Day 119 - Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) - Sunday 12th February 2012

Well that was the best night's sleep in a tent so far, literally as soon as our heads hit our inflatable pillows we were in the land of nod! The alarm sounded at 3.45am this morning and we were up and ready pretty quick for our most exciting day yet, starting with sunrise at Uluru (Ayres Rock). Nothing in Australia is as identifiable as this place, no matter how many times you have seen it on postcards, in movies and documentaries; nothing prepares you for the huge rock on the horizon with ever changing colours. When we got out of our tent and it was so dark, the stars were still shining as we boarded the bus and made our way to the rock. We arrived at around 5.30am and it was a short walk to the viewing point, but even at 5.30am it was pretty busy so we decided to walk down the track to a small seated area to see the sunrise. This was well worth it as the view was pretty much the same and there were only about 10 of us there! Soph took some picture prior to the sunrise where you can just see the silhouette against the very dark blue sky behind it, the photos are awesome. We must have spent about an hour just looking at the rock and the ever changing colours of it as the sun rose higher and higher - everyone was in complete silence. After the sun was quite high and the chance of the rock changing colour again was slim, we all headed to the cultural centre to learn about aboriginal culture. Here we walked around and watched some video about the local tribes. Most people consider climbing Uluru as the highlight of the trip, but for the traditional owners, the Aboriginal Anangu tribes, Uluru is a sacred place for them and although the climb up is allowed it is very much frowned upon by the locals. They see Uluru as a sacred sight, the path up the side of the rock is part of the route taken by the Mala ancestors on their arrived at Uluru and has great spiritual significance - and is not to be trampled on by human feet. When you arrive there you see a sign that reads: We don't climb and request that you don't either… Soph and I decided against it - as did the rest of the group. Jim our tour guide took us around part of the base and told us about the dreamtime stories of the aboriginal folk, which is like their bible, but in spoken form not written. Then we all did a 5km walk around the base of Uluru. It's so strange that from a distance it just looks like a huge square rock but up close it has so many side and folds and hidden crevasses. After the walk and quite a few litres of water we headed back to the bus and travelled to the red domes of Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). The shape of these from a distance looks like Homer Simpsom laying on his back (very funny); here we saw some amazing views and the dark red of the rocks makes for some awesome pictures.

After a couple of hours we headed to a service station half way between the two sights and here we would say goodbye to Jim and join another group for the remaining 4 days until we reached Adelaide. At the start of our trip there was only me, Soph and another couple but when we arrived to join our new group we joined 9 others! We all greeted each other and had the usual exchange of travelling stories before we set off south through the rugged desert country to our overnight destination of Marla, a small outback town. Here we all had some dinner together and got to know each other before heading to bed. Our sleeping choices were……. in a tent again, or sleep out under the stars in a swag bag. A swag bag is basically a huge zip up bag with a slim mattress in it that unrolls into a dessert bed; Soph, me and 5 of the other guys chose the swag option and settled down to sleep under the stars and saw some fantastic shooting stars that looked like fireworks - unreal!! Tomorrow we have to be up early for our travel to the Opal mining town of Coober Pedy.