We were all awake surprisingly early and had showered, eaten and packed up by 8am! Although we were all getting ready quickly, it wasn't quick enough as there was an awful amount of flies and mosquitos, so we all got bitten several times. Being up early gave us time to take some photos of the area and visit the shop before getting back on the road by 9am with Uluru (or Ayers Rock) firmly in our sights! We were only just over 3 hours away so Matt drove us there with no trouble at all, especially as the directions consisted of driving straight for an hour and a half, turn left and then straight for another hour and a half. After a few hours, we thought we could see Ayers Rock in the distance, it looked rather impressive, so we stopped and took pictures only to later realise that it was actually Mount Connor which is one of the most photographed red herrings in the world as everyone does exactly what we did and thinks it's Ayers Rock. It didn't take long to work out why it's called the Red Centre as the sand and gravel turned an amazing bright red colour actually getting more and more red the closer we got to the centre, it almost looked like the colour of a dark red house brick once it got to its darkest colour. The terrain constantly changed between being red desert like to actually quite green with trees and bushes, it was very strange. With all this scenery to distract us we arrived at the Ayers Rock resort in Yulara in no time at all.
 
After checking in to the campsite and setting up our tent, we headed straight for the National Park and the rock itself! Uluru is of great spiritual significance to the aboriginal people and, as a result, they request that people do not climb the rock out of respect for their beliefs . Unfortunately, this request has been ignored so often, with many people being injured and some even dying attempting the climb or by falling off, that the caretakers of the park have erected a rope and walkway along part of the rock for people to climb to help prevent further accidents. This does give them the ability to close access to the rock completely if the conditions make it unsafe, for example, if the temperature reaches 36 degrees they deem it as to hot so they close it. Thankfully, it was quickly approaching 40 degrees so the entry was closed meaning the boys couldn't climb it even if they wanted to and I was off the hook!!!
 
One thing that stands out here just as much as the rock itself is the ridiculous number of flies. We had heard earlier on our travels that it was going to be quite bad here but I think we underestimated it a bit. Luckily Matt and I had bought head fly nets after the experience at Kulgera campsite and it was a good job too as there were literally millions of them. Even with our nets on it was almost like a form of torture as they landed all over you . How Gareth was coping without a head net, I do not know as we certainly wouldn't have stepped out of the car if we didn't have them. I don't really understand why there are so many here but it's far far worse than anywhere else we had been before!
 
There is a 3 hour walk that takes you all the way around the base of the rock but, with it getting ever hotter and the number of flies increasing by the second, we decided to complete just the shorter Mala Walk and drive around the base instead of walking it! This gave us the opportunity to take lots of photos from various angles, without being attacked by flies, and kept us out of the blistering heat! After driving round we stopped at the Cultural Centre where they had a colourful display of the dreamtime stories this particular group believe as well as how they lived and survived on this land. There were a few shops, including an art gallery, souvenir shop and cafe which we had a little look in before making our way back to the camp for dinner.
 
We had decided to watch the sunset as we imagined it would be pretty spectacular with Uluru and The Olgas in the background so, after quickly eating our gourmet travellers' dish of super noodles, we made our way back to the Talinguru Nyakunytjaku viewing area just in time to see the sun go down and cast beautiful colours over both formations . It really was a wonderful view! This would of been an amazing place for a nice picnic or relaxing glass of wine but it's just impossible with all the flies and not quite as romantic with you both wearing head nets!
 
Knowing that we wanted to be up early to watch the sunrise, we decided to have an early night and climbed into our tent around 9pm. We had barely closed our eyes when we heard a commotion outside. Matt peeked out of the tent expecting to see lots of people but instead was shocked to spot 3 camels walking past eating the grass. I initially thought Matt was winding me up but I soon realised his shocked reaction was real! They were so close to our tent and so engrossed in their meal they nearly trampled all over the tent next to us, thankfully it was empty! We leapt out and grabbed our camera but with a few other campers having the same idea, the camels were soon spooked and darted off to wherever they had come from! This was especially funny as we had been wondering if we would see any camels as there are supposed to be more here than anywhere else in the world but we didn't expect to nearly get trampled by the first ones we found in the middle of a secure campsite . This almost felt like the roles had reversed from when we saw our first kangaroo! Thankfully not quite though!!
 
