Actually, this picture is of Katja Juta at sunrise, commonly known as the Olgas. Its a formation of enormous conglomerate rock mini mountains that surround a wonderful valley. In Indigenous law, its a place that only the men went in to and I felt quite uncomfortable walking through it.
We spent four nights in total in Uluru, visiting the rock twice and marvelling at its shear enormity and presence. My sister, Cathy, told me the other day that I was incredibly dismissive about Uluru when I first came to Australia, questioning why anyone would come all the way out to the middle of the desert for what was basically just a big rock. I don't remember holding this opinion and it certainly does not reflect how i feel now. There was a peacefulness and an agelessness about the atmosphere around Uluru and to be able to touch it and clamber over parts was extraordinary in these days of fencing off ancient icons (stonehenge for eg). We did not climb it as it was too windy and Oscar was very put out by this as he was extremely keen. I was rather relieved, not least because I wouldn't have to spend the entire walk hanging on to him!
Our arrival at the Ayers Rock Resort was extremely inauspicious. The caravan had suffered a slow flat tyre the evening before, which we know now was from a crack in the rim of the wheel. We had replaced the tyre and were planning to drive in to Uluru to get the other one fixed, when I dropped the wheel of the caravan off the side of the road as I moved over for a road train. Unfortunately, as the wheel returned to the road, the wall caught the serrated edge of the tarmac where the sand had eroded away and sliced the tyre open like a chainsaw, 150kms from anywhere. Four hours later, the van was flatbed trucked in to Uluru and we were put up in a lovely hotel courtesy of the NRMA. (go, you Platinum Premium cover- you have just payed for your self!). It was quite stressful though and had me paranoid for the next couple of legs of our journey until the saga finally ended in Alice with a brand new axle and rims. So mainly for this reason, I was happy to leave Uluru and make it to Kings Canyon in one piece....did i say make it to Kings Canyon? Make that nearly- because I did exactly the same thing to the same wheel on the way in there too- only this time, i dented the rim so the tyre went down!
Tom drove the rest of the way......