2oth - 21st Dec - Uluru

We left Jackie and Alice waving us off on the balcony - I think Alice will miss only our bags which she loved rummaging in.

The plane swept past the Olgas and Uluru (Ayres Rock) giving us our first views of the giant rock and a great photo opertunity. We arrived at Uluru and it was hot, really really hot. I headed straight for shade in the hotel while mad Pauline sunbathed. The nights tour included a camel ride at Uluru. Strange but true Oz has 600,000 wild camels roaming the bush. Basically they were a really good transport mechanism until the car stole their thunder, so all the captive camels were let go and now are a bit endemic.

We were both a bit apprehensive about getting on a camel, everybody says they are bad temered, smell and spit - a bit like Pauline then. We arrived at the camel station (for want of a better description) and the 20 or so camels were sitting on the ground in a neat row. They are massive close up and look fairly scary. The guide tried to calm us all down by telling us they are really friendly and don't spit. They vomit on you if annoyed - well that made me much happier.

We were introduced to our camel and took position me at the front Pauline at the back and, leant back and jerkily the camel stood up. Totally scared we were going to fall off, at first we held on for dear life and we hadn't even left the paddock.

The walk was through some bush near Uluru which in the changing light of sunset went from a rich red to a deep purple. Whats amazing about this mountain is the landscape it's in. There is basically nothing for miles except flat desert bush then out of nowhere Uluru and the Olgas thrust out of the baking earth.

I was pretty glad to be back at the paddock and off the camel, they are pretty friendly and have really regal expresions, I guess they know were terrified.

Back at the hotel, the town of Uluru has half a dozen hotels, the airport, a couple of shops and not much else. We opted for the BBQ at the hotel which to Pauline's shock was cook your own. She didn't, I did cos she doesn't know how to cook except to boil a few potatos. She was complimented on her onions and she was sure they meant the ones I had fried up.

Next morning we were up really early for the base walk at sunrise. The guide took us around the 9km base of Uluru passing the religious sites, telling us stories of the dreamtime and the ancient Aboriginies.

OZ has surprised me as there is really little info on the Aboriginies and their culture which is one of the oldest in the world and one of the most interesting. NZ have embraced the Mouri culture and even non Mouris know the history and are proud of it. OZ needs to do something similar.

The guide was really good telling us information on the Aboriginies view of the creation of Uluru and the geologists, I think I prefer the Aboriginies much more interesting.

The rock is amazing it acts like a giant sponge in the desert and around the base is an oasis with water holes dotted around. Unfortunately with lots of foliage comes lots of flies and Uluru must have more than you can shake a stick at. I asked the guide if the steriotypical Ozzie hat with corks on it works but he said he was way too cool to try - doesn't look to cool to me frantically waving your hands in front of your face every second in the Ozzie salute.

We had a couple more hours to kill before our flight so Pauline sunbathed while I took refuge from the heat in an air conditioned roomwatching really bad TV.