It’s my mom’s birthday, so happy birthday to her! Ulla too!
We were up at 6am to head to Katja Tjuta, AKA the Olgas. Breakfast was en route, and was mostly just bread with various spreads, and some canned peaches. Geographically similar to Uluru, we had a choice between a longer hike or a shorter one. I figured it was probably my last time ever there, so I opted for the longer tour. It was a few degrees hotter than the day before, but probably not quite 40 degrees. A few of my tourmates were getting a little annoyed with the tour guide, who didn’t seem all that interested in touring – leaving us to find our way on our own (not that it was a difficult trail to follow, but it seemed silly to leave some solo hikers alone on such a hot day. He was also a little less than patient when it came to certain people asking questions, which riled a few people as well. I think we’d have complained if it wasn’t his last tour. I had no altercations with him, so I wasn’t overly upset. His insistence on teaching us geology lessons while the hot sun beat down on us was a little tiring, but I think he just enjoyed drawing maps in the sand.
After the Olgas, we headed to Uluru for lunch – which was sausages, corn, and salad. The men were in charge of lunch, and I was in charge of the sausages, so I got to spend some of my time over a hot barbecue. We drove around Uluru once, and did a short walk through some of it before heading to our campground for the night. A little classier than the last joint, this place had showers and a bathroom. It also had a pool, so a few of us swam for about half an hour before we were whisked back onto the bus to watch sunset over Uluru. The viweing area for sunset was filled with tourists on their buses. They’d obviously paid more than us as they had tables with wine waiting for them, and fancy buffets. Our dinner was chicken curry, but unfortunately a major ingredient, curry, was missing, so instead of eating while the sun set we took some photos of the rock, and sat around. We headed back to the campground and had dinner (quite tasty), then sat around chatting for most of the evening. We had to be up super early in the morning, so we climbed into our swags before midnight for some rest.
