After the sun was truly set we all clambered back into the minibus and drove back to the resort. I fought off extreme drowsiness on the drive back, my hungry stomach helping to keep me awake. I cooked some pasta, which tasted amazing coz I was so hungry and after I ate I watched a bit of tv, read some of my book and had an early night.

I was being picked up really early to be taken to the rangers walk around part of Uluru the next morning. I was paranoid about sleeping through my alarm so I put my mobile onto ‘loud’ and was awoken with a shock in the early hours of the morning when I got a text message, d’oh!

Thankfully I didn’t sleep through my alarm and I was picked up on time by the minibus. I was still very sleepy and even now I can’t remember who was with me in the mini-bus. We got to the car park next to Uluru and despite the early hour the place was packed! Japanese tourists as far as the eye could see pouring out of luxury, air-conditioned coaches. I waited around for the rangers to appear and when they did the first thing they did was to open the climb. Almost immediately people started climbing. The rangers didn’t start the guided walk straight away so I had a chance to observe the climb and the people doing it.

First of all it was so much steeper than I had been expecting, my palms became sweaty with fear just looking at it. There is a metal railing to hold onto but it doesn’t start at the bottom of the climb and once you get a fair way up it’s almost a sheer drop on either side. As I watched the people racing up I just thought to myself,” those people are fucking crazy!” Over thirty people have died in the last twenty years climbing Uluru and it was only after the 34th or 5th death that the coroner’s office demanded that strict restrictions were put on the opening of the climb. These days you can only climb in the optimum weather conditions and, of course, at entirely your own risk.

Needless to say, I did not do the climb. This was for two reasons. Firstly, after spending a short time in the area, reading about some of the local history and doing the guided ranger walk I decided not to climb in accordance with the wishes of the local Anangu. Legally, the Anangu have the power to ban people from doing the climb. According the ranger who did the walk I joined they only keep it open because the Australian Tourist Commission have told them that people would stop coming to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park if they did. Whether this is completely true or not is beyond me but it feels slightly like blackmail. The Anangu are dependent on tourist dollars to maintain the massive national park and, of course, for their own income.

So, the Anangu leave it to the tourists to decide whether to climb or not. There are large signs in a variety of all languages at the start of the climb all declaring “Nganana tatintja wiga” which means, “we don’t climb”. Apart from mentioning the obvious safety hazards, the signs also inform you that it is forbidden for the Anangu themselves to climb the rock. The Anangu believe that the climbers are walking over the paths taken by their ancient ancestors. The Anangu also strongly believe that visitors to the park are their responsibility and they feel great sadness whenever anyone is injured or dies. Half of the rangers are Anangu aborigines and whenever someone has to be rescued from the climb they have to get special dispensation to go where their ancestors once tread. The second reason I didn’t climb is because I’m scared of heights.

I joined a group of people standing with two of the park rangers and we set off on what’s called the “mala” walk. The rangers were both Caucasian and they explained that it was normally Anangu rangers who took people on the mala walk but they were away on men’s religious business and as they were not Anangu men they were not entitled to know where they go or what their ‘business” is.

The rangers explained that the focus of the national park is to maintain the Anangu existence by following the “Tjukurpa”, the ancient foundation of the Anangu’s culture. The “Tjukurpa” defines the Anangu’s religion, laws, relationships and moral systems. According to the Anangu, “Tjukurpa” refers to the past, present and future and also tells of the times when ancestral beings created the world.

The mala walk took in several important caves and parts of Uluru that are sacred to the Anangu. Most of the history of the “Tjukurpa” is kept secret and what the rangers told us of the ancestral beings and other Anangu history were watered down versions of what “Tjukurpa” really means. All around Uluru it is forbidden to enter, or photograph, certain sites around the base and if you get caught you are liable for a huge fine. The sacred places are either significant to Anangu women or men. According to the Rangers, there is no sexual hierarchy in Anangu society. The sexes are equal.

I left the walk shortly before the end, as I was keen to complete the base walk before the heat of the day kicked in. Before I left the rangers informed us that sometime in the future the Anangu will run the park entirely on their own and that there was only others working there now to give the Anangu the skills required to run a national park on the scale of this one. The rangers were knowledgeable and clearly passionate about their work. I really enjoyed hearing more about the Anangu.

I walked back to the climb and from there commenced the base walk. Unfortunately I can’t remember how many kilometres I walked but the information I had said to be prepared for a good two-hour walk. I put Belle & Sebastian on my discman and headed off. I was a tad nervous doing the walk on my own but I made sure I was carrying plenty of water and sun-block and I passed lots of people so that was fine. The walk kicked ass.

You pass so many caves and different rock formations it’s unbelievable. Some of the best caves I saw were sacred areas so unfortunately I couldn’t take photos. Mind you, there’s a lot of trust involved because no one could see me and how would anyone know? Still, I was a good little monstarr and adhered to the signs saying “No photos”. After a fair way into the walk I had to reapply sun block every twenty minutes coz the sun was really beating down on me and I was sweating loads.

I felt a surge of pride when I completed the base walk and had I any mobile signal I would’ve fired off a few celebratory texts! I was uber sweaty and shattered.

Back at Yulara I nearly knocked out a Scandinavian dude with the dorm door when I opened it and after swiftly apologising I couldn’t help but notice that he was kinda hot. I showered, ate a lot of food and spent the rest of the afternoon writing postcards and recovering. Back in the dorm later on I got chatting to the Scandinavian guy and it turned out he was called Morten. Being the geek that I am, I immediately asked him if people often mentioned AHA when he told them his name. He laughed at this and said that they didn’t. He was a cool guy and we hit it off straightaway. I thought he was handsome but definitely straight.

More importantly he was excellent company so we hung out for the rest of the day.At dusk we walked up to the resorts look out point and watched the sunset over the national park. While we were up there we chatted a lot and, inevitably, the conversation came round to the subject of girls. Morten told me he had a girlfriend and I told him I was gay. He seemed a little taken aback but he explained that he had never met a gay guy before.

I thought that sounded a little strange for a 21yr old but hey. He asked me a few of the usual questions and apologised if he was being too personal. He wasn’t at all, he was just politely curious.

Anyway, the conversation moved on and we were still getting on fine so he obviously didn’t have a problem. We ate together and then finished up the evening with a fair amount of beer and going back up to the look out to check out the stars which were just magnificent.

Morten was getting up super early the next day so we swapped e-mail addresses and then crashed. I was pleased to have had some company but more pleased coz Morten was a cool guy. We’ve exchanged e-mails since and I’d like to keep in touch with him.