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KATIE
I thought we'd got over the bad organisation at airports but apparently not! Trying to make a connection at Sydney airport to get to Ayers Rock with only about 1.5 hours and having to check in completely again isn't the best idea. Needless to say we ended up (as in Peru) being rushed to the front of queues to be able to make the flight. Still, it saved us being bored! I don't think James could see any advantages though, he was getting very wound up by all the incompetent people!
The views from the plane coming into Ayers Rock airport were really something. For a good while before landing all you could see was truly inhospitable land - brilliant ochre coloured sand and straggling trees were the only landscape you could see for miles. Having seen this and after walking round Uluru and the Olgas (a group of similar rocks about 40km from Uluru) you can certainly understand how quickly people die when stranded in the bush. I wouldn't rate my chances for more than a day!
I'd definitely recommend having a car if anyone goes to Ayers Rock, it gave us so much freedom and saved us a fortune on not having to do organised trips or spend ages waiting for shuttle buses, plus we could change our minds very quickly as to what we wanted to do. Definitely the right choice, particularly after talking to our dorm flat mates who didn't have a car.
We arrived pretty early, so managed to take the car out to the park to see Uluru and the cultural centre, and get the 3 day park permits that you need to enter. We booked on the Sounds of Silence trip which was our only concession in terms of organised activities! All the write ups of this had been really good and it didn't disappoint. We were picked up at 6.10pm and taken to a secluded spot some distance away from Uluru but which overlooked both Uluru and the Olga's, with the sun setting behind the Olga's at about 7.15pm. We were given Champagne (free flowing so we had 3 glasses each while watching the sun set, thank you very much) and canapes and it was a very relaxing evening after our early morning and slightly stressful (if you're James) journey. Now, interesting fact learned from the barman, from the angle we were looking at the Olga's, they look like Homer Simpson lying down - truly and honestly! We took some photos so have a look for yourself, it's not so clear as being there in person but once you know what to look for its quite funny!
After the sun had set, we were treated to a fantastic 3 course dinner, with free flowing wine and the quality was excellent. Before desert we were given a star talk, which was really interesting and the guy was pretty funny too. As there are no lights around, the stars are absolutely beautiful, I've never seen so many stars in the sky. A bit of a treat was that the position of Venus, Jupiter and the new moon together made a smiley face - very nice! I've decided that the only star constellation you could really in truth make out is Orion's Belt, heaven knows where people think they can see fishes and other animals - it's beyond my imagination....Anyway it was a great evening and definitely worth doing. We got back about 10.30pm and set the alarm once more for an early start, this time at 4.15am (made worse by the fact that we had a 3.5 hour time change giving us a longer day) so we could be at the park gates at 5am to catch the sunrise at 5.50am.
Sunrise was lovely, you don't really get any different colours coming through which I thought you might, but it's still one of the 'got to do' things when you're in Ayers Rock! We'd heard from our dorm mates earlier that the 8km walk we wanted to do around the Olga's in the afternoon was to be closed at 11am as the temperature was forecast to be over 38 degrees. Luckily, as we had the car we changed plan and instead of doing the Uluru base walk after sunrise we headed off out to the Olga's instead to do the 'Valley of the Winds walk'. We started at 7.15am which was just as well as it was pretty hot even then. It was great to walk in complete peace through these amazing rocks and strange creations of nature, looking around you as you pass through the valleys between the rocks you notice the fine detail in their surfaces which you don't see from a distance, and notice big pit marks and different colourations. We only saw a handful of people as we walked round, which surprised me as I had expected both Uluru and the Olgas to be quite over-run with tourists. We almost had the whole place to ourselves, so for those of you that might avoid some of these kind of attractions based on the number of tourists, take a second thought! Once we'd completed the walk we drove back to Uluru to do the base walk, we figured it would be better to do it now rather than early afternoon as it seemed to be getting hotter and hotter. The base walk is about 9km but as we started from the cultural centre we un-wittingly made it a 13km walk! Started about 10.45am and by the time we got towards the end of the walk at around 1pm we were knackered and very glad to see the car park! At least we'd turned out prepared with loads of water, long sleeved shirts and hats but even so, it was very tiring after our early morning and previous 8km walk in the Olgas! Uluru up close is surprising, as I mentioned above regarding the Olgas, in that the shape and surface of the rock is very varied and not the smooth, simply ochre coloured rock you see in the photos. Up close, the ochre colour is far more vibrant than you imagine, particularly when contrasted with the almost luminous green of the grass and plants that grow nearby in clusters - that was something else that surprised us - the surrounding land is predominantly vivid ochre sand but there are also a lot of trees and grass, heaven knows how it survives! There are some really fascinating caves, valleys, different colours (big areas of charcoal grey) and a really pitted side to the rock, the most interesting area I spotted is one that looks just like a brain!
