Todays post starts with some images from King Creek last night and this morning. The first image is of an ancient plant called a cycad, this one is female. The birds fluffing up their wings are Spinifex Pigeons, they started this behavior when one of the King Creek workmen turned on a water sprinkler. A number of these birds landed in the area being watered and essentially started taking a shower in the spray. There is an interesting story associated with the donkey pictured in image 6. When the camel in image 5 was young it was abandoned by its mother and the donkey took over nursing the then small baby camel. Now the two are inseparable. The images of the tents are examples of the range of accomodation that was available at King Creek.

From King Creek we had an easy drive to Yalara the resort town associated with Uluru or Ayres Rock. Yalara and Uluru itself are located on Aboriginal land that is jointly managed by Aboriginal peoples and the Parks and Wildlife of Northern Territory. If we ever wanted proof that Uluru is a major international tourist attraction just driving around this small town would have filled the bill. There were tour buses of all shapes and sizes, hire cars a plenty and obviously foreign tourists all over the place. Then of course there were a hoard of Australian families, couples and groups in their 4wheel drives.

As our first sightseeing event at Yalara we had organized to see a thing called The Field of Lights for A$86 we got 45 minutes to walk around a flat area of ground that was covered with 50,000 solar powered lights and long bundles of illuminated optic fiber that changed color every 6 seconds. It would be accurate to say we were a bit under-whelmed.

We stayed the night at the Resort Campground. A nice place with good facilities and some actual grass for tents.

Late in the afternoon before we went to the Field of Lights the French guy (Ronan) we gave a ride to a couple of days ago dropped by to say hello. During the course of that conversation we agreed to go together to Uluru Sunrise Viewing Area the following morning to see the sun rise; departure at 6:15am.