2010 Pilgrimage to Uluru will be the biggest gathering of young people around Uluru yet! An amazing time of connecting with the local Anangu and going on a journey to the nations heart! Come and join us!
Ring 0447358 006 for more details for 2010!
Take a look below at the Pilgraimge story of 2009. Travel the journey with 8 buses and a team of 16 who lead the way - interacting and building community in Yulara, Mutitjulu and beyond.

Well what a huge few days of pack up. Finally we are all settled in to an overnight inside accomodation! caravans all packed and stored and cars ready to go! We had a pretty special day today also saying goodbye to our friends from Muti and Yulara too. Thanks so much to everyone for all of your help and support over this time! We may pop up a few more pics but this is almost it for another year! ALTHOUGH!!! dont forget.. 2010 is our 10th Anniversary! so stay tuned for updates also on what we will be doing! Its going to be huger than ever! and a very important time for everyone!

Well only two more sleeps and there will be just red dirt left on the spot that we have had community for 5 weeks! We fare-welled another team member today! Rosie! thanks again for your part in the work this year! Today was a huge day of packing and sorting and documenting. We had also had a birthday in the camp to celebrate and rain to contend with as dark came on! But we were well prepared with most of our gear undercover. Tomorrow we store the caravans and do our farewells. We are quite sad to go, but hope to be back again before too long!

Yesterday we drove over a whopping 1000 kms on our way down from Coober Pedy to Camp Coroung, south of Adelaide. Spirits were high, even though most of the time we were asleep as our late nights and early mornings were catching up on us. So we eventually arrived at Camp Coroung around five in the afternoon when we learned how to weave baskets with reeds and also learn some more of the local Indigenous culture from a much-loved Uncle Tom.

Then this morning we packed our gear up for the second last time and Uncle Tom took us on a walk through some bushland that has been preserved from becoming farmland, and showed us where and how to find bush tucker as if the bush was a supermarket! We continued our journey into Victoria before we arrived in Stawell. So we just finished our last night together as a group before we return back to our homes and families. It was an amazing time that really reflected the past 10 days that we had spent together, with affirmations for each other, reading out poems, a slideshow, an awesome talk by Amy, and of course – party time! When looking around the room during our party time, it was so amazing to see how much of a family we had become and how some of the young people who wouldn’t interact at all at the start, were in there having the time of their life.

Now we are all confronted with the idea of heading home again and what that means for our lives after such an experience, and how much our lives are going to change. One thing is for sure – life will never be the same for every one of us. So as we exchange phone numbers and email addresses, and say our goodbyes, we will always keep a place in our hearts for each other.

Saturday
We headed off this morning to for our meeting with ‘The Rock’ we were split into gender groups to learn about women’s business and men’s business on the Mala Walk. The young people were astounded at Uluru, particularly during our quiet time at a water hole. Some of the comments were ‘it felt peaceful and my problems got taken away while sitting there. Magnificent, I loved it.’

In the afternoon we practiced our performance item and washed our stinky red clothes!
In the afternoon and evening all 302 pilgrims ran a festival for the residents of Yulara and the Mutijulu community. To bring the night to a close we had a big concert where every bus did a performance about their journey so far, ours was on the stories we learnt about along the way, rock, stream, fire and tree, all about boundaries and living in the land. We finished off the concert with a reconciliation water ceremony with the elders from the Mutijulu community, moving and inspirational.

Sunday
A very early wake up call, 5am for a Dawn Service over looking Uluru. Some are feeling a lot wearier than the rest of us from staying up at the all night prayer vigil.

We headed off for Alice Springs for our last night in tents before having 2 overnighters on the bus.
An entertaining lunch was had by all either having camel rides or watching others be thrown around by the camels.
Arriving in Alice Springs midafternoon for an awesome and out of the ordinary reptile show with snakes and lizards.
A night program ahead watching photo’s from the trip and celebrating the past 7 days together.