It felt like we were only asleep for moments when our alarms went off at 5am! Nevertheless, we all set about packing up the tent in record quick time and within minutes we were in the car and ready to leave! I climbed into the back of the car and it wasn't long before I was asleep again! Gareth drove us back into the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and towards the viewpoint we had chosen for this morning's sunrise. We hadn't been there long when we realised this spot probably wasn't going to offer us the best view of the sunrise as it was mostly blocked by Kata Tjuta (or The Olgas as they are better known!). We stuck it out for a bit but when it became clear it wasn't going to improve we quickly jumped back in the car and dashed to another lookout, just in time to catch the sun as it rose above Uluru, it really was beautiful! So amazing to see it rise up over such sparse land.
 
After spending some time taking photos, we made our way back to the car to have breakfast and pack up the camping gear properly before heading on to the Valley of the Winds . At the Valley of the Winds, there are 3 different walks you can complete: Karu Lookout, Karingana Lookout and the Full Circuit. As the full circuit takes about 4 hours to complete, we ruled that out pretty quickly! We were all keen to go to the first lookout though, with the boys wanting to continue to the second lookout. We realised quite quickly after setting off that this wasn't going to be an easy walk as the terrain was very rocky and loose underfoot which wasn't so good for Matt as he'd decided to wear his thongs instead of his walking boots. We reached the Karu Lookout fairly quickly, I think it only took about 25 minutes, and stopped to take a few photos. This was where I had planned to stop and let the boys continue but, as it had been relatively simple so far, I decided to carry on! We had walked for about another 5 minutes when the terrain changed dramatically and suddenly we were walking up a rather slippery slope with a lot of loose rocks and I really didn't feel comfortable. Rather than continue and hold the boys up, I decided to turn back and waited for them in the car where I felt much safer!
 
The boys returned at about 10:30am with lovely photos from the second viewpoint . Matt had quite sore feet now from completing the walk in his thongs. He had slipped a few times but had managed reasonably well considering, there was no rest for him though as we were straight on to the next walking trail, Walpa Gorge!
 
It takes about half an hour to reach the end of Walpa Gorge and there you are rewarded with a lovely view back towards the land. It was a reasonably easy walk only made tricky by the number of flies and having to dodge camel or kangaroo poo - Matt and I couldn't agree which it was! We were the only people at the platform at the end so we sat for a while to take in the view before heading back to the car. The heat was definitely getting to Gareth as he found two rocks and started doing a Monty Python style horse ride back to the car! From here, we made the short journey back to the resort to have a look in the supermarket to pick up some supplies before setting off at about 1pm for our next destination: Kings Canyon.
 
We pulled into Curtain Springs at about 2pm, just as our odometer clicked over to 2000km, to refuel which gave us another chance to take in the spectacular views of Mount Connor . Something we have noticed while we have been here is how crazily expensive petrol is! We have had to pay up to $2.30 a litre rather than the usual $1.40 ish. I guess it must be tricky getting it out here and with one service station every 100km or so they aren't really in competition with anyone! Also it would cost a lot more to get someone to come and help you if you ran out of fuel out here so we will just have to continue to pay it!!
 
By 2:30pm, Matt was struggling to keep his eyes open so we switched seats and I took over the driving. It wasn't long before he was dozing along with Gareth, only waking up whenever I braked sharply or called out a type of animal I could see in the field or by the roadside we were passing as we had wild cows and horses on the road at different occasions.
 
We finally arrived at Kings Canyon at 4pm, all feeling pretty worn out after our early start! Matt went off to sort out a pitch for the night and came back $57 worse off but with a free cup of tea and coffee in his hands, much to my delight! Considering it was so expensive, it wasn't a very nice looking camp resort like at Ayers Rock but the location was good so it did a job . We drove around the unpowered site and chose a spot that looked good then set up the tent before heading out to Kings Canyon for one final walk of the day: Kings Creek Walk. This was a very easy 2km return walk except for the flies again, it's meant to take an hour but took us about 40mins including stopping for photos of the spectacular view at the end. The walk back, however, was rather more eventful as suddenly Matt stopped dead in his tracks. Gareth quickly stopped too spotting what Matt had seen, leaving me at the back to be caught off guard and scream as a kangaroo bounced down from a great height and across in front of us! Hearing my scream, he too stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at us before continuing on his journey! Luckily Matt saw it when he did and it wasn't a very big one or there could have been a nasty collision! Safely back in the car we made our way back to camp to have showers, cook dinner and get an early night as the big Canyon Rim Walk was waiting for us in the morning!