We had all of our supplies ready for our adventure into the outback, water, extra fuel and lots of tins. We left form Port Augusta, a town with great views of the Flinders Ranges and that is all it really had going for it. Our first stop was Coober Pedy, an Opal mining town, in the middle of the desert. People made homes, churches and shops underground due to the high temps, which can reach 50 degrees. Luckily its autumn now so it wasn't too bad for us. We visited the underground church and went to the Old Timers museum, we got to look around the old mine. Its shocking to think that people could work in those cramped conditions with nothing but a pick axe. The miners would dig 10m down into the ground and just climb in and out by making grooves into the side of the walls. The guy who owned the mine actually lived there with his family and his home was built underground right next to the mine. We saw underground bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen. Really strange, don't think I could have lived underground. Coober Pedy is a very unique and strange place, there are just heaps of desert earth everywhere, not 1 bit of green. 90% of the worlds opals come from Coober Pedy. We got back on the highway and made the long journey up to Yuluru to see Uluru (Ayers Rock). We had an exciting journey we spotted an array of wildlife to make our journey more interesting to break up the monotony of red sand, tuft of desert grass, hill, red sand, desert grass, hill. First we saw a scraggy looking dingo, a few dead cows, and kangaroos. And then the most exciting bit, the highlight of my journey, we saw a wild Camel. It was standing by the side of the road, but when it saw us coming it kicked its back legs I was frightened it would run into the road, but luckily for both of us it ran the other way. We arrived at the Ayers rock resort, the only thing near Uluru with a couple of hotels and 1 caravan park and a supermarket. We first spotted Mt Connor and we thought it was Uluru and we thought wow that's really big, and then we eventually realised it wasn't Uluru, apparently a lot of people make that mistake. Uluru is 348m high and 9.4K circumference so it is pretty big. Everyone goes to see it at sunrise and sunset. It was a bit cloudy most of the time we were there though so I don't think we saw it as red as it goes. As soon as the sun rises and hits the rock you can see the gradual colour change from a dark dull red/brown colour, to a bright colourful red. We did the free ranger tour while we were there. We did the Mala walk and got to learn about the Aboriginal customs and Uluru's significance to their culture. Uluru (the official Aboriginal name of Ayers Rock) was part of the Anangu peoples culture until the white men came along and took the land from them. The park was given back to them in 1985 but with conditions, one being that they lease the land back to the national parks for 99 years. So now the park is joint owned by the aboriginal people and the national park. Some of the Anangu people are also park rangers, but I do wonder what will happen after the 99 years! Uluru is significant to the Anangu people in their customs and ceremonies. The Mala ceremony is when the male children are initiated into adulthood and  then entitled to the male knowledge. The Mala is a Rufous Hare Wallaby. We saw the area where these ceremonies took place and we heard the stories of the Anangu people which are passed down through the generations which are central to their culture. Although the ranger told us we were only getting the "kiddy" version of the story because we are not initiated into their culture we do not have the right to this knowledge only the Anangu people do. The men and women have different responsibilities and therefore have different types of knowledge to pass down, which is transferred through word of mouth. We saw the area where the women would have prepared the food, the rock was smoothed down through work. There were sites around Uluru that were sacred to the men and women. We could not take photos of these and we were not told what ceremonies took place here, simply because the ranger did not know, as he was not entitled to this knowledge. We saw rock paintings, representing some of the stories. 300 of the Anangu people still live in the area near Uluru, although their lives now are different to how they used to be. We saw the bush tucker foods that the Anangu people ate, figs, fruit, honey from honey ants, and we saw the tools they used in food collecting and hunting. You can climb Uluru, but it was closed while we were there due to whether conditions. But its a hard climb and can be dangerous, so far 37 people have died climbing Uluru. The Anangu people urge people not to climb as the rock is sacred to them, and they feel responsible when people die on their land. However it remains open as this was one of the conditions given to the Anangu people when they got the land back. The ranger did tell us there were problems with joint management. There was an excellent cultural centre there which explained the Anangu people's customs and the land, the animals and plants found around Uluru. The land beside the rock was surprisingly green I though it would be all red sand. I really enjoyed learning about the Anangu people, I think that really made it for me. We saw Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) but we didn't do any of the walks around there. They looked amazing in the distance next to Uluru. On the last day we got up early to watch the sunrise (along with the rest of the campsite) and we were treated to a nice clear sky. Oh and we saw a small snake in the campsite!!We then went to Kings Canyon, Chris did the long walk around the rim and I did the creek walk, which was so weird as there is no water in the creek but you can see the bed of creek filled with rocks and trees. This is also a sacred place to Aboriginal people. We stayed at Kings Canyon resort, basically like Uluru there is nothing there but a hotel and campsite. We watched a nice sunset there from the campsite (along with everyone else again). The emptiness of the surrounding land is just so strange when you come from our cramped country.