Uluru

We managed to visit Uluru last week before I started work, we packed up the Bundera and said goodbye to the caravan, leaving it at the park for $10 a night storage fee.

We left on Wednesday about 8am and started heading back the way we came down the Stuart Hwy.

The half way mark to ‘the rock’ from Alice Springs is Erldunda which is roughly a 200 kilometre drive, we stopped there to get petrol and it cost us $1.75 per litre, although we are getting used to petrol prices being a bit higher this is definitely the highest we have seen, so far.

After we got over the shock of the petrol prices we were on our way again and then were stopped about 80 kilometres past Erldunda in the middle of nowhere for a random breath test by a policeman that looked liked Bronson from ‘Round The Twist'.

It isn’t a very exciting drive at first as there is really only two turns for the whole 450 Kilometres, one at Erldunda and then the final turn into the Ayers Rock resort.

There is one stop that is about 70 kilometres from Ayers Rock called Curtain Springs, we stopped in for a toilet break, it’s a pretty basic stop that has a petrol station, toilets and a camp ground where you can stay for free, a lot of backpackers were staying here and then driving out to Uluru each day.

We were about 40 Kilometres away when we started to see the rock, from something that we had seen in pictures from a young age it seemed so much bigger in the flesh.

We looked out for a Yulara turn off where the Ayers Rock Resort is situated and drove past the resort in the meantime looking for Yulara, we weren't the only ones who were confused and after realising there is no sign for Yulara we all had to do u-turns after finding out there is no sign for Yulara , just a sign for Ayers Rock Resort, very confusing!!

Once you get into the resort its just like a town but in the shape of a circle, there is even a shuttle bus that just does loops all day. The 5-star accommodation is first and that’s next to all the shops and a few restaurants, as well as the visitors centre, obviously we were not staying in the 5-star accommodation so we kept driving around the loop until we got to the more modest camp ground.

It was about 1:30 p.m when we checked in and you wouldn't want to get there much later or you may be lining up for a while. I went in to reception to get us a nice spot on the lawn and when told the price for a un-powered campsite nearly passed out, $34- a night! We have our a huge set up in Alice with the caravan and power for only $28-, so you can imagine the surprise when your told its $68- for 2 nights in a tent with no power!!

We soon realised that everything in the Ayers Rock Resort is expensive, so be prepared to pay. 

We found a spot down the back of the park and set up our tent, so we wouldn't have to do it in the dark, then we set off to have our first close up of Ayers Rock, we got to the toll gate and paid our money to get into the national park which is $25 per person and that lasts for 3 days.

It's very unusual to see the rock close up, when we got there it was pretty windy so the walk up the rock was closed, there are a heap of signs telling you not to climb it out of respect, but tourists can climb when the weather is right.

We did want to do the walk around the base but it is about 11 kms so we were running out of time and decided to save that for the next day, we had a walk around the culture centre and a look around the front of the rock.

We sat down to have lunch there and got the fright of our lives when a HUGE black crow came and sat right beside us, almost on Brentons shoulder!! It was freaky and we had a few tourists taking pictures of us like we were the main attraction.

After a quick bite to eat and the embarrassment of having our pictures taken by complete strangers we went to go wait at the sunset viewing area, we got there about 4:30 p.m and we were the only car there, by 6 p.m there were at least 150 other people, it was extremely busy, people parking left right and centre.

It was definitely worth the wait though, even though it was a slightly cloudy day, the rock still put on a show for us.

Even when we were leaving to go back to camp the sky looked so amazing everyone was pulling over on the side of the road to take more pictures, it was like a rush to see who could get the best picture!

It was a cold night and after a partly warm shower we cooked up some pasta and had an early night in preparation for our big walk the next day. 

We were up nice and early as planned for our walk around the base of Ayers Rock and it was about 4 degrees when we left the resort.

Even on a cold morning though the rock is buzzing with tourists, the base walk is about 11.5 kilometres and they say to give yourself 3.5 hours obviously with a few stops for photo's and a feed!

It's a very easy walk as it is all flat, it's great to see a different perspective of the rock, we finished the walk in about 2 hours moving at a steady pace but still stopped to take plenty of pictures.

Lots of different views of Ayers Rock:

After our walk we said good-bye to Ayers Rock and headed to the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) which is about 40 kilometres away from Uluru in the same national park.

The sun was out and it we enjoyed some lunch at the picnic area before attempting another walk. 

The Olgas take up a lot more space than Ayers Rock and most of the walks are a fair bit steeper than the old Ayers Rock base walk!!. So we only did one of the short walks, about an hour or so long, we both knew we would already be struggling to walk the next day given our lack of fitness.

We loved it here the scenery is amazing!

We stopped at the  Olga's sunset viewing area on the way back to camp, although it was a little early for a sunset we made the most of the great views.

It may look superimposed but I swear it's not!

We then left the park for the last time and headed back to our little camp spot.

When we left in the morning there was only our tent on our designated lawn area, when we got back we had some very close neighbours, even though they had the whole lawn to spread out on! It ended up worse for them in the morning though as we starting to pack up 6:30 a.m, very early for us!

It was then a long drive back to Alice, but it was nice to be back in our cosy little caravan park!

xxxx

P.S. Brenton just managed to get the footy show working on our TV and we just heard a major crash.... our antenna...... and no footy show...