Uluru

Well it's what we came for and G makes us get up at 6 am so we can drive and photograph the Monolith at dawn. Despite feeling that he is being a tad unreasonable on first full day of holiday, it being Good Friday to boot and I haven't even had breakfast let alone a hot cross bun, I am duly impressed by Uluru. Everything they say about its ability to change colour every few minutes is true and it is fascinating to watch the rock's surface flow from dark brown to red to orange and to melted chocolate - my favourite hue, though it could be hypoglycaemia settling in at this point.

We return after breakfast and decide to respect the Aboriginals request not to climb to the top as this is 'not what Uluru is about.' I am mightily relieved as I watch the line of ant soldiers inching along a rope fence gripping the steep side of the Northern territory's most spectacular icon, knowing in my heart that if it had not been for the local people's request I would have been forced along with the other gloved Japanese tourists( no I don't know why either) to ascend to the summit by my ever keen adventurer of a husband.

Instead we choose to do the base walk , some 10km jaunt in 30 degrees plus. Maybe just the Mala section would have sufficed.

It is during this walk that Ciara tells me she ' is not a schuman being' and Caitlin gives G his diagnosis OSD - obssesive sunscreen disorder which she has changed by the end of the walk to OWD- Obssesive Walking Disorder. We jolly the kids along by pretending we are a clan on a special walk to find a new home and we all assign ourselves jobs. When I ask Ciara what job she wants, I get' To annoy my sister!'

We do return to Uluru to photograph it once more this time at sunset where once again it does it's colour morph thing and I am equally fascinated by this and watching the throng of tourists arriving in interesting forms of transport and all types of traveller from the: O.k it's 1 minute after sunset lets go, to the lets get out the barbie and chairs and park down for a night of eating and no doubt guitar playing, to the somewhat lost looking Japanese tourists still wearing gloves and inappropriate attire i.e white!

Still Uluru has not disappointed.