Day 3 - My Full Day With The Wonderful Rock.....

So it was up at 5 after a great nights sleep in my new hotel, ready to head off to spend the day with Uluru.  Now, this rock really has a special place  in my heart and I am very aware that I may bore the arse off you all talking about it.  Tough.  But if you dont want to read anything about it there will be a million pictures following on!

So, me, Marvin and my Hitler tash coldsore (really not attractive but cant do much about it) headed off into the National Park.  Even in the dark the sense of Uluru is there, you can feel it and even with minimal light, when I first catch a glimpse of it I get goosebumps.  And this was no exception.  I found a spot away from the main crowds (fantastically dressed Japanese and Germans, all pretending to be Crocodile Dundee and all failing miserably) and settled in to watch Uluru welcome the day.

Now I havent got the best camera on this thing so some of the shots at dawn and dusk are not brilliant, but I tried. It was just as wonderful as I remember.  After the crowds had left, they go pretty quickly after the sun is up, I moved positions and got some more shots.  Visited theAboriginal Cultural Centre which is really informative and then drove around the Rock, getting more shots along the way.  After a brief walk at the Mala spot I came back to the resort to get supplies ready to head out to the Olgas, the other amazing rock formation you can see in the distance of some of my shots. I popped back to the room quickly, the first time in the daylight to find a cute millipeed trying to find his was out, and after opening the curtains I found out my room had a view of the rock!!!!!!

While I was in the town square, poster caught my eye and I thought, why not?! So in I went and an hour later, I was in a minibus heading to the airport for my 30 minute Helicopter flight over Uluru and The Olgas!!!!!

Now there was me and a very young and handsome pilot up front (I even asked him if he was old enough to fly!!!) and two miserable German bints in the back.  They didnt even speak to each other which made the flight wonderful!  The chopper was tiny and the wind was fierce but this made for an even more amazing trip!  The view from 3500 feet gives you a whole new take on how remote, huge and spectacular this place is.

So, after the lovely Angus dropped me, the Bints and the Bints 2 other Bints (they were in a different chopper) back at the hotel I got myself sorted to head back out for some more Dreamtime.

The weather had been forcasting storms and they were not wrong, I could see one moving in, so whilst everyone was heading back to the hotels in their coaches, I was heading out to the one viewpoint that I knew was under cover.

Now that was a good idea as the storm was immense!  Seeing the rain and lightening crashing down

 around the rock and listening to the deafening thunder was scary as I was literally on my own,but something I will remember!  Such a contrast from the morning!  I videoed some of it and just as I was panning round a huge lightening strike hit behind the rock, you can see the flash on the vid but I just missed it! Gutted.

But, now that the colours on the rock were changing and water was running down into the waterholes I decided to go visit one and take a look.  This is one of the most important sites in the Aboriginal culture associated with Uluru so to see it like this was great.  The colours and textures of the rock change in minutes and never fails to make me stop and think.

Sunset was next and although still raining and not alot of sun setting, the difference of seeing it like this made sitting the rain all afternoon more than worth it!

Again the pics arent too hot due to lack of flash but I did my best!  Back to the hotel to scrub the red dust from my feet and rest my weary cankles (down a bit today as it was just under 40 despite the rain!) and then to bed.

Leaving for Alice in the morning but still time for one more sunset........