Uluru DAY TWO!

The next day was the tour. Breakfast was a huge hassle. Cameron and I woke up and showered then found out the shuttle didn't run until 10:30. We were gonna meet at DJ's room at 8:30 so he could buy us breakfast. We left and walked 15 minutes in the super heat, dying. Finally got there and realized it was only 7:30 actually because we were mixed up. We walked back 15 more minutes (should have just stayed there and waited, also we were walking the longer way around without knowing). We took a 15 minute nap and walked another 15 mins back on time. The girls weren't there. We left without them at 8:30. We walked to one restaurant, looked around, decided to keep looking. We found the other restaurant after getting lost and walking a ton in the HEAT. Continental breakfast for $26. Yeah right. So we walked back to the first place, decided to go to the supermarket and then there. Luckily they were near each other. We finally met up with the girls who were late. We had breakfast which was good and then went to the shuttle to take us to the tour of the rock.

Us 7 joined a tour already in motion that stopped at our site for a bathroom break. It had been already going since 6am or something. We joined at 11:30am. It was 98% full on the bus. I sat next to a really aussie quiet guy. We got a sandwich and snack for lunch. We had 2 tourguides with very strong accents and they took turns driving and using the mic to provide stories and details about things. I learned a lot and it was very interesting! It was cool to look on one side of the bus to see the desert and plantlife, then to the other side of the bus/trail and seeing the effects of torching. No grass, all red, blackened trees. They really control the scorching well.

The outback is like a Dr. Seuss book. Red sand, green plants, and blue sky. That's it. And the plants are as crazy as the ones in the books. I want to see Arizona now to compare. I've never been to the desert before, and if I get to AZ, I suppose the experience will be watered down now.

We stopped at one rock formation and were given 34 minutes (17 as far as we made it and 17 back) to see it. There was a rock fall at the end so no way to see beyond. I thought I would die from sunburn. I only put a little on before we left from DJ. I didn't bring any. (I didn't tan at all) We went up and came back and ended up waiting FOREVER because of some foreign chick that sat ahead of me. She took so long and it was pretty rude. I guess they had a huge talk about being late and the time constraints, before we got on the bus. And the tourguide was telling us to give her a nasty look when she got on (it really sucked to just sit and wait) and to make things worse, a bunch of people applauded her. I didn't know why. Sarcastic clapping just doesn't work. Whatever.

We went on with more stories and info and driving and stopping at a few other places including a cultural center. No photos were allowed out of respect to the Aboriginal people. We got ice cream to refresh us. MMMM mint drumstick. More driving and some stopping. One place had pictures drawn in the rock a LONG time ago. Crazy! And above my head were boomerangs drawn at one site. I also ate food from the brush. Like tiny green beans.

We drove again to another spot in front of Ayer's Rock (Uluru is the proper aboriginal name) and had a picnic dinner. They gave us champagne or red wine or orange juice. I had orange juice. It was a little weird, not as sweet as I'm used to. I had a sip of Cameron's red wine. It wasn't horrible, but I didn't really like it. A bunch of other tours were at that area too, with their own food provisions (a cup of peanuts! *scoffs*). We also had awesome sausages with fried onions, and salad. Yum. We ate as the sun set and watched the rock appear to change colors as the sun set. It was awesome.

After dusk, we all got in the bus and drove home. They dropped the 7 of us off at our place before continuing their journey back to whereever they came from. I went to bed after showering the red dust that got on me.