Uluru

After a six hour early morning bus ride from Alice Springs, we reached Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, probably Australia's best-known landmark. It is a large sandstone rock formation in the Northern Territory in central Australia. It was named in 1873 after Sir Henry Ayers, but Uluru is the Aboriginal and official name. The rock was created over 600 million years, and the Aborigines have been in the area for the last 10,000 years. It originally sat at the bottom of a sea, but today stands 1141 feet above ground, is 2.2 miles long, 1.2 miles wide, and is 5.8 miles around the base.

We went to a sunset viewing of Uluru, then to an outdoor barbecue dinner, where we tried barbecued kangaroo. It was pretty good and tasted like beef, but not as much flavor. After dinner they turned off all the lights and the stars appeared. We have never seen so many stars fill the sky. It was amazing.