Day 9 Uluru to Kings Canyon by Tilly

This morning when we were in bed, Bill and Dad drove out to Ayers Rock to see if the climb was open. It wasn’t open, so they went and got breakfast at the cultural centre (egg and bacon rolls). While they were gone, Mum checked what the weather was going to be like and apparently, it was going to be windy again and only get worse later in the week.

I stoked the fire and then I sat near it and read over the facts that I learned about yesterday with the camels and the astronomy tour.

Astronomy:

1. Jupiter has 68 moons and we could see 4 through the telescope
2. All the planets are on the same axis like they’re sitting on a plate
3. Our view of the Milky Way changes in the summer and the winter because in winter, we are on the edge of the ‘plate’ looking into most of the Milky Way, and in summer, we are on the on the edge of the ‘plate’ looking out into not much at all
4. You can make out out the shape of an emu in the black holes of the Milky Way 
5. The Aborigionals could tell what time of the year they needed to collect the emu eggs because the emu would land flat on the horizon
6. Jupiter doesn’t have a ground, It’s just gas
7. Different cultures draw different things out of the Southern Cross
8. Light is the fastest thing in the world
9. Light isn’t fast enough because it takes light 8 minutes to get to Earth from the sun and half an hour to get to Earth from Jupiter, so when you look at Jupiter through a telescope, you only see what happened half an hour ago, but from other galaxies, it might take light a very long time for light to reach Earth, so people might look through their telescopes on other galaxies and see dinosaurs

Camels:

1. They have three stomachs
2. They have padding under their feet where it spreads like a pancake when their feet hit the floor
3. They move slowly so they don’t waste too much energy because they don’t know when their next feed will be
4. They store their food in the hump on their backs where it turns into fat and they can use it when there’s not much to eat.
5. They can go without food for up to 3 months and without water for 2-8 weeks
6. You can tell when camels are happy and relaxed because they chew their food that they had coughed up and they will chew it for up to 50 times before they swallow it again in their 1^st stomach, then they do the same thing in the 2^nd stomach and so on to their 3^rd stomach where it comes out the other side
7. It’s illegal to put a bit in a camels mouth because when they cough up their food, it will get stuck in their bit and they’ll choke on it
8. They have 6 fang-like teeth and 34 teeth all up
9. Their eyelids are see through so they can see in a dust storm with their eyes closed
10. They have long, skinny nostrils so that they can sort of close them up as well in a dust storm
11. It’s very rare to find a camel with no eye lashes. Out of the 62 camels that they have on their camel farm, only one has got no eye lashes 

After breaky, Bill, Jess Emmy and I went for a run up our sand dune and sprinted down. Bill and Emmy both landed flat on their faces again and it was very funny. After that Mum and Dad decided that we’ll leave today for Kings Canyon because it was only going to get windier later in the week and tomorrow will be our last chance to climb the rock and everyone was telling us different things about what the weather was going to be like and if the climb does open tomorrow, it’s not too far to drive to get back here.

After that, I made this photo my lock screen:

Dad went and thanked the people that let us stay the night, and we all got in the car. Then everyone got back out of the car because we realised we needed to go to the supermarket. So we all got in Mum’s car and drove to the supermarket and got what we needed to get before driving back to the camel farm and split up again.

We drove for a few hours until we arrived at Kings Canyon. We parked the float at the place where we are staying the night. Then we drove to the start of a walk to a look-out. We walked up to the look-out hoping to see the sunset over Kings Canyon. When we got there, we saw the Kohlhagans. The past few years we have been late for the sunset and just missed it. It was very pretty.

Here are some photo’s of before and after the sunset:

After that we walked over and had tea at the restaurant across the road and there was a man singing. Then we drove back to the float and went to bed.

Goodnight