We arrived at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and went immediately to the Cultural Centre where we were told the “dreamtime” story of two snakes. The female snake had brought her eggs (represented by fallen rocks in the landscape) to the monolith Uluru, an Aboriginal sacred site. She found that her nephew had been wrongfully killed by neighboring snakes while being disciplined for a wrong with spears. (The holes on the rock represent the spear marks.) She flew into a rage and hit the offending snake two blows which first stunned him and then killed him, thus, avenging her nephew’s death. (There are two large gouges in the rock showing his wounds.) Next her body intertwined with that of her dead nephew to form a large snake that guards the water hole that she had dug in her original rage. (It actually had a bit of water in it from some recent rain.) If the aboriginal people don’t care for the water hole appropriately, the guardian snake dries up the water as punishment.
Each group of Aboriginals has their own dreamtime stories that somehow intertwine with those of their neighbors although none of them have a deity. The dreamtime stories teach morals, the consequences of behavior, and acceptable ways to deal with behaviors.
We walked on two trails of Uluru. We went into two caves that had wall paintings. One seems to have been a classroom to teach the meaning of the pictures which are still used in aboriginal communication today. One of the caves also had a honeycomb ceiling caused by erosion. 
This huge rock is composed of fine sand sediment. Since it is a sacred site, we were asked NOT to climb the rock or to take photos of the men’s and women’s caves which are used for special ceremonies.
We joined lots of other tourists and tour coaches on the sand dunes in front of Uluru to take photos at sunset. We took photos every 5 minutes in order to capture the gradual color changes of the rock. However, we never got the brilliant reds and purples of the postcard photos. We did, however, get a group photo. Our tour guides had set up a “celebration” of sparkling wine and snacks as well as providing folding camp stools for us to use. One end of the rock seemed to look like a sheep’s head, appropriate for Australia with many sheep! 
Here's a photo of our Elderhostel group with Uluru in the background.
Notice the "sheep" on the right side of the mountain? At least it looked like a sheep to us.
On Sunday we traveled about 30 minutes to visit Kata Tjuta which means many heads. There are 36 distinct rock formations formed from sediment flow from the same mountain range that formed Uluru. However, this sediment contains much more rock. We saw one rock that looked like a turtle. Since this is another sacred, men’s ceremony location, little is known about the beliefs concerning these rocks. We enjoyed a walk to one of the gaps between two rocks. There were several new flowering plants along the walk. The desert does have a beauty of its own. 
Following lunch at the hotel, we were off to the Ayers Rock airport for the flight to Cairns (pronounced “cans”). More next time on our visit to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.
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