Early start at 4.45am to see the sunrise at Uluru. Firstly the swags (canvas sacks with mattress inside them) had to be rolled up and put into the shed where the redback spider lives. I took a photo ut too much camera shake!
Than an eight kilometre walk around the base of Uluru. You can climb the 330 metre rock but after visiting the cultural centre this morning to learn about the spiritual significance of the place and out of respect to the aboriginal people it was not something I wanted to do. Essentially its a bit like the aboriginal people arriving at your church or home and climbing the roof. The rock close up has many features to it which all have aboriginal stories to explain the markings. One passer by commented the above rockface looked like Darth Vaders mask. Somehow I do not think Star Wars is an aboriginal story.
We then made the long long long drive through the outback to our Kings Canyon campsite. Typical Australian good humour shown by the campsite sign.
We waited for sunset before starting up the campfire and cooking our dinner.
Afterwards it was toasted marshmallows where Athena found a stick that toasted twelve at a time. We also found a scorpions nest and what a feisty thing he was. Out he would come like a bullet when we brushed a stick in the ground. Mr Scorpion did prey on my mind later as I slept outside again tonight but not as much as the dingo who tried to steal my trekking shoes from under my sleeping bag. At four in the morning it took me a few minutes to regsiter he was next to my head (shoes were under the swag to form a pillow) but only seconds to swish at him with my arm. He seemed most upset, ran off and howled back at me in that eery noise only a dingo can produce. Tomorrow is the might Kings Canyon trek....
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