Kata-Tjuta

9th February 2010 Up before the sun this morning to meet the 4WD tour bus which was to take us on our five day outback tour. There are 16 of us on the tour in all and what a mixed group we are, British, German, French, Swiss, New Zealanders, Dutch and of course our Aussie tour guide Paul. So, off we set towards Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Our first stop was the camel farm at Stuarts Well. Australia is the biggest exporter of camels in the world and also has the largest population of wild camels in the world. This was our first indication of not only the heat we would be encountering over the next 5 days, but also the flies. I asked Paul if they were bad because of the animals here and he said they weren’t actually that bad and would get worse. He recommended some cream that was originally designed for horses to keep away the flies called Desert Dwellers but we couldn’t get any so I guess it’ll soon be time for the fly nets. We had the option of a camel ride around the paddock, but passed and instead went to see the baby camel along with the kangaroos and emus that were also at the farm. ...

10th February 2010 We were woken by Paul at 4:30am while the stars were still high in the sky, now accompanied by a thin, yellow curve of moon. We were awake so early to be up and away to watch sunrise at Kata-Tjuta. The flies were very much in attendance and pleased to see us as we watched the sun rise over Uluru in the distance and cast its lengthening rays over the red rocks of Kata-Tjuta gradually changing colour. Even so, this is a beautiful time of the day before the heat really gets going. ...