Having exhausted ourselves enough, we enjoyed a very well earned (and needed) shower at the lodge and did some very boring washing! Rested for a while before discovering that in 38 degree heat clothes dry in approximately 10 minutes....
Drove to one of the nearby hotels for just about the poshest buffet dinner imaginable, put it this way, I've never seen oysters and lobster in a help yourself buffet before! Very nice and we felt like we'd earned it!!
The next morning we had a leisurely start and fortunately got to the airport a bit early and they put us on the earlier flight - result....!! Cairns was a quick overnight stay before an earlyish flight to Mackay the following morning for the Whitsundays!!
JAMES
We waved a sad (and bleary eyed) farewell to New Zealand as our plane soared off into the early morning sky and back across the Tasman Sea towards Australia.
I guess it was mainly tiredness (we had got up at 3.30am!) but also a bit of sadness to be leaving our favourite country that made me very ratty that morning. Well, that and the fact there were at least 4 separate instances of having to deal with dim-witted service personnel intent on dragging out whatever menial task they were performing for us to an excruciating degree. Firstly the Jetstar check-in lady at Christchurch insisted that she could not check us through to Ayers Rock because it was a different system to Qantas and the fact that we had been sold the flight under a Qantas flight number counted for nothing and we would have to re-check in at Sydney and then transfer to the other side of the airport to the Domestic Terminal. Katie told me to calm down dear and moved me on before I expleted at her. The connection at Sydney wasn't the most generous, so we could have done without the checkin lady there ignoring us stood in front of her for a full 2 minutes, before processing us at the speed of a snail while her next door colleague sped 4 families through in the time it took her to give us 2 seats. The bus around the airport perimeter then stopped inexplicably halfway through its journey to the domestic terminal for a good 10 minutes. Needless to say, despite my protestations, we made the connection in bags of time. It then took Kath and Kim at least half an hour to give us our car at Uluru airport! Oh, and it was about a million degrees Celsius. Rant rant rant...
All stresses were soon forgotten though as we drove to the hostel and were greeted with our first full on views of the Rock! We've all seen photos of it, so know roughly what it looks like. But there are a number of things that you don't get until you see it in person.
Firstly it is not all smooth and regularly shaped. I don't think I really thought it was, but I wasn't expecting there to be so many pock-marks, gullies and indentations.
Secondly it is totally incongruous with its surrounds. With the exception of the Olgas 50km to the West, the land is flat as far as the eye can see, in every direction. How there came to be this great lump of rock 3km long, 1km wide and 350m tall in the middle of such nothingness truly is a mystery. You can appreciate why the Aboriginals hold it is a place of great spiritual importance. Like the Pyramids in Egypt, there is a really other-worldly feel to it.
Thirdly is the isolation. The nearest town of any note is Alice Springs, and that is 5 hours drive away. A lady at the tour desk at the hostel suggested we might like to think about going to the Kings Canyon for a day trip. It looked reasonably close on the map. It is 350km away!
And finally I was surprised at the amount of vegetation around. I had kind of expected desert, well desert of the sandy no plants type. It is a desert (it only gets 290mm of rain per year) but is more scrubland - lots of 2m trees and little bushes.
It truly is an awesome sight and an awesome setting. It needs to be in the hot desert. It is suited to that environment. It would look plainly wrong on the outskirts of Maidenhead.
