Uluru

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Having said goodbye to the car and Nadja and Andy i flew to Alice Springs to go and check out 'The Rock!!' (unfortuanately not Dwayne Johnson!!). As soon as i landed in Alice i was hit by the extreme heat of the place and the number of bloody flies!! And they are not like the flies we get in England, these flies are determined that they either need to be in your mouth or up your nose and they really do not take no for an answer!
To get out to see Uluru i joined a 3day tour with The Rock Adventures, it was yet another really well organised tour with plenty of food!! and a very good guide.
On the first day we went to Kings Canyon and walked around the rim, this very nearly killed me as i was so unfit and it was 40degrees! Fortunately for me i had made friends with Maria, a german girl who happens to be a tri-athlete and who didnt have a backpack to carry her water in adn so she offered to carry my water too if she could borrow my backpack - sweet!! I did of course offer to share the load but i think she took one look at me and decided i probably wouldnt get very far!!
In the evening we drove out to a cattle farm and camped in swags under the stars. It was really great, we were in the middle of the cattle farm which meant we were miles from anywhere as some of the farms are as big as European countries!! and we cooked our food over the fire and spent the evening looking at the stars and in my case also wondering what the chances were of a poisonous snake climbing in the swag while i was sleeping! Needless to say i didnt get that much sleep!
The next day we made our way to Kata Tjuta National Park and checked out the Ulgas, which in my opinion are equally as impressive as the rock! We started our walk round them early this time to avoid the heat so it was slightly easier than the walk the day before had been.
Finally it was off to take a look at Uluru. Uluru was handed back to the Aboriginal people 22years ago and it is now on loan to the government so that tourists can visit it. Some parts of therock are very sacred and so you are not allowed to take photos. We were gievn the oportunity to climb to the top, however, we were advised against as firstly it is very dangerous and a number of people have died and second it is disrespectful to the aboriginal people as the track to the top crosses over a sacred mens walk. Despite this a number of people unfortunately still felt the need to do it, i guess it was jsut so that they could get the t-shirt! But personally i thought it was a bit rude as the Aboriginal people have suffered enough at the hands of foriegners.
We went to the rock both at sunset and early morning so we could see sunrise and then on the way home we stopped at a camel farm and i went camel riding! I was only on the camel about 5mins as it raced down the paddock but it was worth every penny, goodbye horses hello camels!!!

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Photos

uluru, fiji, start of oz 003
Check out the temp!

uluru, fiji, start of oz 005
Everywhere was so dry and barren