Today we have two hundred miles to drive to Uluru and Ayers Rock Campground. Not before our final bushmans breakfast though! After filling up and fuelling up we set off to “the rock.” Many miles of bush, straight roads and the odd big red camel bouncing across the road in front of us. On the way to Uluru we pass Mount Connor which is a table topped mountain twice the size of Uluru but for some reason doesn’t get the publicity Uluru does. It stood quite impressive on the red plains looking good.
Shortly after a brief pix stop we moved on and found a coffee stop which sadly was cut short by the overwhelming amount of flies wanting to share our brew!!
Now then, Ayers Rock & the Olgas National Park is sacred Aboriginal land and as such there are lists of what you can and cannot do and take pictures of. You have to pay a $25 park entry fee of which some ends up with the local managing tribes.
Ayers Rock Resort was built to service the park along Conellan Airport. The whole resort and airport are owned and run by one Company and as such there is no competition and it is pretty much a licence to print money. In the lonely planet guide to the Rock it says that everything here is very expensive so if you don’t want to pay it, don’t go as everything is over the odds. On the other hand if you choose to go, don’t grumble about it as you knew it would be expensive and as such just pay up, lie back and think of England!!
We were staying in another canvas cabin which was OK but the camp kitchen didn’t cater for those in these units. There was no where to boil a kettle, no pans to prepare or warm food, the kitchen was a 5 minute walk away as were the toilets and showers. We were grumbling but the sun shone, the flies never let up and we were at Ayers Rock!!
Your first sight of the rock is quite weird as you have seen it many times in pictures but “in the flesh” it looks so damn big!! We went down to see the sun set over the rock along with 90 million others. It was excellent, the red deepens as the sunlight drops away from the bright red rock. Of course after the sun goes down there is the 90 million mass exodus back to the resort.
Now here’s a funny thing, all around the rock there are signs telling you of sacred Aboriginal ground, not to take any photos and to be respectful yet here are 90 million spectators snapping and recording the sun going down over the sacred rock, interesting…….
Back to our tent and of course it’s dark now so on with our camp issue rechargeable lamp. It was good for about an hour, then I got my reserve torch out to put stuff away and the bulb blew in my torch. You can imagine the language and the witty, helpful comments from Mrs D. After getting things away using the light from my mobile phone we slept very well.
The following day we walked around the base of the rock, a good 10k stroll in full sun with a full fly escort!! It semed like a lot longer walking round. Again a multitude of no photo signs and everyone snapping away. You can actually do a climb of the rock to the summit cairn but again it is seen as disrespectful and it Is actually quite steep and dangerous. Having said that there were plenty climbing up. The first section is the steepest and you have the added security of a huge chain to grab hold of and heave yourself up. I chose not to do the climb. By the time we got back to the car we were flied out, hot, sweaty and ready for a big shower!!
The evening was quiet, our lamp had been recharged but not much better so I sat in the laundry room with my laptop doing some notes in real light. I got chatting to some Ozzies who had done the climb and were saying how hard it was and that they were on all fours at the top to try to keep them falling down the shear steep sides – wise move abstaining I thought….
Next day was flying to Cairns day but we didn’y fly ‘til 3.30pm so we had the morning at the Olgas which I have to say were more fascinating than Ayers Rock. We did part of 2 walks and wished we’d spent all day at the Olgas and today at the rock. You don’t know ‘til you see it but there it is. The Olgas were great, many huge rounded forms higher and much bigger than Ayers Rock. We also saw a couple of dingos (a type of wild dog) out there too.
Time was running out so we had to get to the airport to get on with the final phase of our trip. We had really enjoyed Red Central and found the landscape superb but the flies a real nuisance. Kings Creek was excellent and Ayers Rock Campground very disappointing. Never the less returning to a different part of Red Central was stored away for future reference, hmmmmm we’ll see.
Shortly after a brief pix stop we moved on and found a coffee stop which sadly was cut short by the overwhelming amount of flies wanting to share our brew!!
Now then, Ayers Rock & the Olgas National Park is sacred Aboriginal land and as such there are lists of what you can and cannot do and take pictures of. You have to pay a $25 park entry fee of which some ends up with the local managing tribes.
Ayers Rock Resort was built to service the park along Conellan Airport. The whole resort and airport are owned and run by one Company and as such there is no competition and it is pretty much a licence to print money. In the lonely planet guide to the Rock it says that everything here is very expensive so if you don’t want to pay it, don’t go as everything is over the odds. On the other hand if you choose to go, don’t grumble about it as you knew it would be expensive and as such just pay up, lie back and think of England!!
We were staying in another canvas cabin which was OK but the camp kitchen didn’t cater for those in these units. There was no where to boil a kettle, no pans to prepare or warm food, the kitchen was a 5 minute walk away as were the toilets and showers. We were grumbling but the sun shone, the flies never let up and we were at Ayers Rock!!
Your first sight of the rock is quite weird as you have seen it many times in pictures but “in the flesh” it looks so damn big!! We went down to see the sun set over the rock along with 90 million others. It was excellent, the red deepens as the sunlight drops away from the bright red rock. Of course after the sun goes down there is the 90 million mass exodus back to the resort.
Now here’s a funny thing, all around the rock there are signs telling you of sacred Aboriginal ground, not to take any photos and to be respectful yet here are 90 million spectators snapping and recording the sun going down over the sacred rock, interesting…….
Back to our tent and of course it’s dark now so on with our camp issue rechargeable lamp. It was good for about an hour, then I got my reserve torch out to put stuff away and the bulb blew in my torch. You can imagine the language and the witty, helpful comments from Mrs D. After getting things away using the light from my mobile phone we slept very well.
The following day we walked around the base of the rock, a good 10k stroll in full sun with a full fly escort!! It semed like a lot longer walking round. Again a multitude of no photo signs and everyone snapping away. You can actually do a climb of the rock to the summit cairn but again it is seen as disrespectful and it Is actually quite steep and dangerous. Having said that there were plenty climbing up. The first section is the steepest and you have the added security of a huge chain to grab hold of and heave yourself up. I chose not to do the climb. By the time we got back to the car we were flied out, hot, sweaty and ready for a big shower!!
The evening was quiet, our lamp had been recharged but not much better so I sat in the laundry room with my laptop doing some notes in real light. I got chatting to some Ozzies who had done the climb and were saying how hard it was and that they were on all fours at the top to try to keep them falling down the shear steep sides – wise move abstaining I thought….
Next day was flying to Cairns day but we didn’y fly ‘til 3.30pm so we had the morning at the Olgas which I have to say were more fascinating than Ayers Rock. We did part of 2 walks and wished we’d spent all day at the Olgas and today at the rock. You don’t know ‘til you see it but there it is. The Olgas were great, many huge rounded forms higher and much bigger than Ayers Rock. We also saw a couple of dingos (a type of wild dog) out there too.
Time was running out so we had to get to the airport to get on with the final phase of our trip. We had really enjoyed Red Central and found the landscape superb but the flies a real nuisance. Kings Creek was excellent and Ayers Rock Campground very disappointing. Never the less returning to a different part of Red Central was stored away for future reference, hmmmmm we’ll see.
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