This will be the last update from the Uluru Base Camp 2010. It has been a tiring, exhausting, challenging, exciting, & rewarding journey for all of us that has taken us thousands of kilometres from our homes to the heart of Australia. We are now on the final stretch, going our separate ways.

After spending a night in Coober Pedy and some minor mechanical problems with the bus, we continued 12 hours of travel to get to Adelaide. Along the way we stopped for a photo opp at the salt lakes. Some time later we rolled into Port Augusta and experienced our first fast food for 4 weeks with a much needed stop at Hungry Jacks.

It was dark before we arrived at the Polkinghorne’s place in Adelaide where we were staying. We were able to spend a day here for some much needed R & R and a break from travelling. Tomorrow we all go our different ways, some in the bus, some in the car, and others on the plane.

Thus concludes Base Camp for 2010. We hope you have enjoyed keeping up to date with what has been happening on the Pilgrimage to Uluru 2010, and look forward to what will be in store for us next year - Pilgrimage to Uluru 2011! So stay tuned for more exciting stories..

Well after about 13 hours, a few road side toilet stops, hitting a kangaroo, crossing the QLD/NT, swollen ankles and a few body aches and tired eyes, we made it! Rise and shine - breakfast in Nygan! After pancakes for breakfast and coffee for the leaders we were back on the bus, headed for Dubbo. Back at the Dubbo Big 4 Park, we were back in our dorm accommodation for the rest of the day and night.

In our small group time before lunch we looked at our journal reflection - returning to civilization. With some good discussions and sharing about how we are feeling about going home, it was soon time for lunch.

After lunch some of us spent the afternoon talking to the animals at the Western Plain Zoo, while the rest of us enjoyed a swim, jumping on the giant pillow or catching up on a bit of shopping. Pizza for tea was a treat, soon followed by our end of Pilgrimage Concert!

It was great to see the young people get up and perform their items and work together in encouraging each other. We finished with a glow stick disco which was lots of fun. The energy and spirits of the group were high as we made our way to our beds for our final pilgrimage sleep.

After four days of packing everything that we had set up, we have finally finished! It was a moment of great joy, but also great sadness as we said goodbye to our home for the past 4 weeks. It has been a profound time that has laid down the foundation for further work in the future, especially with our Anangu firends who are now really part of the team.

I’m currently writing this in a very bare campground, with everything gone except two tables and a single floodlight! The team really pulled together to get the job done, and as a reward we went to see the sunset on the rock for one last time…

Tomorrow we start our journey home, saying farewell to the NT team, who have been a great help and valued members of the team, and head south.

Today was our last full day as the NSW & ACT Bus!

We woke up and the park rangers took us on a tour of Mutawintji National Park, which was amazing! We learned so much about the Aboriginal Culture and we got to see traditional rock art and taste some real bush tucker, including snottie boggles (which despite the name are very tasty).

We had a long drive to Cobar, and because of some bus issues, we set up camp in the dark and had dinner and enjoyed our final night as a group reflecting on what the journey has been and looking at what it means to be heading home as ambassadors of reconciliation, and how we put into action what we’ve learned on the pilgrimage into day to day life as we head home.

Tomorrow we’re rising and shining at 4.30am to pack up camp and begin the final leg of the journey home..

A little sleep in was enjoyed by all. Those of us who slept under the stars enjoyed the experience and were happy there was no rain, wild animals or heavy dew. This morning after breakfast we headed to the Stockmans Hall of Fame here in Longreach. A journey of learning about the lives of the early stockmen and women and the vital part they played and still play in the Australian culture. It was a new and interesting learning experience for many of us.

After lunch we headed to the QANTAS Museum to learn about the early Australian aviation story and the role it played in developing the history of Australia. With many interesting things to look at and read, we spent a bit of time exploring. Back at camp, we were soon in our small groups looking at the daily refection on ‘boundaries’ and filling in our activity and journal books.

