We arrived at Uluru (Ayers Rock) in mid-afternoon and got on the bus to Yulara, a town that was built specifically for tourists. It consists of four hotels, a campground and a town square with a couple of restaurants, tourist shops a post office and supermarket.

We were booked in to the Sails in the Desert hotel but we had no idea of what to expect. An internet review described it as a 'two-star hotel with five-star prices. They were wrong. It had the five star prices but it was a five-star hotel, absolutely gorgeous. And as in all the places we stayed at the staff couldn't have been friendlier or more helpful.

Our first tour was called Sounds of Silence. We were picked up at our hotel about 6.30 and tak3dn to Uluru to watch the sunset. As the sun goes down, the rock changes color. They served us champagne and beer (this is Australia) and kangaroo and crocodile canapes as we watched. After the sunset we were taken out to the desert. We came over the rise and there were tables with white table cloths and candles. We were served a meal with wine as the star came out. The night sky was brilliant and we were told the aborigine legends of the sky. A really great evening.

The next day I went on a walking tour completely around the rock. We started by watching the sunrise over Uluru even more brilliant than the sunset. We then were driven to the trails around the rock and spent the next few hours with a guide walking around the rock and listening to the aborigine legends about the rock. Laura, meantime went to a painting class where she learned the symbols used in aborigine art and did her own painting.

The only negatives were the heat and the flies. During the day it regularly got over 100 degrees but even worse were the flies that were constantly buzzing around everyone. We had bought insect netting in Alice and we wore it constantly, even indoors. We were told the flies were worse than normal because there had been a rain a few days before we arrived and that increases the numbers exponentially. The flies don't bite but their swarming can drive you nuts.