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Saturday 9/8/2014 Mt Dare to Erldunda
Left Mt Dare and not far up the road we crossed the border into Northern Terriority travelled north to Finke then turned a hard left and along this road there is a turn off to the geographical centre point of Australia, only about 30kms away but we reckoned we were close enough. We came out onto the Stuart Highway at Kulgera, onto the tarseal highway. Then straight north to Erldunda
Sunday 10/8/2014 Erldunda to Ayres Rock
We set off for Ayers Rock, country side flat and scrubby and dirt was red. We came across Mt Conner, stopped at the lookout to check it out, it was a huge rock, oblong but shaped like a jam jar at the top. Had a flat top, sides straight down for the top quarter then just flared out slightly. It looks really strange as the ground all around it is so flat. Then as we got closer to Ayers Rock it loomed up before us, it is impressive to say the least.
We booked into our caravan park, set up, then drove out to take a closer look at the rock. It is $25/per person to drive into the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park, they have a toll booth on the highway, so no one gets in without paying. They must collect a bomb, but the facilities are excellent. I think we should have a toll both on the Milford Road etc, a great way to raise some money. Went to the cultural centre first, facilities first class. The building blended into the landscape perfectly, uprights were the blood wood trees just stripped of their bark, bricks were like big rounded mud bricks, nothing was square it just all flowed around, I guess to resemble the rock. There were aborigines doing their traditional painting, plus other crafts, carving, painting etc, all of which were for sale.
When then drove to the base of the rock, Des and Barry were going to climb to the top but it was closed because of high winds at the summit. They had a chain in the steep places and my god you would need it, a lot who came down had the bum ripped out of their pants. We walked around a small part of the track, if you are feeling energetic you could walk right around the base of the rock, It's very hard to describe, just a huge red rock in the desert. Went and watched some traditional aboriginal dances on the lawn in the resort. First time we have seen anything that resembles lawn since Toowoomba. I'm not sure where the locals live as you don't see any actual houses, you drive in to the Ayers Rock Resort and it has everything in there, fuel station, bank, post office, supermarket, a few shops, pub, and a couple of restaurants. Plus it's the camping ground as well, powered/non-powered sites, cabins, units, etc. It was huge, you would not believe the caravans in this park, rows and rows of them, with most of them moving on every couple of days. The lady on reception said they had 80 coming in the next day.
Sunday night we went to view the sunset on the rock, they have a special parking area, one for buses and another for cars. You can either sit in your car or there are plenty of picnic tables that you can sit at, all really well set up. I don't know how many car parks were in this area but there were heaps of people with their beer, wine and nibbles watching the sunset on the rock. It was quite an amazing thing to see, plus we had a bonus of a full moon coming up over the rock.
11/8/14 Monday morning we got up at 6.30am to go and view the sunrise on the Rock, didn't think it was quite as spectacular but still attracted hundreds of people with their cameras.
The boys still wanted to do the walk to the top but was still closed because of the wind. It was weird as there wasn't a breath of wind where we had viewed the sunrise.
After packing up our camp, we set off for the Olgas which is on the same $25.00 road (the pass is for three days) but 50k further west, they were just as impressive. We did a 2.6k walk into the Valley of the Winds, it was very good, you climb up and around but nowhere even close to the top. It just looks like a giant concrete mixer has tipped out a huge load, obviously volcanic but easy to walk on as set just like concrete. It took us an hour and half for the return trip. The Olgas are higher than Ayers Rock, and a sight to be seen. Left the Olgas at 1.00pm heading for Kings Canyon Resort.
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