Woken by the howls of dingos

…a piercing chorus of howls broke the early morning silence and stirred me from my slumber. I scrambled slowly out of the tent to view the commotion but it had already ceased and appeared to be coming from the hills behind the camp. Awake and behind on my blogging I took refuge in Bessie and plugged my computer in to get caught up. The sun rose with the kids and we organized ourselves for a short drive to Uluru and a pilgrimage saunter around its base. Having lived in Narrandera for 6 ½ yrs we were used to flies now and again finding the many orifices and moist areas of our face and managed quite well without putting the head netting on to avoid their advances. Perhaps due to the recent rains or not, legions of flies seemed to be doing their utmost to drive us batty – but we were tough (or stubborn) – unlike virtually all the other tourists making the trek who sported brightly coloured mesh over their heads to keep the annoying, buzzing, incessant creatures at bay. The 10 – odd kilometre walk and rising heat took it out of the kids a bit but we managed to eventually find our way back to Bessie and ventured to the local cultural centre for some lunch. As expected there were a couple of aboriginal art shops with literally hundreds of pseudo-professional dot paintings but nothing that truly grabbed our attention. The education centre was worth a look and the kids found some activity books which helped them break up the time and learn something about Uluru and the aboriginals in the area. Hot, sweaty and bugged out, we did a quick jaunt to the look-out over the Olgas – another sacred site opposite Uluru, which appeared more like a jumble of bolders which had all fallen together from the sky – quite distinctive in the flat otherwise featureless terrain of the area. Back in Yulara we keenly returned to an artshop we’d visited the day before and took a closer look at a few of the paintings. A couple of in-house aboriginal artists were painting as well and kept Piper entranced while Jen and I decided whether to purchase an amply coloured piece entitled ‘Bush Medicine’ – seemed rather 'a propo'. After some journal writing and other school work we packed up and headed back to Uluru to catch the sunset and witness the magic. True to form, without a cloud in the sky, Uluru lit up in different hues of red and dazzled the hundreds of tourists like ourselves gazing in awe upon it. Over 400,000 tourists visit it every year despite its remoteness and it’s easy to understand why. Having had our fill we headed back to base camp and under the romantic light beams of our AWD Bessie, cooked up and feasted on a mixed grill and veggies before retiring to our toasty warm and cozy tent for another night in the desert.