It does not seem long ago we had all the gear in the middle of our camp and were setting up! now we are in reverse! packing it all away. We got heaps done today, sorted things into all sorts of piles. One for things that stay, one for our cars, one for things to give away, and another pile of things to have ready on top for when we arrive here again next year! You can be guaranteed, that every thing we have here will have some trace of red dirt on it!
More reflections on the weekend: Yesterday we had some pics of the festival and concert. Below is some photos of the rest of the evening and next morning, a pretty special time for young people. during that time they shared their highlights of their time in Uluru and the things they thought were amazing.
Nicky said:
“The rock was really special because most people go in their like tourists and go in with blank faces and i was looking at it with my heart and i felt the energy of what is was to be Australian when i really saw it.”
Another said: “I enjoyed today because today i helped a little girl that was lonely at the festival and afterwards her parents came up and thanked me heaps, and that has made me smile for the whole trip now.”
“The whole trip was just amazing! i love the whole trip and want to come again next year”
The dawn service was pretty special too with 300 young people gathered on a sand dune overlooking Uluru and Kata Tjuta watching the sunrise before they headed home, many amazed at what they had learnt and seen. “im 12 and ive never been out of my state, i think Uluru is one of the most amazing things i have seen, ill be back again next year, ive had such a fantastic time!”
We also fare-welled four of our team today! The Grigg family and Biz, thanks guys, we miss you already!

We, here on the western Australia bus, have had an adventure packed few days!!

We left Yulara on Sunday morning, heading for Kings Canyon; a spectacular sight. We set up our tents for the last time (we are staying in buildings for the next few nights), had a fun night singing and story telling, before going to bed to the howling of the local dingo population.

Yesterday, we spent the day traveling to Coober Pedy. On arrival, we were taken for a tour around the town, and we checked out an opal museum.

Today, we are going to be traveling 600 kms to Ceduna, a small aboriginal community, to do festival activities and show the locals a bit about what the pilgrimage has been for us.

After a very slow Sunday catching up on sleep - today picked up pace again. In between the pack up and the very heavy downpour of rain later today, our team keeps shares stories of the weekend past and the positive feedback we have had from many different people. The festival was held on a beautiful grassed area with over 400 people enjoying the relaxed and fun atmosphere. Highlights from the festival were “was so good to see everyone enjoying each other together”, another “this is so good i dont want to leave” and “We need more of this in the future”. Many people commented on how well behaved the pilgrims were and how engaged and willing to help where needed. Many visitors loved their time and see it as an annual event not to be missed now! More highlights were: the games like “what’s the time Mr Wolf” and “My big fat pony” the kids always too fast to catch! The mix of people from Anangu, Yulara residents and visitors seemed like one big family together.

It has been an incredible last few days for us on the pilgrimage. Just to give a brief idea as to what we got up to, we went to Uluru, reflected on what it the land was trying to tell us, experienced Kata Tjuta (meaning many heads), took part in an open-crowd festival at Yulara, and a concert by the pilgrims last night. As you can tell, we got up to a lot, and have been really impacted by the experience.

The climax of our time at Uluru was the Saturday night concert, where we shared with all the other buses and the community as a whole what we had experienced, especially when some local indigenous people offered water to everyone as a sign of reconciliation and hope for the future. This was followed by an all-night prayer vigil, where a significant number of the pilgrims joined together to pray for our communities and our nation. We started early today with a dawn service overlooking Uluru and Kata Tjuta in the distance, where we reflected on our time there and looking into the future.

Breakfast was on the road at Erldunda, before continuing onto Marla for lunch. The time went very quickly as most of the bus slept due to our early start and lack of sleep for others. It was late afternoon when we arrived at Coober Pedy again, and got everything set up again in the underground motel. Before dinner we went noodling (looking for opals), where a number of us found some pretty good opals to top off the day. So it has been a very, very long day and most of us have hit the sack for another early, exciting day tomorrow, where we head for Adelaide.

Sunrise at Uluru

The girls at Kata Tjuta

Noodling for opals

Our past few days have certainly been a few days of surprises, adventure, and fun.

Some of our highlights were: bus aerobics, having our first bush pee stop, seeing camels, a two hour game of Chinese Whispers, bursting two tyres, watching our driver and various others remove the metal things from the tyre, and arriving in Yulara.

We spent Tuesday night in Warburton, Wednesday night in Docker River (an isolated campsite, a couple hours drive from Uluru), then we arrived in Yulara on Thursday.

With the earliest morning so far we left Coober Pedy at 6:30am (5am wake up call) as we headed off to Uluru! We had our first, very excited viewing of “Uluru” which actually turned out to be Table Top Mountain. The busses were buzzing with excitement as we eagerly awaited the sighting of Uluru.

