Miss Uluru.

Well just like all the post cards and photos that you've seen of the big rock. This is it! To be honest when I first saw it it was wow, then as I drove around it to get my bearings, it was; well this is great but why doesn't it jump up and down or move about?

It's impressive at first but I quickly got a little bored of staring at it. It doesn't appear as impressive as the pyramids or The Great Wall. Probably because it's just a natural bug lump in the middle of nowhere. The land around the place is quite flat and just full of scrub. The air views were much better when flying in to Ayres Rock airport.

I was very surprised to see the number of people climbing up it though. Even though it's advertised everywhere that the people here don't want you to climb up it people still do. The reason that you aren't physically stopped from climbing it is because of the money that it brings in. I just can't believe the lack of disrespect that some people have though.

After checking into my hotel I walked around the Ayres Rock resort. I was surprised how touristy the place is. Despite it being low season there were quite a few tourists about. The place is hardly busy but there are enough people here to not allow me to be alone around the rock.

I watched the sunset from one of the viewing points today. I must say that I wasn't too impressed. After all I had heard about the amazing colours at sunset I was expecting more than I saw. Maybe it's better in the summer with a more intense sun. It was hot enough for me at 30 degrees and I can imagine it gets much worse in the summer. There were a few flies but not enough to be anything more than just a little annoying.

I've booked myself on one of the shorter guided tours tomorrow morning and am looking forward to walking around the base and watching the sun rise tomorrow morning on my birthday.

I managed to get up to see the sunrise at Uluru today. That means getting up at 5am for me as the sun rises around 6am here. I decided not to go to the designated sunrise viewing point for Uluru as it would mean the sun would rise behind you which is not what I wanted to see.

Instead I went to the same sunset viewing point that I was at yesterday. Needless to say that it was empty and there were quite a few cars and coaches that passed behind me on their way to the sunrise viewing point. I was surprised how many cars and coaches went there.

The sunrise view was good, but when the sun actually rose and I could see it rising up on the horizon the view was absolutely spectacular! I couldn't believe how beautiful it was to see the sun rising next to Uluru. I was very happy to be where I was and it really made my morning.

After seeing the sun rise I went for some breakfast and then went to a short two hour tour that I had booked yesterday. It was an interesting tour and outlined some of the methods of the Aborigines. The best part though was being able to have a go at throwing an Aborigine spear. I even managed to hit the dummy kangaroo on my first go too. Probably more by beginners luck rather than anything else.