With this done, it was swimmers on and into the pool or finding some shade just to sit and chill. After our free time we packed the bus and sat down for a wonderful lamb dinner. By 7pm we were all packed and took our seats on the bus for the night. With a movie viewing of ‘I am Sam’ we were soon as comfortable as we could get and settled in for the bumpy night ahead.

We had a sleep in till 7am this morning, been driving on the bus this morning, watching movies and sleeping. We were all very excited to cross over the border into NSW again and have a shop stop and play in the park at Broken Hill.

On our way to Mutawintji National Park for the night where we’ll have a real bush camping experience with one solar powered shower and no phone reception! How exciting!

Well what a morning! With 1,100km in front of us today, getting up at 4am was essential. Still in the dark with the stars out, we pulled down and packed up our tents. Bacon and eggs for breakfast at 5am and by 6am we were on the bus ready to go.

Leaving Barkley Homestead, we headed east for the NT/QLD border. With a quick photo stop at the border, we were on the bus again heading into cattle country. Another toilet stop and a quick morning tea, back on the bus we celebrated the Gold Plate Award Winners and had our morning aerobics class. A game of speed monkey and a few other games kept us busy till lunch where we stopped at Winton.

Buritos for lunch was a hit with us all and a game of trap cricket kept us active till we took our seats on the bus for the remaining 530km. A few more games, a movie and a toilet stop saw us arriving at our destination - Longreach.

We got in about 7:30pm and worked well together to set up camp and tuck into dinner and dessert. With thousands of stars in the sky, those who did not want to take refuge in the tents, braved the elements and took their beds under the stars!

Today, we had a bit of excitement. We popped a tyre!! There was a big bang, and some people wondered why there were suddenly machine guns in the movie, some thought it was a tap from last night, others had thought our trailer had (finally) fallen off, some thought it was a fan belt. But no. Andy clarified for us all that it was a tyre. So we pulled over and pulled some bear grylls moves.

Its hard to believe that it is already day three of pack-up! After those three days of packing up the camp has started to look very bare. Today we said goodbye to another member of our team - Sheryle - reducing our numbers to 16.

We all put in a solid effort to finally clear the office caravan of everything, pull down the huge kitchen tent, sort all the kitchen utensils, and start putting all the gear into the caravans. This did mean that by the end of the day we were all exhausted, especially having been in the sun for most of the day.

For dinner, we went out and saw the sunset over Kata Tjuta - a magnificient sight! Tomorrow is the final day of packing and saying goodbyes before we start the long journey home!

This morning was an early wake up at 5am followed by breakfast at 6am and then on the bus for a long 800km journey. So we left the comfort of our bunk accomodation and headed north into the rugged outback of the NT. After what only seemed minutes for our morning siesta, we were soon in the isles for our morning aerobics class. A toilet stop for morning tea at a roadhouse and we were on the bus again for our bus games, which brought out a bit of competition but all on fun! For lunch we stopped at Austalia’s capital Alien town Wycliffe Well. We weren’t on the bus for lunch before we were all out again for a photo and a look at the Devils Marbles. More games and a video, we soon arrived at out campsite at Barkly Homestead.

With another race to set up the tents between the boys and the girls, we were soon off to the pool for a refreshing swim and a game of cards-UNO! As the sun set, we sat down for steak and vegies, which was quickly followed with more games. Stomp and smuggler kept us amused for some time and was lots of fun! This lead into our reflection and small group journal time where we looked at ‘boundaries’ and shared some of our feelings about how things had been and how we were feeling about going home. Finally we spent some time in boys and girls groups to debrief the day and find out how each other are doing. With this done we were soon back in our tents and lights out - until tomorrow!

After a productive day of packing yesterday, we continued pack-up today with a determination to get it done quickly. We celebrated Heather’s birthday with pancakes for breakfast and made a special ‘birthday girl’ throne for her to sit on.

Getting back into the work, the office caravan was cleaned out with the exception of a few items, most of the tents and annexes were pulled down and packed away, and more sorting and inventorying of what we have here.

