Brothers under the Sun - The Rock Tour, Kata Tjuta, Uluru Day 2 / 07.01.2019

Yesterday Ewel didn't tell us what time we had to get up, just that he would make sure we wake up on time. Then Harry Potter's theme song started blaring at 4:20 am and I had to realize that the music wasn't part of my dream until I sleepily sat up, reluctantly left the warmth of my swag, rolled it up and put it next to the trailer to charge. There was already a lot of commotion around me and the breakfast buffet consisting of toast and cereal was set up - it wasn't easy not to stumble in the dark. The stars weren't very visible and it was amazing how far the Milky Way had moved. Henrik showed us Venus, which is best observed in the early morning.
After that, we quickly started because today we would drive to Kata Tjuta and hike its rock formations - preferably before the midday heat reaches us.
After we made a stop at our campsite for tonight because there were showers, we caught our first glimpse of Uluru during the bus ride to the national park. Even from a distance, I could feel its incredible magic and significance to the Aboriginal people. I also spotted a huge herd of wild camels between the trees on the side of the road, and I quickly took a few photos. They reminded me a lot of my family and friends back home.
The unique shape of the Kata Tjuta rocks could be admired from afar, and as we got closer, what initially looked like one big rock started spreading apart. Once we arrived, we went on a short hike down rocky steps and slopes, which made me already breathless at the thought of the uphill return. We would have to go back the same way. When we reached a green little valley between the rocks, Ewel told us some things about the place and then talked about the different hiking trails we could take here. We had to choose between a longer and a shorter trail, and our group consisting of Marie, Henrik, Bee, and Leo naturally chose the longer route. We climbed up for a while and had beautiful views of the massive rocks we were walking around. One part of the hike was called Valley of the Winds, and there the wind was noticeably stronger. My cap was almost blown away a few times.
At some point, we walked right through two closely placed huge walls, and when you looked up, you could see this special rock on both sides against the bright blue sky, which was very impressive. There were also a few Koreans from our group behind us, and we asked them to take some pictures of us. This led to a Hands up / Handjob conflict because the Korean guy wanted us to raise our arms in the air and naturally said "Hands up", but some of us heard "Handjob", which wasn't unlikely because his English wasn't very good, so he could have misspoken. We were puzzling about what he really said.
After our cool photo, the really difficult part of the trail came because we had to climb the steep rock without a proper path and sometimes without any grip, so we were practically crawling on all fours most of the time. But luckily, that was only the last hundred meters or so until we would meet the others who had taken the shorter trail.
Finally, when we reached the top, panting and out of breath, Ewel welcomed us with delicious crackers and was quite impressed with our hiking speed. When we looked at the time, it wasn't even 10 am yet. Normally, I would only just be getting ready to start my day at this time.
We emptied our water bottles and when everyone was there, we sat in the shade of a crevice in the rock, and Ewel told us some interesting things about the ceremonies and beliefs of the indigenous people, which outsiders were not allowed to witness, of course.
Then we started making our way back up the rock and we were glad to be done because the temperatures had already risen unusually high, even though it was still early - the trail would close at 11 am because it would be too dangerous to hike it after that, which I could easily believe.

Next, we went to a nice picnic spot in the middle of nowhere with a big table and a sunshade. We all made wraps with fresh salad ingredients, ham, and cheese, and Ewel even got some kimchi as a special gesture for the Koreans. I even tried some, but I have to say I'm not a big fan of it - especially the combination with the wrap was a bit strange. In the meantime, our gang name was created: Leo's Leftover Crew because Leo (who is actually a teacher - the most chill job ever in Australia, apparently teachers meet up like 5 times a week to get drunk) had told us earlier that he thought it would be cool to open a cafe, but he still needed a name and a market niche. And when Henrik ate half of Bee's leftover wrap because Bee couldn't finish it, the number 1 on the menu was created: half cold wrap with kimchi and cheese from yesterday. Perfect hangover food.

After this entertaining lunch conversation, we slowly got back on the bus, this time to go to a slightly more civilized area where we dropped off the Koreans in a small shopping street they wanted to explore, and for us, it was off to a very welcome saltwater pool in one of the small resorts. This cooling off was much-needed, and Ewel even jumped into the pool fully dressed - but no wonder, his outfit already looked like that of a true survivalist.

Around 4:30 pm, the sunset at Uluru finally arrived, and we would have our dinner during that time. But before that, we stopped at the Info Centre where the Aboriginal people explained their beliefs about Uluru, we could read stories from their culture, and see them painting. It was strongly emphasized to us not to climb Uluru, which all of us understood and accepted - unlike some others, as Ewel told us, who still went specifically to the famous rock in the morning to climb it.
Then we turned on the big red sandy parking lot right in front of the enormous natural phenomenon (estimated to continue 7-14 km underground, and only the top part was pushed up by the pressure from the oceans on all sides of Australia due to tectonic plate movements) and the sight was truly spectacular and magical. The sun was still quite high, and we were the only ones with a bus - but the parking lot quickly filled up, and at some point, there were probably around 15 huge buses. But we had already secured the best spots while Ewel prepared our dinner: chicken with vegetable noodle stir-fry. We took some group pictures, fought off the ants that wanted our food, listened to cool music, and simply watched as the rock became more and more red. The bright crop field and the red sand in front of it made the picture even more perfect.
The Koreans were all very sweet, and in the end, we were the last ones to leave the parking lot and head towards the campsite after the sun had set.
There, we could shower again, set up our camp - today there was no real bonfire, just a short video on Ewel's iPad to set the mood - and when the stars came out beautifully again, our little group went a bit further on a boardwalk to a viewpoint away from all the lights. From here, we could even see the silhouettes of Uluru and Kata Tjuta in the distance. Leo had found a new hobby yesterday, tracking things in the sky using his sky app on his phone, and so we gave more stars their names again.

However, at some point, we were really exhausted, so we walked back, crawled into our warm swags, and fell asleep with the thought of getting up even earlier tomorrow (because we wanted to see the sunrise at Uluru).

Song of the day: Hit the Road Jack by Throttle, because once you hear it, even if it's just that one line, you can't get it out of your head.