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The most exciting day of the trip so far! Firstly the bush camp reached new levels last night as winds picked up and we were peltered by leaves and twigs and having no shelter, I just had to hide under my swag bag and hope for the best!
With everyone tired from their interrupted sleep, running out of fuel was the last thing we wanted to happen in the middle of the bush. Fortunately their was a truck parked up on the roadside so we pulled over, syphened a sufficient amount of petrol out of it, left an "I owe you" note and continued with our journey. Being the honest kind of girl that I am I was outraged but the tour guide assured me that so long as you leave a note it's OK. Still looking out for the newspaper headlines of man stranded in the outback after petrol stolen!
We soon join Lasseters Highway, the first tarmaced road in days, horray! Our first stop is the Olga, five large rock formations, known to the Aboriginese as Kata Tjuta ("many heads") and thought to be eggs laid by serpents. Further down the highway, the big red rock becomes visible!
We arrive at Ayers Rock Campsite and I have to say for a while I was slightly more excited by the facilities available to us than the thought of seeing Ayers Rock at sunset that evening. There were showers, toilets (blocks of them!), swimming pools, telephones, mobile reception, internet access..we were back in civilisation!
After one very long shower , we joined all the other tourists at the sunset viewing point and watched the changing colours of Ayers Rock as the sun sets around it. I have to say that it was truely spectacular and definitely one of those moments that I will remember for the rest of my life.
An early rise the next morning to allow us to view the rock before it gets too hot and the flies become too annoying. I choose to walk around the rock rather than climb it, as the rock is of great spiritual signficance to the Aboriginese people and it was only a condition of the Australian Government when it handed the rock back to the Aboriginal people that tourists can climb it, even though this is very much against their wishes. The 9km walk around the rock allows you to see a number of spiritual sites which even to today their meaning is kept as an Aboriginese secret.
Onto Kings Canyon and along the way we see Curtin Springs and Mount Connor, as large as Ayers Rock but in no way as well known. We set up camp at Kings Canyon campsite and cool off from the 33c heat in the pool.
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