This morning we met Nan and Gramps out at the Cultural Centre at Uluru to learn a little more about the stories of the area before heading off on our walking adventures.

To see Uluru up close is awe-inspiring, I don’t think you truly appreciate the sheer enormity of it until you are up close or realise the variety of textures of the rock face. We completed 3 walks of the area, learning about the various sections used for different purposes (ie the kitchen cave for cooking, the women’s area to teach etc). Firstly we completed the Mala Walk to Kantju Gorge, then the Lungkata Walk around the base of Uluru followed by the Kuniya Walk to the Mutitjulu Waterhole. Our 3 walks totalled around 7km though Nan, Gramps and the boys pulled out at the 5km mark so “G” and “A” had to walk back to collect the two cars 😀

We really enjoyed all the sights of the area and learning about all the tiny swallow birds who gather in the thousands near the watering holes. We also learnt that there are tiny shrimp that live on Uluru who can survive after the wet season by going down into the deep crevices in the rock where they are able to live on the water that has been absorbed into the rock until the next rains come – fascinating!

After our walks, we drove around Uluru before heading back to the resort for some lunch which consisted of sandwiches as we were in a bit of a hurry to get to the Bush Tucker demonstration at 1pm. What an absolute blast!! The presenters were not only hilarious but super informative and we learnt all about the “Chemist Warehouse” bush, the “Jenny Craig” berries and the “Bakers Delight” seeds 😀 After the informative session of the presentation, we were treated to some Wattleseed shortbread biscuits which were yummy.

By this stage everyone was a bit weary so we headed back to our apartment for a bit of a relax before heading off on our evening adventure. We had booked to see the Field of Lights, including watching the sunset over Uluru atop a dune with drinks and canapes provided. The bus picked us up just before 6pm and took us to our secret destination where we were treated to as much drink as we wanted (needless to say Gramps and “G” were pretty happy with the red wine selections!) and individual boxes of canapes which consisted of a ricotta and sweet potato cake, kangaroo slider, blue cheese profiterole and salmon and pea tart. I think everyone enjoyed most of it except the blue cheese profiterole.

Watching the sunset over Uluru and the colours of the sky change as it turned to night was pretty cool. The Field of Lights came to life as the sun went down so we were lucky enough to see them from a high vantage point before walking down the dune to wander through the lights before our bus collected us close to 8pm. Back at the apartment we had a few more drinks and nibbles before calling it a night.