As reward for the hard work we put in today and over the past week, we went out to the Outback Pioneer for tea where we got to cook our own meat on BBQ’s. It was a great time of hanging out and relaxing after a big week, and everyone there even sang happy birthday to Heather! Afterwards there was some poker going down with skittles at stake - lots of fun! More packing to come tomorrow…

Today we enjoyed a beautiful sleep in at Coober Pedy! Our bus tyres needed some work, which meant we got to sleep in until 8.30am! What a blessing! After spending hours in the local laundromat trying to dry our wet clothes and bedding, the dryer decided it had enough. Yes, that’s right.. we blew up a laundromat dryer.

Troops set off to go ‘noodling’ this morning, which is the technical term for digging around in large piles of dirt looking for pieces of opal. The kids had lots of fun, some found little bits of opal, but it was fun just to have a go!

We said goodbye to Coober Pedy at lunchtime, and drove on to Port Augusta. Due to the problems with the bus, we got into Port Augusta after dark, but all our guys did so well getting camp set up in the dark and then enjoying a late dinner.

Everyone is going well, starting to realise how much of a family we have become and what it means to be heading home after such an incredible journey.

As we opened our eyes this morning, after a good night sleep, we went outside to see some colour in the sky and the rain breaking! Yea! Hearty breakfast of cereal, toast, juice and scrambled eggs and bacon filled our bellies well!

The first adventure today was to the Alice Springs Desert Wildlife Park. Walking through bird averies was a little scary for some but still a pleasant experience. The nocturnal house was a highlight as we saw snakes and lizards, geckos, legless lizards and billbies. The birds of prey was exciting as we had these falcons and other central Australian birds of prey flying around our heads and catching food in mid air in front of us. Spectacular!

A short break for lunch and we were heading into town again to visit the Royal Flying Doctors. When the young people were told that through their visit today, their money was being used to put a deposit on another plane, they came to appreciate and value what the RFD does.

Across the road we wandered to reptile park. Lizards, snakes, pythons, Terry the crocodile, spiders and other Australian reptiles kept us on our toes for a while till we were aquainted and then they were soon like family pets - except the crocodile! Letting a python slither round our necks, lizards sit on our sholders and snakes squirm through our fingers was a wonderful and fear conquering experience for many.

Back to camp for some free time and last minute washing and meat and vegies for dinner. After tea, the gold plate awards, Leizsha’s Show on Channel L, games and small group reflection time, we were back in our rooms packing our bags for the next stage of our journey - 800km from Alice Springs to Barkly Homestead in QLD!

We have had some adventures since leaving Uluru. We went to Kings Canyon after the dawn service. It was a pretty sweet spot to visit. But then it pretty much rained all night. So after the rain at Uluru, we got even more soaked.

Our next night was at Warakurna roadhouse. Which was quite a lot drier. Between Kings Canyon and Warakurna, we encountered some serious water on the (dirt) road; the road was covered. So we had to go a bit ‘off-road’ and ‘everybody-lean-in-the-opposite-direction’ in order to get past. It was pretty ‘Bear Grylls’ style.

We watched two episodes of man vs wild on the bus, and so we spent the whole arvo looking for the opportunities that the vast world presented us!! Everybody ended up with presenter names, and we spent about two hours making up segments and filming things like how to light fires with rocks and how to catch goannas with sticks and old drink cans. To top off the night, we found a tv and, being Monday night, Bear was on tv, and so the leaders had some more good times. Woo!! Go Bear!!

Tonight we are back in phone & Internet reception after a very wet night at Kings Canyon! We had a profound weekend at Uluru, even with the surprise downpour of rain, which we excitedly danced in.

Yesterday after waking at 5am, we headed off to the dawn service, where watched the sun rise over Kata Tjuta and spending a significant time reflecting on what the time at the rock had meant for us, packed up our tents and bid farewell to all our new friends on the other buses and Uluru and were back on the road again..