We were welcomed by all the other states (302people) with songs, dancing, the indigenous people and the receiving of our bandannas and our Uluru t-shirts.

As we head off to bed all are relieved about not getting up early to pack up tents. Tomorrow holds our meeting with ‘The Rock’ and the Cultural Center.

A late entry here.. (as the program did not end till early this morning!) Our team is pretty weary.. a very quiet place this afternoon as people crept off to their beds after an all nighter. The festival yesterday was the best yet over our 9 years here! It was a picture of fun, games, and heaps of activities for all who came. We had over 300 pilgrims, Many Yulara students, Mutitjulu residents, Yulara guests and staff all participate and enjoy a really relaxing afternoon on a beautiful grassy shady area right near the Yulara shops. The concert began at 6pm with a welcome by our Anangu friends, loads of bus items and a DVD showing the 7 buses journey so far on a slide show. A very moving performance was shown towards the end of the evening where over 200 pilgrims lead the crowd in a song that acknowledged the Victorians who are now facing the effect of the fires. At the end of the song the new banner that was painted was revealed sharing the words “Together with God we can build our nation strong”. The evening continued with many items and a water ceremony that built on encouraging those attending to consider how they can help with reconsiliation. We were delighted by the whole day and are very sad to see everyone go home! more updates and photos on the evening celebration and all night vigil and dawn service tomorrow. stay tuned.

Well the end of a wonderful day. We welcomed another two buses today, as well as made some new statue costumes, a ned kelly, a colonial lady and a convict full with real ball and chain ready for our festival tomorrow afternoon! Our kitchen crew made loads of damper and served more marshmallows and milo too. While the logistics crew spent time preparing all that we need to make the day work tomorrow. We reflected this evening on the day and there was so much feedback about how pilgrims had a significant day, especially as they went on a walk to a waterhole at the Uluru. We had our special friends from Mutitjulu with us for the evening program who helped hand out bandanas and Barbara welcomed everyone to the evening and sang for us also.
Some comments from the day: “I love the rock it brings peace and calm” “I thought it was just a rock! but when we got closer i saw so much more!” “We have had an amazing time so far and are really looking forward to tomorrow” - And so are we! Festival at 3:30 and concert at 6:00!

We finally made it!!! Today we arrived in Yulara late afternoon to be greeted by the hospitable base camp team and a local aboriginal ‘care-taker’ of the area. Earlier in the day we set off bright (it was still dark!) and early from Coober Pedy and continued on our trip north. Thankfully we were given more quiet time this morning to get some more shut-eye, before another instalment of blood-pumping bus aerobics.

We had a stop-off at Marla where we were joined by the NSW/ACT buses that had been following us since Port Augustus, and had a good time kicking the footy and having a quick snack. It didn’t take long to arrive at the Northern Territory border for a group picture and the chance to be in two places at once! The remainder of the time after lunch was spent watching an inspiring movie called ‘Freedom Writers’, some more sleep, and another great game called ‘spot the Rock’. So once we finished being welcomed we started setting up our tents again for the last time for three days (yay!) and had a fantastic dinner of steak and vegies, followed by an awesome apple crumble!

Then at 7:30pm we all the buses (except Queensland) met for the first time in the night program in the big tent at Base Camp, where we sung songs, played some games, and got our very unique bandanas. Now must of us have hit the sack in anticipation of the adventure in stall for us tomorrow, including the walk around Uluru and some more exploring of the area. We’re looking forward to it!

Today started off with a look at nyununi and the coming together of people which creates life. As we refelceted on the buses people were realising that as they had come together that they were participating in a life that they were growing in and loving.

Some of the things we did were look at the salt lake called lake heart. A few people tried eaying some and found out very quickly that wasnm’t a good idea, while others just choose to get giant slabs and break them over their heads like a karate master.

Ended the day going to cooperpede with a tour of the town and mine. Buying some opal gifts for loved ones and getting ready for the concert at Uluru. With everyone now asleep underground they are all egearly awaiting tomorrow the day they see uluru.

Wow what a great start to a wonderful weekend! We had a very special visitor for our pilgrims today, Bob Randall came and welcomed every group that arrived this afternoon to his land. Pilgrims had a great time together in the evening singing “home among the gum trees” receiving their bandanas, playing games and getting very excited about the next few days. We welcomed 5 buses this afternoon, the hand banner is already looking pretty good already! We are all very excited, the time is finally here!

