gone living

we got up early from a free campsite near uluru (aka. ayers rock) and drove over to have our look at the world's second-largest rock monolith. it turns out that, contrary to what i'd read in my guidebook, that Mount Augustus in Western Australia is the world's largest rock monolith.

largest or second-largest, uluru is impressive. after a walk through the cultural center, and a final decision to not climb uluru as requested by the Anagu. this means that we had a healthy 2+ hour hike around the entire 9.4km perimeter of uluru (although access was restricted to certain areas that are considered sacred to the anagu). despite the hordes of flies descending on our faces during our hike, we had a good time and got several detailed photos of different sections of the rock. note that almost every other tourist visiting the site were climbing right up uluru, despite the many requests from the anagu not to climb it.

after our hike we headed out to find a local campsite, and returned in the evening to view uluru at sunset. this is a great tradition, and the parking lot we were in quickly filled with other people out to get a good look at uluru. the rooftent came in handy as we climbed up to the top platform of our vehicle where the tent unfolds, and sat on top drinking ice-cold bottles (fresh from the land cruiser's powered fridge) of coopers pale ale, reclined on our backpacks, and enoyed the sunset while snapping away with our digital cameras.

if you'd like to see more, here are all the photos i took of uluru that day.