In the evening we did the Sounds of Silence dinner. We were bussed about 5km out of the resort, into the middle of the desert. We were led to a dune-top location from where you could see Uluru ahead and to the left, and the Olgas ahead and to the right. We had an hour here, drinking in both the view and the free champagne, and munching kangaroo and crocodile canapes. We watched as the sun set, slowly at first and then quickly as it sunk behind the Olgas. It was pointed out that from the viewpoint, the profile of the Olgas was remarkably similar to the profile of Homer Simpson lying down. And he was right! The photos (again) don't really capture it, it really did look like Homer. Amazing what you'll believe after 3 glasses of bubbly!
After sundown we were lead down to the dining area where we (or at least I) devoured huge amount of BBQ buffet. Again, it featured primarily any native animals that had been so careless as to take a stroll near to the kitchen - kangaroo, croc, emu, as well as barramundi and chicken. The food was good, and the setting was even better. Being in the middle of the desert, and therefore without any ambient light, the night sky was amazing. Not since being in the Sahara a few years ago had I seen so many stars. They were literally millions.
Before desert we were given a star talk, where the guy pointed out Orion's Belt, Venus, Jupiter, a couple of constellations within our galaxy (which looked a bit like a cloud of spray from an aerosol) and loads of other things. It was really interesting, and just amazing how much you can see when there is no man made light!
At the end of the talk we got stuck into desert before getting the coach back to the hostel for some well earned rest.
That was short-lived though as we got up at 4.15am to see the sunrise. Even through tired eyes it was cool to see the rock coming to life, moving from a dark slate grey colour to the familiar ochre red colour we are all familiar with.
We wanted to do an 8k walk at the Olgas that day, but our room-mates had told us that it would be closed after 11am as the temperature was forecast to reach 38C, 2 degrees above the 36C max. So as soon as the sun was up, we raced over there and ticked off that walk before it got too hot. The Olgas are a range of... well I don't know what you call them really. They are obviously from the same rock type as Uluru, but you can't call them mountains as they aren't big enough. Hills just sounds like the wrong word. Definitely not a monolith. There are valleys between them, and several peaks. Just looked it up on Wikipedia and there they are described as a series of domed rock formations, so I guess that will do! Anyway, we did the Valley of the Winds walk. A loop takes you up through one of the valleys and out the other side onto the plain, then back round to the start point. Another stunning walk, and very isolated on the plain. We really were in the middle of nowhere, and we had the place to ourselves. There was evidence of kangaroo in the area (there was kangaroo sh!t all over the place!) but sadly we didn't see any! I naively thought they would be bounding around all over the place, but Skippy was nowhere to be seen!
A 2hr walk in hot weather would probably be enough for most people, but like the idiots we are we decided to tack another 13km walk on after it, by doing the walk all the way round the base of Uluru. It would only have been 9k if I had read the map properly and directed us to the right car park rather than the one at the Cultural Centre 2k away! As The Olgas would say, D'oh!!
Seeing the rock at close quarters offers a whole different perspective. You can notice that the surface of the rock almost looks metallic in places. You can also notice just how many gullies and ravines there are, and also notice the 3 important Aboriginal spiritual sites around the base. You can see how many holes there are in the rock, and in one place these come together in a formation that looks like a brain!
It was 1.30pm by the time we staggered back into the Cultural Centre for a well earned drink and ice cream. It had been every bit of 38C, but we had been very sensible with our wide brimmed hats, long sleeve shirts, regular drinking and liberal application of factor 50. But even so, we were bushed!
We then used the heat to our advantage and did two loads of washing which dried outside in quicker time than the spin cycle!
Our recuperation was completed in the evening with another stupendously large buffet of excellent quality. And by the time that was followed by eight hours of good sleep we were ready for another bit of travelling!
Fortuitously we got on an earlier flight to Cairns, so arrived an hour earlier than planned. We then wasted this gained hour listening to the hostel manager trying to sell us trips in the Whitsundays. I thought he would never stop. I must polish up my German so as I can pretend not to speak English. Such encounters would then be avoided!
We were only in Cairns for a night, and it didn't do much for me really. We are now in Mackay for a few hours waiting for our bus to Airlie Beach. It isn't doing much for me either. Looking forward to getting to Airlie though and chilling by the beach and seeing the Whitsundays for a few days...
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