Mark had promised us a shower if we hurried up in the morning, so we all had a quick breakfast, rolled up our swags and cleaned up the site.
After the shower at tonight's camp site we made our way to Kata Tjuta, which in the aboriginal language means 'many heads'.
there we not only enjoyed the scenery but also learned about the geographical history of the area.
So a couple Million years ago there used to be a mountain range (now they're only hills) and when it rained a lot of dirt and stone came down and filled two holes. The first one always got the bigger parts and the second got mostly sand. Over the time it was pressed into stone. the first hole is the today's Kata Tjuta, it almost lookes like human made because it looks like stones cemented together.
and the second hole obviously is Uluru. there was also a big earth movment at some point which made the Kata Tjuta stone tip about 17 degrees, but the force on Uluru was way bigger making it tip 90 degrees. thats why the 'stripes' of stone are vertical on Uluru and almost horizontal in the Kata Tjuta.
Afterwards we went to the cultural center which is free for everybody. And you can learn quite a bit about about the dreamtime (creation story), but also about the National Park. the land of the NP was given back to the Aborigines but under condition of leasing it back to the government for 99 years.
The Uluru is one of most important places for the Anangu people. that is also why you are not supposed to climb the Rock. But it is also very dangerous. 35 people have died climbing it either by falling off or a heart attack, you have to climb at a 60 degree angle all the way to the top and the Uluru is 348 m high.
environmental issues are quite problem, too, cause people leave their waste up there or even go for a pee. And whenit rains it runs down into the water holes that are used as a water source by lots of animals.
In the afternoon we took a short walk at the Uluru to see some wall paintings and places where you cand see e.g. the footprint of a monster from the dreamtime.
then we had to hurry up to get a good place for the sunset and our dinner.
It was beautiful.
Afterwards the driver of the other bus highjacked our bus. He said that Mark took his bus first though. So that was quite funny.
Although we didn't have showers or proper bathrooms I actually liked the first camp a lot better. It had more of the actual camp feeling.