Sunday 18th July 2004 - Day 308/366 - Kings Creek Station, Northern Territory to Yulara, Northern Territory.
 
Well sleeping in a swag is pretty interesting.  A swag is basically a canvas bag with a foam mattress in the bottom that you sleep out in the elements in.  It's surprisingly warm and comfortable until 6am comes and you have to get out of it and face the cold minus your sleeping bag.

We were straight into it from the start with a 3 hour hike around the rim of Kings Canyon.  It's quite hard going and bloody freezing, but lovely.  I'm going to find it so hard to acclimatize when I get back. 

The initial climb to the rim is called Heartbreak Hill.  In truth it's no harder than Chalky.  When I think back to how quickly we climbed climbed chalky after a skinful of thunderbird, being late for dinner and not having 90p for the bus fare. 

The Canyon is grand and it's well worth facing the elements.  The guides always point out that this is a canyon.  Canyon are formed by the movement of the earths plates.  Gorges are formed by rivers and therefore the Grand Canyon is actually a gorge.  Bloody Americans.

On the way to Uluru we had a 2 of the rear tires blow out on the bus.  I had to change the tire so we limped into Yulara on just your 3 back tyres. 

We saw fooluru, or Mount Connor.  It's on the road to Uluru and is often mistaken for the Rock.

We arrived at the rock just on sunset and it's mighty presence is immediately apparent.  It's collosal size like nothing else around.  It's like a big rock in the middle of the desert.  You can't take your eyes off it.  They reckon that only a third of the rock is exposed and it possibly goes 6km under ground.  More of a boulder really. 

We camped at Yulara resort which has been purpose built to help cope with the 300,000 annual visitors.