Rock & Roll- Heart of Australia

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Was woken up at 0500 by the alarm. Naturally pressed snooze for 10 minutes- even Ali, who is normally the early bird, wasn't feeling the love for this time of day. (as Chris said before we left- there's only one 5 o clock in Emma's day, and it ain't the morning one) anyway, after a shower and a coffee, we made our way to the meeting point, only to see the bus driving away. Ali had a right flap that we'd missed it, but it was only 0555 and we weren't meant to be getting picked up until 6am. Panic over when we met another couple who were on the same trip, and a couple of minutes later our bus arrived.
There were 8 of us in the group, and with Ali now officially classed as a terrratorian, I guess I was the only 'pom' as the others were Aussies, mostly from Sydney. Our tour guide was a girl called Nadia, who was from Melbourne, and really nice. She had travelled a lot, and had worked at Uluru a few years ago as well, so knew her stuff. 
We set off for the national park, only a 15 minute drive away, and paid our entrance fee ($25). It was still really dark, and as we approached the foot of Uluru, it looked quite eerie, this massive block of sandstone jutting out of the darkness. It did look nice though with the stars twinkling above it and Venus shining down. 
We parked up and started the base walk away from other tour companies, as most of them begin at a viewing site for sunrise, followed by a short walk instead of the whole thing. One guy decided to run it instead, which was fair doos, and said he'd catch up with us again along the way, so off he went. 
Now it got a bit confusing in places, as back in the 80s, Uluru had officially been given back to the aborigines, on condition that they leased it back to the government for 99 years. With this, on the board of governors sort of thing, sat 8 aborigines (4 women and 4 men  for fair representation) and 4 members of Aussie government, in hope that together, the conditions they set for the national park were balanced. With it being aboriginal land and it classed as sacred, you weren't allowed to take photos of certain parts. They did have signs saying this, but I was never sure where this restriction started and finished. I'm sure I must have cocked up somewhere along the 9km route, but tried to be respectful of their wishes.
Along the first part of the walk, nadia began to tell us some of the aboriginal teachings of the Anangu people that were based on markings in the rock. It was quite interesting to see what lessons they gleaned from this, to do with being honest etc, but I did have to laugh as she was mid story- a huge ball of tumbleweed came blowing down the path past us, and we had to move out of the way. Not that her story was boring or anything, it just seemed like comedy timing!
It was a bit breezy, and I was willing the sun to hurry up for some warmth. By the time it did we were turning around the rock so fat lot of good that was. We saw some interesting trees and plants, and some red mistletoe which was quite pretty. The rock was so many different colours as the sun rippled across it- another moment when I thought to myself how lucky I am to be able to see such things. We visited a couple of waterholes and saw some aboriginal sketching, and by now, the guy who had set out running had caught up with us. By this point, I was bored of his wife rabbiting on, as everything Nadia talked about, she'd been there done that got the t shirt ( she actually said that about climbing the rock) ali walked with her for a bit, but I couldn't stick her, so walked on ahead with my own thoughts rather than listen to her name every tree and plant we passed. They earned the nickname Tommy and Tina 2 shits- I'm sure they meant well, and were very nice people, if not a little bit irritating, but there's always at least 1 in every group eh? By the way Tommy was going on, you'd have thought he was the only person to run 9km, and was self proclaimed 'crazy' for running the route- yawn yawn! Nadia asked if we'd seen the sunset (they'd seen it by helicopter) look at the mint bush growing- it tastes better with Tinas homemade emu- you get the picture. 
Anyway, Tommy and Tina aside, the walk was quite pleasant, if not a little bit chilly, as most of it was in the shade. As we came to the climb (which Tina had done some 15 years ago!- cue t shirt) there were loads of the obligatory Chinese people with cameras snapping away. The route was closed due to weather, but the aborigines don't like you to climb it anyway as Uluru is sacred to them. It was a steep old trot to the top by the looks of things, so I'm quite glad we decided on the base walk, and in doing so pacifying the abbos.
On the way back we stopped at a viewing point and got to take some really nice photos. Unfortunatly, the flies wanted to get in my holiday snaps, and before long they were swarming everywhere. I felt like a comic relief kid batting them away, and it was hard to pose for 5 seconds for a picture without getting covered. Tommy and Tina naturally had more flies than the rest of us, and back on the bus he told me that they usually prefer Brits. I told him this is because we have good meat on us and taste better(!)
We thought we'd have a walk back so got dropped off at the first hotel and had a look around. We went to the resort centre, and had a toastie and a coffee, and I wanted to do the tourist thing and look round some of the gift shops. Ali must have wondered where the hell I'd gotten to, and yep you guessed it-talking to a fellow Yorkshireman! I heard an accent as I was at the till in one of the shops and knew that it was from my neck of the woods. Turns out the guy was from Leeds! When I said I was from Hull, he said " what? 'ull? Do you support 'Ull KR?' ha ha! He asked how City were doing in the football tables, and we chatted a bit about super league. I asked what brings him here, turns out, he moved over in the 50s, and was a writer. He was living in Victoria, but currently between houses as the one he was having built wasn't finished. He decided to jump in a camper van and travel around for a few months until it was, and he was at Uluru on the way to Darwin. Anyway, chit chat chit chat, he told me abouta book he'd just had published about growing up in Leeds during WW2, so I asked him to write the title down for me so I could check it out. He said it was on amazon, so his writings must be relatively ok to get published. After promising to seek it out and email him my book review, I skipped on my way happy to have heard a little piece of home in the middle of bloody nowhere! By now, ali must have thought I'd been attacked and dragged off into the bush by a dingo, I'd been gone ages. We bought some postcards, and I howled with laughter at ali, who was comparing prices of boomerangs etc to those in Darwin. "how much were those testicles in the market?" she asked, holding a bottle opener made with Kangaroos balls. Poor skippy.
We headed back to the hotel, and changed into our bikinis- laughing at the orange sandy tidemarks when we took our socks off. Hey, at least my ankles looked tanned now. We chilled out by the pool for a couple of hours. The flies were a bit irritating, but bearable, however I did have go laugh at a bloke sunbathing in shorts and a hat with a big net over his face like a beekeeper- a bit over dramatic.

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