We were originally planning to catch the sunrise at Uluru but decided to get some extra sleep since we have a long day. We got to Uluru for an 8am ranger-guided tour which was very interesting - he told us about some of the cultural stories and showed us some traditional tools and how they were made and used. At the end of the tour, I got to try walking with a "piti" (wooden gathering basket) on my head - Craig and I agree that I did quite well!
We spent some time at the Cultural Centre and tried to buy tickets for the afternoon Dot Painting Workshop, where a local aboriginal would teach us about dot painting and we would get to paint our own canvas. Unfortunately they needed 6 participants to run the workshop and we were the only two to express interest so we weren't actually able to do it. Shame.
We drove to Kata Tjuta (32 domes similar to Uluru) and did a hike down a gorge. On the way back it started raining. Rain! In the wet season! This shouldn't be exciting but it was - we hadn't seen any rain all trip other than a couple of pockets of pouring rain which lasted 10 mins. We drove all the way around Uluru hoping to see some of the waterfalls going but all we saw was one waterfall where the wall was wet.
On the drive to Kinds Canyon, we got stuck behind a car that kept drifting into the middle of the road and then quickly correcting. We couldn't tell if they were falling asleep, drunk, or just a really bad driver. The first time we tried to pass we tried the trick we learned in India - to drive with your hand on the horn. This didn't work as the car was still drifting into our passing lane so we had to bail. Finally, we were able to get past (again blaring the horn) and I caught a glimpse of the driver on the way past. It wasn't a good look but I swear it was an aboriginal child driving. Later in the drive we had to slow down when a wild camel ran across the road. That's new!
We got to Kings Canyon in time to watch the sunset and got to bed early so we can do a sunrise walk in the morning.
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