all the things we could do. I can see us staying here for a while and it costing 80 times more than planned!