So on the second day I drove about 700 km, to see the first of the the Tors of the Inland: Mt Conner.
Then I spent the night at a campground - yep, "The" campground where baby Azaria Chamberlain was taken by a dingo almost 30 years ago. They're about to have (I think) the fourth coronial inquest into it.
Anyway the next day I visited Uluru. Here is the compulsory sunset shot.
I didn't climb it, but did the base walk instead. This is about 10km. It was unseasonally hot - 37 flamin degrees! So a little under half way, I wandered off the path and into one of the gullies that run down the rock, and spent the middle of the day relaxing under a nice shady boulder.
The rock has amazing texture. It weathers in patches. One patch flakes off from the changes in heat or whatever; underneath is pasty yellow-white. As it slowly ages, it turns orange then red as iron oxidises. Meanwhile the bulgy bits around it are also flaking off to reveal pale patches, leaving our now red patch protruding. As a result, during the middle of the day, the sun mostly hits the pale patches and these dominate the colour. As the sun sets and the angle increases, the recessive pale patches fall into shade, the protruding red patches begin to dominate the colour. Neat, huh?
The next day I visited Kata Tjuta, "Many Heads", or the Olgas. The area is all extra secret Men's Business, so I'll just post this photo from a distance.
