Day 52 - 58 Ayers Rock and back to Alice Springs

After our walk at King's Canyon we continue on the unsealed road to Ayers Rock stopping to view Mt Conner (often mistaken as Ayers Rock) in the distance.Ayers Rock like many places in Australia is now officially known by its indigenous name which is Uluru.Everyone that visits has to stay in a purpose built resort 24km away to minimize the environmental damage that was being caused.The rock was only really discovered by European settlers in the 1880/90's and then no-one came back again for 10 years because it was so remote.Tourism started in the 1950's but by the 1970's the large number of people visiting (unrestricted in where they stayed) began to cause issues.At the same time the local people were staking their claim to their land and eventually won the land back on the condition that Uluru national park was leased back to the Australian government for 99 years.

Seeing the rock for the first time was really quite special as it is something (like the Great Wall) that has been part of our consciousness for most of our lives and so to finally see it and for it to exceed our very high expectations in terms of size and shear majesty was amazing.We knew that rain was forecast but we really did not expect to spend most of the next three days in our fleeces and waterproofs.Apparently only 1% of visitors see the rock in the rain and while it does not have the famous red glow the waterfalls flowing over it cause their own unique image of the red "crying".Actually the relief from the heat meant we could complete a number of 6-10km walks during our stay including walking around the base of the rock (they prefer it if you do not climb and due to the weather this was not an option as it is dangerous - something like 35 people have died climbing the rock); and a walk through the neighbouring Olgas which is another range of similar rocks within the same national park which are only marginally less spectacular.

On our first evening we headed out with the convoy of other tourists to see the sunset.(There is no getting away from the fact that this is a well trodden tourist site with flights directly to Ayers Rock, a five star hotel, and coach loads of people visiting for just 24 hours) which, whilst not raining, was very overcast.Each of the following mornings we set our alarm for 0445 to make the same journey to watch the sunrise.However the first 2 mornings we looked out, saw the rain and aborted (and enjoyed a lie in) but finally on our last day, having seen a sunset the night before, we woke to clear skies and hurriedly made our way out to the rock where we saw the sunrise.Watching the rock change colour as the sun's light refracts through the atmosphere was really great and although it probably was not a classic sunrise (or sunset) by the rock's standards it still put the icing on the whole visit.

The great thing about having the campervan is you can put the roof up and have a sleep wherever you like or on this morning get the stove out and have an outback breakfast of baked beans, spicy salami, and eggs with a cup of instant coffee.I thought it was great but Lil stuck to our staple breakie of muesli, yoghurt and fruit.The local dingoes were more impressed with my breakfast and a pack of 6 came a sniffing but they were never going to get a look in.

Lil was really interested in the geology of the area explaining that Ayers Rock is in fact the second biggest (often it is mistaken as the largest) monolith in Australia (which is one complete rock - the biggest is in Western Australia) and that it is made of compacted sand, whereas the nearby Olgas are a conglomerate and originated as compacted mud and today consists of a series of 36 domes.While I don't think we could claim to be experts I felt somewhat expert enough when we arrived at a viewing platform (where both Ayers Rock and the Olgas could be viewed) at the same time as some elderly Americans who were very confused by which set of rocks were which (we overheard one couple, who were told by the person taking their photo that the lady's hat was obscuring the rock, not to worry as it did not matter!!!),

The rain had been so bad while we had been at Ayers Rock that the route we had followed from King's Canyon had been closed the day after for the whole time we were at the rock as waters were 2m over the road in some places, and for one day we were actually cut off from Alice Springs via the main highway.As we drove the 300km back to Alice the evidence of the flood waters was everywhere (a couple of local lads were having fun parked up on the side of the road watching the tourists hit one particular flood water as they came down a hill at speed).On Lil's leg of the journey back to Alice we hit a storm which was blowing sand and heavy rain and was causing the road trains to swerve all over the road (Lil has overtaken 2 road trains now whilst I have not done any).

When we arrived in Alice the river Todd which is usually dry was flooding and one of the bridges was totally covered.This was so unusual that the locals had stopped off at the side of the river and took photos of this rare sight, and the news had made the national press.A few days rest and next stop is Adelaide and meeting Andy and Zoe - the end of our solitude!!