Day 12 –At the rock(s)

Slept in a tad this morning, quite cool, 8 degrees or so
inside so the snug little cocoons we were inhabiting seemed a vastly superior
alternative to a cold amenities block! 
This proved a very wise decision when I eventually emerged as the shower
was “bracing”!

We wandered out to the cultural centre mid morning – the
building is made of mud brick and leads you through a range of stories about
the rock and the people . A documentary
runs on a loop which has a voiceover by Noel Pearson I think. Very sharp contrast between the 50’s and now
on how the rock and its inhabitants are viewed. 


After the Cultural Centre we went through the aboriginal
arts shop – some of the artwork and sculpture was nice but very expensive. We went to and had a coffee at the coffee shop
after purchasing some souvenirs and ended up at the foot of the rock around
11-ish.

We wandered clockwise around the rock thinking that we’d be
on the shady side of the rock in the cool when it warmed up. Trouble was I was looking up and to the right
all the way and my neck decided that this was a perfect opportunity to start
playing up. My neck and I have an uneasy
truce, it used to give me some curry when I was mapping but has been good for a
while, today it was bloody murder! A
couple of pain killers and muscle relaxants didn’t do much and more at
lunchtime only dulled it but I managed to enjoy the scenery a bit .   

Strangely there were few seats around the walking track
which covers some 10km and I was a tad leg weary at the end of what turned out
to be something of an ordeal thanks to my neck. 
I waited for a while for GG watching people climb the rock. Many don’t notice the requests not to climb
it, most though, probably receive the same paraphernalia we did which clearly
asks people not to climb it, but are, I think, culturally insensitive.

We returned to the van for lunch and headed out to the Olgas
or Kata Tjuta in the mid afternoon. We
walked to a viewing platform, returned to the sunset viewing area and took some
nice shots. Pretty late back though so
too late for tea!

We’re off to South Oz tomorrow on the return leg of the
trip, Coober Pedy is probably the next point of interest and Broken Hill after
that. I’m up for a bit of a rest after
the last few days!