Well, I ended up not sleeping in the swag last night because it got so cold and because a rain storm was forecast. I slept in the tent, and was frozen. Apparently, the swags were much warmer. Also, there was no rain. So I would probably have been better in the swag. I may try it tonight.
Another reason for not trying the swag was the shortness of the night - we arose at 4.30 a.m. so as to observe the sunrise over Uluru. This was almost as much of a waste of time as the sunset one. The sun was obscured by clouds, so there was virtually no pink light and certainly no colour effects on the rock itself.
We then spent some time at the Cultural Centre learning the stories of the local Aboriginal people. I also had to buy a hat, as I discovered I had mistakenly left mine behind (it had fallen between the bed and the tent). The new hat is cream coloured, embroidered all over with big black flies, and it says 'Wot flies?'
At 8 a.m. we were back in the bus and off to walk round the base of Uluru. For the first time, we saw views you don't normally see on the postcards and calendars.
We found the walk very interesting, there are so many caves and strange shapes to look at, and I took far too many pictures.
Some of the views are quite stunning.
There were also quite a few birds to see - at one point we saw some martens at a waterhole collecting mud for their nests in one of the caves.
There was another, larger, waterhole
which was near a cave that had been used for thousands of years by local people, so there was a lot of art work to photograph inside the cave. My photographs are rubbish though.
As we walked round back to the beginning we were able to look at the line of people climbing up and down. The slope looked impossibly steep and horrifying. The local people have leased the land back to the government, and have agreed that for 30 years, tourists can continue to climb it. However, they are begged most earnestly to choose not to do so. In spite of this, many people do climb - 3 of our party did so - apparently the views are stunning but the climb is classed as dangerous and apparently 38 people have died, either by falling or by having a heart attack. I nearly had a heart attack just looking at it!
By then it was 10.30 and the sun was burning down. We met two Aboriginal guides and an interpreter and went off for another hour's walk to hear their stories. We saw the different caves - one used by the men for teaching the adolescent boys (it was full of art too - like a teacher's blackboard)
one cave used by the women and children, and one by the old people. We heard some of the local creation stories. In one cave, there is what looks like a giant footprint made of stone.
It was all very fascinating but by 11.30 most of us were too tired to do more than stumble along behind them, and were extremely glad to be able to return to our air-conditioned bus. We said farewell to Uluru
and drove back to the overnight camp to make lunch (and retrieve my hat).
Then it was a 4 hour drive to Kings Canyon. We made a quick stop after an hour to view Mount Cullen, but it had disappeared in the smoke and heat haze.
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