Day 87 & 88 (Yulara)

Why even begin with 'we had an early start' – it's standard by now ;)

Today's schedule began with a 6km sunrise hike through Kings Canyon which I thought was going to kill me at first, but turned out to be a really excellent experience. The initial 15 minutes or so of the hike was up an almost vertical climb along really steep steps up the side of a hill. The view from the top made the pounding heart and gasping for air all worth it. I contemplated turning back once I'd got my photo taken but since it was still pretty cool out and the sun hadn't yet heated up to scorcio temperatures I pressed on. I was glad I did because the place was vast with more gaps and holes than I knew to expect. Wombat gave up regular talks on what we were seeing and kept us moving to make sure we were back to the bus before it got way too cold.

When we got back to the carpark we picked up two new passengers – a couple, on honeymoon, who had been screwed over by their travel agent/tour operator. The bus they'd been put on was heading in the wrong direction, but luckily we could take them to where they needed to go so all was well with the world. They slung their bags into the luggage hold and hopped onboard – nice to be doing a good thing for people, good karma :)

Our lunch stop was at Kings Creek Station where they had activities like helicopter or camel rides, quad bikes and rodeo type show stuff. I had planned on going quad biking but given how tired I was from the 5am wake up call and all the climbing and clambering over the rocks at the canyon I passed – turned out the rest of them did too. After we'd had a bite to eat and some of the crew had done a camel ride we were on the road again - destination Uluru Cultural Centre to allow us time to see what the local Aboriginals had to say about Uluru and it's meaning to them. It was good to get this in before our visit to the rock the next day as it gave people a chance to get the guardians point of view on whether to climb or not rather than doing it and then regretting it later because you didn't understand why they don't want people climbing on it. I never had the intention – some people did, but happily after looking in the centre nobody wanted to anymore. Each to their own and if someone had decided to do it, fair enough that's their call and off with them, but I was proud of our crew for respecting the beliefs and wishes of the Aborigines. I think something that may have swayed some of them was the Sorry Book. I'd read about Uluru in my guide book and found out that they get on average between 2 and 4 letters a week from people who want to return pieces of the rock that they've taken as a souvenir. They've found that since they took it they've had misfortune and want to apologise for it and seek forgiveness. I leafed through one of the sorry books and some of the letters I found were quite scary to read. One guy in particular had developed cancer, kidney failure, several strokes, his marriage failed, his kids were taken away and his life was in tatters – coincidence maybe, but still enough to give anyone considering climbing the rock and disrespecting their beliefs something to think about.

I was on cook duty the first night at Yulara with Michelle and Alet. We were serving up kangaroo steaks, beef burgers and bangers with a green salad and homemade coleslaw. I got stuck in on the coleslaw straight away because I figured shredding enough cabbage and carrot for 22 people might take some time. I'm pleased that every single last scrap of coleslaw was devoured...nice :) Alet sorted out the salad and Michelle was left at the hotplate trying to BBQ for 22 having never done it before – talk about deep end! But she performed gallantly assisted by the lovely James and they served up a mountain of meat that people took 2nd and 3rd helpings of – so, so, so, so good...Mmmmm!

We were back to basic-ish camping facilities tonight so it was a choice between swags or tents..13 of us went with swags. At first they were spread all over but after some talk of spiders, snakes and insects that caused some alarm (particularly when there was a joke about ants in one of the swags) we reshuffled and placed them in a circular formation with all the heads at the centre (minus one swag that was off at the far end leaving Richard alone – sorry dude!). So we all slept there head by head for the night. I was sharing my mozzie net with Abby who managed to tie herself up in it so bad that I woke up to find my head completely uncovered and some kind of giant cockroach type insecty thing sharing my pillow. I would have freaked out more had I been a) more awake and b) able to get myself out of the liner/sleeping bag/swag parcel I was so tightly encased in. Instead I hoped it wasn't poisonous and blew it off onto the ground and grabbed some more mozzie net for myself.

Again we were up at 5am, but this time to get us to the sunrise view point for Uluru and boy was it worth it – magic! From there we drove to one of the entrances to the base walk where we started off and did loop that was just shy of 10kms. We were careful to take pictures only in the areas that it was allowed and stuck to the path the whole way around. I know it's a giant red rock in the middle of nowhere – but it's a damn impressive giant red rock. Every angle of it was different, it was awe inspiring. When we finished up the base walk we met up with Wombat who took us on the Marla Walk and provided the interpretation of the rock for that portion. It was nice to have someone point stuff out to us for a while rather than just walking around wondering if there was any significance to the portion of the rock we were looking at.

Lunch was at Yulara shopping area where I did a spot of retail therapy. I got me a new shirt, flip-flops and a didgeridoo. Been looking for one that's got the traditional colours and isn't too big or heavy for getting home – got the perfect one, now all's I've got to do is figure out whether I'll try to learn to play it (I bought the instructional CD) or use it for decorative purposes.

After lunch we went to see the Olgas and a good number of the crew went walk about for a few hours there. I stayed behind at the bus because I'd managed to twist my knee in my sleep during the bug incident and having done the base walk on it earlier in the day it was quite sore at that stage. Rested up and it feels much better now :)

When everybody got back we moved on to the sunset viewing point for Uluru which was magical. We had champagne and nibbles (didn't really needed food afterwards). It was a pretty special time...kinda wished I was there in different circumstances. Love this group like family, but miss my family if ya get my meaning.

Back at camp the chef team cooked up a delicious chicken stir fry that we struggled to eat. I spent most of the evening sorting out blog entries and photos so by the time I was ready to sit by the campfire almost everyone was already tucked up in their swags. I managed to recruit Libby to come with me to the lookout a short walk from the camp to see if the stars were more visible than the previous night. We were pleasantly surprised. The sky was lit up with stars and the Milky Way was awesome. We got to see some shooting stars which was pretty class. When we got back to the camp I bunked down in my swag with a really clear view of the stars. Now here we are, 3 nights left on the trip – Coober Pedy, Adelaide and Narrandera. Then we pull into Sydney and after a blowout to celebrate Richard's birthday and us making it to Sydney we go our separate ways. It's weird..and as much as it surprises me...I'm not sure I'm happy about it!