The 4 couples have now rejoined and we headed off for a day on the road to Erldunda, where we stopped for the night enjoying an open fire. Not much too see along the way. Next day was about 260 klms into Uluru. This was my 3rd trip to the rock in the last 10 years, but the girls and Dave hadn't been before. Late afternoon we packed up the BBQ and headed for the sunset viewing area for a BBQ and some photos of the rock as the change in colour occurred. It's a very spectacular sight and the change occurs very quickly.

Saturday morning was hike time. We set off for the walk around the rock. Total distance traversed on foot was about 12 klms, and took us about 3.5 hours. The afternoon was spent rehydrating with amber beverages.

Sunday morning (my birthday), no sleep in today, Jo-anne and I were up at 4.45am and a brisk walk to the bus stop to get picked up at 5.30am to do the Field of Light sunset tour. This is an art experience, where some eccentric artist has placed 60,000 solar lights in a field with the rock as a back drop. Its actually quite spectacular and as you walk through the field the expanse that it covers is massive. (approx 5 square klms). Unfortunately the photos don't do it justice. The exhibition started in 2014 and will run until 2020.

We then returned to camp, put on the hiking boots and we all headed for the Olga's. Cranked out another 9klm hike about 3.5 hrs through the Valley of the Winds. Lots of hills and lots of rocks, but again spectacular scenery. The Olga's are about 45klms from Uluru, so we all headed back to camp.

On the return journey, Dave decided to swing by the rock to see if it had been opened to climb. He was in luck it had just been opened. Within minutes there was like a stream of ants pouring up the rock at a great rate of knots. It was a pretty fair effort by Dave to reach the top of Ayres Rock after the hike at the Olga's that morning.

We have since heard a 76 year old Japanese tourist died of a heart attack the following day whilst attempting to climb the rock. He is the 37th death and the first since 2010. Sometime next year it will be banned to climb Ayres Rock.

The weather so far has been superb, the sky is a vivid blue every day, however the nights have been very, very cold. Most overnight temperatures have been close to zero or even below, but warms up to low to mid 20's.

Check out the photos.