We were back in the village around 8am following the Field of Light and sunrise on the Rock experience. After a little breakfast we went off and picked up the 8 seater car that had been prearranged so that we could get around. Uluru is about 20km away from the village and Katu Tjuta 55km.

The morning had been set aside for some cultural involvement. First up was animal painting for kids. Not real animals but small wooden cut outs. Although, I suspect Nomads could participate if there was room. But they were set up for 60 and had to turn away some kids. So oldies didn’t get a look in. Alyssa and Piper joined in enthusiastically and managed to each complete two animals/birds. Dot paintings. They are both quite good art wise and seem to know what they are doing painting wise.

Following the painting a didgeridoo demonstration beckoned. Again a full house. The guy had the audience set up with clap sticks and had us clapping along as he explained the breathing and blowing techniques involved in playing the instrument. It is apparently a bit like bag pipes. Allthego struggled a bit in keeping the different beats going, not great tune wise. Allthego was unaware that ‘didgeridoo’ is not an indigenous word. It is a European onomatopoetic invention the guy explained, being the ‘sound’ of the noise we hear when the instrument is played. Aborigines from various parts of the country have different names for it, in the north it is known as a ‘yidaki’. It is also not culturally played throughout Australia, it is a creature it seems of an arc across the north of Australia, from the Broome area to the western side of Cape York. And not elsewhere. This is all a rough remembering of what we were told, could be some inaccuracies in my recall.

We had prearranged lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, made up from stuff from the village IGA. We took these out to Kuta Tjuta and enjoyed them at the picnic ground at the western end of the domes. They look totally different from this angle compared to the side on view from the road on the southern side.

The Walpa Gorge walk starts here and runs between two of the domes for about 1.3km on a steadily rising up and down path to the end of the gorge. The track weaves over the same conglomerate rocks that comprise the domes.

The conglomerate a real mixture of widely varying size smooth river worn rocks. Great hunks of it lying around having fallen from the gorge walls. A creek runs down from the end of the gorge with small pools along the way. Plenty of vegetation.

It was a pleasant hour and half walk there and back through the ancient landscape that was home to our First Nations peoples. Homealone had remained back at the car reading one of the Ramses ‘historical novel’ books. An interesting contrast of civilisations!

We returned to the village late in the day to put the feet up after a long day.