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Waking up around 4am was pretty hard, but I felt like I had the best sleep of my life. Apparently there were dingo tracks all crossed through our camp and around our swags when we woke up. That is a little scary to think they were wandering around and sniffing us during the night!
Headed off to a sunrise viewing area for Uluru. Everyone was slightly disappointed because we were actually at Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), and even though we had a spectacular sunrise view of Uluru, we were quite a distance away. Unless you had a ridiculously large camera (like Patrick's) it was next to impossible to photograph. There were a large group of people already with the best vantage points and I found it impossible to get a good view, so I took lots of photos of Kata Tjuta changing colours as the sun rose. I did manage to sneak in a few pictures of Uluru. It was bloody freezing cold out there at that time of the morning, I would highly recommend layers or at least a large warm jacket. I only had tights and a thin cardigan. I struggled to forget the cold and enjoy the scenery, at least until the sun was a bit higher in the air.
Back on the bus again before the day got too hot. Stopping for a toilet break in the smelliest toilets in the world on the way, we headed off for the Valley of the Winds Walk through Kata Tjuta. Again, here we felt out of this world. It was very surreal and felt like explorers discovering another planet. I kept feeling like we were in a science fiction movie, or on Mars! Or a dinosaur! The whole place feels ancient, history just seeps out of the rocks. There were a few people in the group who for health reasons couldn't do a certain part of the walk, so Alex told the group they could either do the easy route back to the bus with her, or head off and continue and do the full circuit walk. Evs and I chose the full circuit option and I am so glad we did. Despite the intense heat and the crazy amount of flies, we managed to almost complete the full circuit before I twisted my ankle rather amazingly. Not giving up, I continued on and decided (for some stupid ungodly reason) that a jump shot on a bridge was in order. I fell on landing and twisted the same foot again, only this time I think it was worse. Yikes!
We eventually made it back onto the bus where we headed back to camp for lunch. Packing up camp, we headed for Kings Creek Station, stopping along the way at Curtin Springs again to buy more beautiful white wine.
We stopped by the side of the road to view Mount Connor - which is also known as Fool-uru, as it is on the road along the way to Uluru and its rather large and kinda of looks the same, so everybody always things that is Uluru - when obviously it is not. The view was pretty amazing, and on the other side of the road, we climbed a little hill and there was a massive salt lake right in front of us. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to actually go down and have a look, because we were on a tour (downfall of tours - not enough time to soak things in).
Driving along again we stopped, this time to collect firewood. There was a lot of charred/burnt/dead trees along the road so we got in and had a great old time ripping these trees apart. It actually took a lot of effort and we were quite dirty by the time we had enough to put on the back of the truck. Some of the group completely refused to get in and have a go, which was a nightmare, these people shouldn't be on a tour like this, where everyone is expected to chip in and help out. We started resenting that fact, they were quite happy to let us do all the work for them. (These were new additions to our group).
Had to have a stop again to use the bush toilet - first time I had peed beside the road in the desert. The red dirt was extremely hot! By this time the bus was ridiculously hot as well, and my ankle was really swollen and sore.
Arrived at Kings Creek Station - elevation 2017ft! Set up camp, some of us helped cook dinner that evening, which we cooked over the open fore and took a long time to cook rice on a camp stove! I asked Alex if we could make some damper - being the only Aussie in the group apart from her, I thought you couldn't have a camp fire without damper! But she said, although she had the supplies, she didn't have a pan. I was a bit miffed because you don't need a pot to cook it in, you can either just wrap it in foil or just chuck it under the coals! But she flat our refused to let us make it! I'm getting a bit annoyed by Alex's demeanour now. She is rather pissed off at some of the group for not helping. She did try a little bit to get them involved, but some people were just useless and wanted nothing to do with helping out. Rather than get pissed off, she should have dealt with it another way. Her mood ended up spilling out through the group, and there was a weird vibe amongst us. She was clearly very inexperienced, and she did tell us that this was her first or second tour by herself. It showed. And just because some of the group weren't helping didn't mean that the rest should miss out on a typical outback experience of damper on an open fire.
Anyways, others went off for a quick swim or a wander around the camp ground. There was a really cute baby cow and also some camels at the station. There was also a little store where we got a slurpee! After dinner, we pull the camp beds outside and line them up around the fire. and we start telling ghost stories, until Hannah got too scared and asked us to stop! We had a really good night, having a good chat and a few drinks around the camp fire with the newcomers. Another British guy called Josh and I were having a good laugh. Eventually we all drifted off to sleep under the stars. It was magical. I had to take my glasses off eventually to go to sleep, but I didn't want to stop looking at the stars!!! I woke up in the middle of the night and heard a pack of dingoes howling at each other and they sounded rather close. It was a bit spooky!
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