Setting up tents in Yulara, We’ll be here for the next few days! It’s starting to rain, but we’re staying dry! It’s been one great journey so far!

Finally we got to the centre of Australia! Around 4:30 this afternoon our bus rolled into Yulara were we’ll be staying for the next three days! Greeted by a cold drink and a welcome from the Anangu, we also put our handprints on a big banner alongside all of the other pilgrims.

Tomorrow we’re off to see the rock! Here’s a bunch of pics from the trip so far:

We got heaps of things done today. T shirt orders, set up the marquee decore, shifted equipment to the right places and even more painting! only one sleep! how exciting!

It is already day four and we are beginning to see the group really come together. Today we learnt about Nyuyuni – the life that rises when people come together as a community – and everyone has seen how it is happening in our bus. We started the day off with some quiet time on the bus to get as many z’s as we could before some more exhilarating bus aerobics led by Matilda, Laura, Davida, and Jane.

We had a stop over at Woomera, where we marvelled at the variety of missile and aircraft displays, as well as kicking a footy around. We finally made it to Coober Pedy, which means ‘white man’s burrows’, because of the unusual sight of buildings that have been built underground! After a quick tour round the town, we were able to explore the Opal mine and learnt about the cutting and setting of opals.

Tonight we have the luxury of staying underground, which is extra good because we didn’t have to put the tents up! We are all looking forward to meeting all the other buses and seeing ‘The Rock’ tomorrow, especially as the significance of this symbol has become more and more apparent for us all.

We left Broken Hill and commenced our journey to Port Augusta for our second night in tents. Most of the day was spent playing games and watching movies on the bus, young people are getting more involved with leading bus games and information sessions on towns we’re heading to. We stopped at Peterborough for lunch, a relaxing walk around the shops or a scavenger hunt finding policemen’s shoe laces and scooters. Finally arriving at Port Augusta for a fun filled festival in the caravan park with spinning plates, tug of war and lots of colourful faces. Heading off to Coober Pedy tomorrow to experience new and exciting underground adventures.

Yet again this morning we got an awesome workout….. with Thomas aerobics routines.
So we just got into PORT AUGUSTA STH AUS…
We played sing song bus games that was all fun and laughs. We bumped in to some of the other buses which got our young people excited and really looking forward to making new friends. We came together to practice for our Yulara performance seeing some of the guys come up with creative ideas to help bring it all together…very encouraging.

This is going to be our first night in tents. A lot enjoyed putting them together. Debriefing tonight was awesome many young people shared and reflected on the journey so far… many excited people as were getting closer and closer to the heart of Australia.

Awesome food yet again…..hehehe
Early morning tomorrow…

Pack up of tents and gear was completed in record time as we get into the rhythm of living in the outdoors. We started the day with a trip to the Tandanya Cultural Centre, where we learnt a little more about the Aboriginal way of life and their culture, which included a great performance on the didgeridoo.

After a quick tour of Adelaide we headed to a nearby park where we played some awesome games and had a picnic-style lunch. It wasn’t long before the high rise buildings of Adelaide gave way to the flat, dry plains in the country. We managed to be entertained by some fantastic bus aerobics that got the whole bus grooving to the tunes, and we watched the powerful movie, ‘Remember the Titans’.

Again we split into small groups for our journaling time, where we learned and reflected about the first white Australians and the Currency Lads and Lasses. So here we are in Port Augusta, staying in a caravan park with two other buses on the Pilgrimage to Uluru. Tomorrow we head up to Coober Pedy, where we will learn a bit about opal mining and will get to stay in rooms that are underground!

Keeping energised with some action games

Under a wind turbine blade

Arrived at Broken Hill today, now settled in for the night, first night in tents! Everyone is a little on the tired side of life after a long night of trying to sleep on the bus, although some still managed to get 7-8 hours. Today we were blown away by the art work at White’s Museum, and drawn into the darkness at Daydream Mines. A day of wonder and conquering fears was had by all.

Today was a busy day at camp, with some office renovations and the putting up of the grand marquee! Some local firemen lent some helpful hands (and sledgehammers) to get our massive tent upright and ready for the pilgrims (two sleeps to go…eek!). Then we got the chance to meet some friendly dingoes, who were very sweet. Big thanks to John who gave us the chance!