Friday brought Mike & Pat home.
Mike was exhausted from Country Week since he was on supervisory duties each night until all the students settled down then was up very early to head off to the games. He photoed other Pinjarra teams as well as coaching the girls basketball team, so his days were full. The girls team played very respectably, and all were pleased with their convincing 3rd place finish in a challenging division. 
Had they scored a single point more in the semi-final they would have been in the grand final - against a team that had met and lost to by a single point. Here are 2 (wow a record!!!) shots of Mike - one after their successful win for 3rd, and another with a fellow teacher / volleyball coach - wearing one of the gifts from the team (he also received an Aussie flag signed by the team and a basketball).We had a bit of a scramble to get Mike a tripod on Saturday morning as Patrick had left a critical piece behind at Gingin. Mike ended up with a new tripod, which isn't so bad since the old one was about 20 years old and missing some newer features. The scurry had us leave a little later than planned, and we arrived at the airport to extreme crowds - having to park in the 3rd or 4th level of overflow parking. Luckily the airline opened up express lanes for imminent flights and we managed to get checked in just in time for our flight to Alice Springs. No Worries!
Alice itself seemed quite similar to our last visit in 1988. Although definitely bigger, it still had the same character, and the residents were just as friendly. People seem to come here to visit and just never get around to leaving. Many people you speak to have been there for 5, 10 or 15 years and had never really had planned on staying, but they just love it there.
Saturday evening we stayed at a hostel and the hosts very kindly drove us to the 'Overlander Steakhouse'. We are almost positive that this is the same restaurant where we shared a fantastic (for 3 of us at least) meal with Dan & Suz so many years ago (with Dan's infamous miniature buffalo steak :-). Although witchetty grub soup is no longer available, we did share an appetizer plate of Emu (quite good - bit oily), Crocodile (bit fishy), Kangaroo (better than WA roo we thought) and Camel (the least favourite for all of us, but still tasty). We all had beef of varying cuts. The portions were large and the accompaniments superb, however each of the 4 different cuts were a bit disappointing given the reputation of Aussie beef. Apparently the very best cuts now are exported, especially to Japan since they can draw such huge profits. Too bad since the beef we had here last time was superb.
We then headed to Coles to do our groceries for the trip to Uluru in the morning. In the morning Mike & I rose early to go get the camper van while the boys were spoiled with a late lie. Mike managed to drive back to the hostel very smoothly despite the size of the beast. It was a bit older than we had hoped for and showing it's age, but very roomy with a cooktop, microwave, fridge, TV with DVD, 2 indoor tables, toilet/shower/sink, toaster,
kettle and running hot & cold water. It was a bit later than we hoped by the time we set off, and it was a long drive, so off we headed to try to catch the sunset at Uluru!The drive was long, but with a speed limit of 130km per hour, we could travel as fast as we wished (which was NOT 130km in Beast). This area is not full out desert, but covered in sparse scrubby vegetation as you can see by a shot from the window.
The first giant formation you come to is not in fact Uluru, but Mount Conner (859m). It is substantially larger than Uluru (348m), but not as much of an attraction. Uluru is more interesting due to it's changing vision in the light, and it's monolithic presence.We made it to sunset over Uluru just in time.
We ate our dinner watching the subtle colour changes. 
If you peek through to see the colour of Uluru in our family photo here, you can see the difference of the rock colour from the other photo here.Then it was off to Yulara to check into our campsite for the night before returning for a true visit to the Rock tomorrow.
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