Today I have travelled further by car than I have ever done before in one day. We picked up our hire car yesterday & set out today at about 7am for Ayer's Rock (the Aborigines call it Uluru in their culture, but in mine it's Ayer's rock. If they're allowed their culture so am I). It's a good sized trek out to the rock - about 290 miles each way. On the way there we passed various examples of the local wildlife, mostly in a state of advanced decay due to having been flattened by trucks etc on the road. Kangaroos seem especially vulnerable to this fate - we must have seen 50-100 corpses on the way there. One live animal we did see scared the wits out of us - the biggest lizard I have even see, right in the middle of the road. At least 4 feet long, nose to tail. We subsequently found out it's called a perenti. We thought it was another dead kangaroo lying in the road but as we got closer it turned out to be considerably alive. We should have stopped for a photo but neither of us were feeling that brave!
The rock itself is much more impressive up close than it seems in photos, which are generally taken from far enough away to get it all in. You don't realise how massive it actually is. You can drive round the entire rock, and get up close in places. You are allowed to climb it, but only during the day if the temperature is below 36 degrees C, which it wasn't today. The climb itself looks pretty dangerous - there are no steps, just steel posts with a chain attached to haul yourself up along. It's pretty steep too in places. Coming down is probably harder than going up. If you fall, or have some sort of seizure you are a long way from medical help. Quite a few have died while climbing to the top.
Anyway we're back on the train tomorrow afternoon, Moz is riding a camel in the morning, and I plan to visit a museum or two. Next stop Darwin.