Wot - no sunshine?

We've been here before, we came some four years ago with David and Mildred, and it rained.
We had high hopes this time, we had not seen a cloud for nearly three weeks now, it has been so hot. But as we turned off the Stuart Highway towards Uluru (Ayers Rock) the clouds started to gather above us.
One of the chief attractions of The Rock is the sunsets, but for that we needed a cloud free horizon, and certainly that first evening it looked unlikely, and proved to be so.
It was still very hot, 40 deg c, so we had booked an apartment for two nights. There is only one resort here, owned by just one company, so they have a licence to print money at our expense. Hey ho - so be it!

The Rock is probably the most photographed feature in Australia, it rises from the desert floor and is lonely and impressive. It is a single rock, standing 348 mtrs above the desert floor, and 3.6 kms long. It is believed that there is twice as much beneath the sand, and is a sacred site to the Aborigines, who request that tourists do not climb to the top. But many do when the route is open, which it isn't today, as rain is expected, and the temperature is likely to exceed 38 deg.

We chose to do the base walk, some 11kms long, (7 miles), so we set out very early in the morning to avoid the heat that invariably follows later.
This walk takes us all the way round the rock, passing caves, rock paintings, sandstone folds and geological abrasions.

Around every corner we came across a different feature, the colours in the rock change according to the light, and I can see why it is so revered by the natives, white as well as  indigenous. There are overhangs with cave art, and as we went along we would come to information boards with the Aboriginal dreaming stories which use the features of the rock in the telling.

Around 35 kms west of Uluru is Kata Tjutu, The Olgas. A striking group of 36 domed rocks standing close together and forming deep valleys and steep gorges. The highest, Mt Olga, is 546 mtrs high, about 200 mtrs higher than Uluru. We chose to do the shorter walk here into Walpa Gorge, and as we were nearing the furthest point the rains came. This made walking difficult and slippy, so we had to be very careful. The rain itself didn't bother us, it was very warm still, but the flies did though. They are persistent little b****** here in Oz, no matter how often one swats them they keep on coming back in droves!!

Of the larger animals here we had never seen a camel til today. They were introduced in the 19th century by Afghan drovers as a mode of transport for the desert, and were very successful. Unfortunately many became feral, and nowadays they have to be culled regularly as they take the feed that cattle need. But there are still a few around, and we saw one at last!

Alas, it seems unlikely that we shall see the sunset tonight as it is raining again as I write, I think this place has it in for us.......
For heaven's sake - this is the bl**** desert!!!