It's 2.30am and my face is going to fall off. The temperature has dropped to 2C, my head doesn't fit in the sleeping bag so my face is feeling the chill.

5.30am: Having contorted into a position so that I fit in the bag I've improved my status from really damn cold to just really cold. I muddle together some twigs and chippings not burned yesterday to get a welcome fire started. After spending one night in the bush I've turned into a fully fledged fire worshipper. It's easy to see what thousands of years did for the natives.

Uluru appears from the horizon bathed in the red, white and blue of early twilight. The sandstone monolith is a deep red as we commence the base walk accompanied by information boards relating the rock to Aboriginal legends. A stiff breeze whistles over the plain, accentuating the cold. As the sun comes over the horizon it lights Uluru an orange-yellow, easing my shivering. Yes, I'm a sun worshipper too.

Nearby Kata Tjuta (meaning "many heads"), was formed at the same time as Uluru and is a series of 36 domes as high as 550 metres. The sheer faces of sandstone and basalt block the sun on either side of Walpa Gorge, which we are walking through. Two kangaroos hop into the shade to escape the ever heating sun.

Later in the afternoon it's 30C and I'm struggling to figure how it was only in the morning that I was actively considering jumping in the fire. The road leads us through an odd ten building 'town' on the 500km stretch back to Alice Springs as the sun disappears over the horizon...now where's that fire?