It wasn’t a long drive, and the whole trip was filled the sounds of sleep and snoring from a number of us who had been awake all night. We got to Kings Canyon and with as minimal complaining as possible, set up our tents again for another rainy night.

We did the Kings Canyon walk & celebrated the birthday of one of our girls by filling her tent with 100 balloons - and enjoyed roast lamb for dinner. Our cook is taking great care of us.

This morning was another early one, a supposed 5.30am start, but we were a bit slack on the waking up, so had to work extra hard as a team to get camp packed up and away on time…

Another full day on the bus to Coober Pedy, lots of bus games and sleeping and another flat tyre, and a great time of reflection in our small groups tonight discussing what we want to take with us as we head back home and what the journey has meant for us. As I’m typing this I can hear the sounds of snoring echoing around our underground cabin at Coober Pedy..

After a lovely day of resting, we were ready to start the massive task of taking down all that we have put up for base camp. Barbeques were cleaned, resources sorted, counted, and packed, tarps cleaned, cars vacuumed, and a huge job - the big tent was taken down. It was a very busy day, but still fun as we enjoyed each other’s company. To finish off the day, we were blessed with an amazing sunset after two days of clouds and no sun.

After saying farewell to the pilgrims at the dawn service, we slowly made our way back to camp for some much needed rest and relaxation. Many chose to sleep, while others watched movies and began to unwind after a full but rewarding weekend.

To celebrate the effort we all put in, we had a wonderful roast for dinner. It was a great way to finish off the weekend together. It was also the last time that we would be having dinner with Al & Joel, as well as the Dunn family, so it was a special time of celebration and reflection. Tomorrow we start the huge task of packing up so stay tuned for more pictures…

After another rainy night, we had an early morning (4am) pack up. We were all tired, especially those who went to the all night prayer vigil. We met up with all the pilgrims from all over Australia on the red sand dunes outside Yulara where we saw a cloudy sunrise and watched the colours of Uluru change from dark purple to brownish-red. After singing a few songs we listened to a challenging message from Rubie Hammond.

We said goodbye to the Base Camp team and the other pilgrims and started our long drive to Coober Pedy, the land of “white men in holes”. We enjoyed touring the city, opal mines and the museum and learnt a lot about how opals were first found and what it’s like to live there now. After a wonderful pizza dinner we were all happy to sleep on real beds inside the Coober Pedy dugouts.

“My highlight was overcoming a fear by sleeping underground!” ~ Kyle, Exeter
“I really enjoyed the sunrise service.” ~ Sinead, Poatina

It felt like we had just closed our eyes and we were up again! A little earlier this morning because we were due at sunrise at 6:30am. Due to the persistent rain through the night we did not have to pull our tents down at this stage. After a quick breakfast we were on the bus to join all the other buses and pilgrims for the dawn service out on the sand dunes to watch the sunrise on Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Back at camp we packed up the tents and the bus and we were on our way heading to Alice Springs. It was not long before the eyes could no longer stay open and the zzz silenced the bus.

Arriving at Stuarts Well for lunch and camel rides soon woke all from their slumber. Wraps for lunch and then off to the camels! What a sight! Laughter, fear and smiles were shared amongst the group as we went from a slow walk to a faster trot! It was great! Soon we arrived in Alice Springs and were very excited to hear that we were staying in bunkhouses and we did not have to put our wet tents up! What a relief!

With washing and drying of clothes done, showers had and dinner finished, we spent the night playing games and in our small groups for journal and reflection time. It was great to hear as they young people shared, what they have learnt, how they have seen our group come together like a tribe and how they have started to see themselves change. We then watched the video of our performance at Uluru which again brought back a sense of pride and joy!

We said farewell to the pilgrims this morning at the dawn service. It marked the end of their time with us as we sent the pilgrims onto the final stage of their journey - the journey home. There were many goodbyes and farewells to new found friends before the buses went their own ways. It has been a very special and memorable time…