On Wednesday morning (7th May) we arrived at Uluru (Ayers Rock) where we were booked into the Ayers Resort Campground for two nights. The resort is in Yulara and is some 30kms from Uluru. It is a very impressive set up, with a wide range of offerings, from catering for holiday makers looking for 5 star accommodation flying in direct to the local airport through to campers wanting to relax and still enjoy many of the services and facilities on offer. After setting up and completing the usual local familiarisation, we were joined by our traveling buddy Brian in his motorhome, so that we could venture off to Uluru in the Suzuki. Uluru is located in a national park so we purchased a 3 day pass that would allow us to enjoy sunsets and sunrises and also visit Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) which is about 50kms away. And yes it is wow when you start getting closer to Uluru. On Wednesday we had our first close-up, and visited the very informative Uluru Aboriginal Centre, which takes you on a walk through local aboriginal history. We also joined other visitors at the main village green at the resort for local aboriginal dancing, which was really colourful and we learned a lot about what each different dance means. It was well worth the time.

Along with many other visitors, later in the day we drove half way back into the park to the Sunset Watching Carpark, and along with a very pleasant bottle of red, the three of us watched the many faces of Uluru as the sun set. And she is really quite stunning. Steve battled the flies, however his fly hat/net adornment is pretty good. Getting the wine glass up inside the net is an art he is having to master whilst in central Australia.

Steve and fly-net enjoying Uluru sunset

It was another early rising on Thursday, to both watch a spectacular sunrise on The Rock, and to do the around-Uluru walk before it got too warm and before the many hundreds of tourists arrived for the day. The walk is well worth it, with many points of aboriginal history including rock art, caves and waterholes. The walk is 9.4kms with a very interesting side walk of 850m. For those that walk quickly that means around 2 hours (that’s us, although we were less), and for others, between 3 and 4. You can also cycle.

One thing we have noticed on this leg of the trip, from Port Augusta, is that when compared with inland QLD and NSW, there is a real lack of visible wildlife. We are always on the look out, and finally it was our turn. On the way to the Olgas we spotted four very large wild camels enjoying a forage in the grass about 300m from the roadside. Steve raced across the grass and managed to get a few good shots. The Olgas are a majestic set of 36 domed rocks that are believed to have originated at about the same time as Uluru, and just as stunning as Uluru. There used to be a number of walks, but there are now just two, the Walpa Gorge walk of 2.6kms and the Valley of the Winds which is longer, around 3 hours. We did the Walpa Gorge one which takes you into a gully where you truly appreciate the scale of the domes. We did intend to do the 2nd however it was like central Sydney so it wasn’t going to be enjoyable. We recommend this as an early in the day walk to avoid the crowds!

The Olgas

On Thursday evening we joined about 100 others on the Sounds of Silence dinner. This is quite a logistical masterpiece. We were picked up at 5pm by bus and transported a short distance into the desert to a prime ‘Uluru watching’ spot. On arrival we were greeted with champagne and didgeridoo player. The adventurous few came by camel. Dinner was a fine three course meal with a great range of foods, and a constant supply of wines and beers for those who wanted it. We enjoyed the evening at a table with a group of Ulysses club riders, who have their AGM in Alice Springs from Monday. We were entertained with aboriginal dancers and an astronomer who gave us a wonderful insight into the night sky. We thoroughly recommend this evening, it is well organised and everyone has a wonderful time. We were delivered safely back home at 10pm.

On Friday morning we left Uluru for the 304km drive to Kings Canyon. I will provide the Kings Canyon update tomorrow.