Ayers Rock Day 3

Another day of waking up at 4am, this time to see the sunrise at Ayers Rock. Sadly due to the overcast skies the sunrise wasn't that great, but the outback breakfast of ham and egg rolls and bilby tea was delish. We then went into the national park to some great Uluru (what the Aboriginals call Ayers Rock) photo spots. We then drove over to the part of Ayers Rock where you can climb up. Its important to note that even though the climb is open, the Aboriginal people are strongly against it. Besides the fact that it is incredibly dangerous, the Ananu people believe that the spirits of their ancestors reside within the rock. As such it is extremely disrespectful to climb it. If a foreigner dies while climbing the rock the Ananu gather for a week to sing the spirit of that person back to its homeland so it doesn't get lost on its long journey home. We then drove around to the "Mala man" where we learned the story where another tribe invited the Mala people to their village for a ceremony, but the Mala were conducting their own ceremony so they couldn't got. The other tribe was offended by this so the conjured up the demon dog who came to attack the Mala. The Mala man stood to face the beast so his people could escape and the dog grabbed the man and slammed him against the rock. So now you can see the impression of his head and the dog's tracks on the side of the rock. We also learned the story of the 2 snake Liru and Kuniya. I'll let you google it if you want to know more. After that we went to the Cultural Center where I purchased an amazing dot painting. After my sunrise tour I took an Aboriginal dot painting workshop. It was led by two Aboriginal women and their interpreter. Our teachers were Bonnie and Julie. They told us stories in the sand and taught us what all of the symbols mean. After the lesson we created our own dot painting stories and then shared with the group. It was really fun and interesting to learn all about the culture. After that I was dropped off at the Camel farm for my sunset tour on camel back. The camels were really funny and a bit smelly. I was given a camel named Cuzco, and if you know me you know I love Disney movies so a camel named after the Emperor's new groove was very fitting. I got on my camel and then braced myself for him to stand up. We walked through the desert in a little camel caravan while our guide talked about the plants and animals of the desert. The sunrise was beautiful. Then it was back to the farm for some traditional bush tucker. We had beer bread and traditional spices and a bbq. It was really great and the other 6 people in my group were really interesting people. It was an awesome day,