FORTIETH DAY – TUESDAY 17TH AUGUST
I can’t believe it’s been 40 days already. We had a little sleep in this morning as we weren’t going too far today. Graeme made a yummy farmers breakfast while went and had a shower and washed by hair (you really wanted to know that didn’t you!) He’s getting very good at cooking the eggs sunny side up. We got going about 9 am to the Uluru Cultural Centre which is not far from the rock itself. On the first day we bought a pass each which gets us into the Uluru National Park for three days which you have to show through a check point area. We checked out the centre and booked ourselves into a couple of workshops – one on aboriginal art and dot painting and the other was about bush food and rock paintings and the culture of the people of this area. We then went and parked in the parking area near the rock and went for a walk. First we were only going to do a smaller walk but decided we had plenty of time to do the Base Walk which is 10.5 km walk around the base of Uluru. It was very cloudy and started out to be a great day for walking. Along the way we saw the many holes, gouges, dents and scratches in the rock. There were particular areas where you weren’t supposed to take photos as they were important sensitive sites to the Anangu people. Some sites are sensitive under traditional men’s law and others under traditional women’s law. The walk was quite easy as it was along a level gravel path. Towards the end of the walk the wind picked up and became really strong for the last 500 mts or so. At one point all you could do was stand still against the wind, and let the wind past. We finished the walk at 1.30 pm and then drove around on the road around the rock back to the cultural centre for our first workshop of dot painting. We went to the info centre to find out where the touch wall was, were we had to gather and the guy told us that he thought it had been cancelled due to the bad wind. I had to pick up the special phone which is a direct link to the organizers of the workshops/tours. Jason was on the other end and told me that the dot painting workshop had been cancelled and possibly the other tour would be too due to the over 90 km winds. I had to ring back in half an hour to find out. We then went and checked out all the different shops in the cultural centre. First went to the tucker shop to grab a drink and icypole and look at their merchandise. Then looked at the two art galleries/shops. We then rang up Jason and he told us that our second tour was also cancelled - disappointment! We were looking forward to both of the tours. We then travelled back to the campsite as we had thought ‘ oh gosh what might of happened to our table and chairs that we left set up on our site’ we checked them out and some nice camper stacked them up as he saw them blowing away in the wind. We had a good chat to him. We then went to the shops at the ‘resort’ and I wrote a couple of postcards – old fashioned style, while Graeme went and bought a few supplies for the next few days as we are leaving Uluru tomorrow to head south. We then checked out all the souvenir shops. We then headed back to camp and relaxed for awhile. I had bought a book on ‘Termites of Northern Australia’. Hey, I now know all about the little blighters – very interesting. (sorry, said I wouldn’t mention them again) We then walked to the camp lookout to watch the sun set over Uluru and Kata. It was totally different than last night as the sun was behind the very heavy cloud cover. Uluru became dark purple – I liked it. I am so glad we came yesterday though and got to see Uluru in its finest. As I write, right now, it is trying to rain (8.20 pm) and has been off and on for the last hour. Not much though just a few drops every now and then. They say you can be pretty lucky to view Uluru when it rains and so Graeme is hoping it pours down – I don’t think it is going to though. We had dinner of yummy steamed vegies and porterhouse steaks and a glass of red (this is for Liz ). We then sat outside in the slight wind and very mild night with a few drops of rain and a drop of red for me and a can of beer for him. Cheers.