Blogs from Ayers Rock, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania

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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Ayers Rock July 20th 2022

A leisurely drive from Kings Canyon to Yulara had us arrive relaxed. Along the way the scenery remained fairly constant with grassland and low scrub with spindly trees dominating after the turn off on Lasseter Highway towards Yulara. Mt Connor stood out to the south of us. Yulara came about due to the unstructured and unmonitored tourism in the early 1970’s. This was having detrimental effects on the environment surrounding both Uluru and Kata Tjuta. The town of Yulara was proclaimed a town on August 10, 1976. It is 14 km from Uluru. We are staying at the Desert Gardens Hotel for 3 nights. Tonight we ate in the restaurant and toasted our wonderful adventures.... read more
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Mt Connor

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Ayers Rock November 18th 2018

So we drove on the bus for 285 miles of mostly desert. We checked in to our hotel. We went for a short swim at the pool. In the evening, we drove over to the viewing area of Ayres Rock and had some Champagne and watched the sun set on Ayres Rock. It was spectacular. After that, we drove to the Earth Sanctuary World Nature Center for a barbeque and talk about the indigenous peoples and the stars. The next morning, we were supposed to get up at 4:00 am and watch the sunrise over Ayres Rock. We knew it was going to be cloudy and we decided to sleep in. So far on this bus trip, we have had to get up around 5:30 am or 6:00 am every morning. Stacy has been a little ... read more
Our bus tour group at sunset
Stacy and I at the sunset viewing
During the sunset

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Ayers Rock September 27th 2018

The Rock I pulled out of Alice Springs 10 minutes ahead of schedule at 8:50. My Fastener friends who have traveled with me and certainly my family know that when a departure time is set it’s BIH (bags In Hand) at or before the specified departure time?. A lot of people think The Rock is just outside Alice Springs - in fact, it is 274 miles south and west. The Rock will be my furthest West Point in Australia on the bike trip. I stopped and popped a couple pictures of Connors Mountain which is a pretty good size plateau rock in its own right. It was a hot ride down, 95 degrees was my top temperature recorded but very little wind. I was cruising along at 70 when all of a sudden there were 250-350 ... read more
cattle 2 road
cattle on the road
mount Connor

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Ayers Rock September 20th 2017

Uluru and Kata Tjuta National Park Ayres Rock and The Olgas - or otherwise known as Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We made it! After our short stay in Alice Springs we jumped in the van again and headed down to Uluru. We spent the night before in a free campsite which had WIFI and showers. It was amazing; it was at this campsite that we ate camel for the first time. It was surprisingly nice. It reminded us of steak. Any way once we arrived in Yulara, (the town/resort for Uluru), free actives were on and we could attend a half an hour cooking course on food you can ate and find in the local bush. Even though I still wouldn’t feel safe eating any local vegetation it was a very interesting talk. We were told ... read more
Welcome Charlotte
Kata Tjuta
Uluru

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Ayers Rock June 16th 2017

Geo: -25.2848, 131.077 It was a short trip of 300+ km today and we arrived to the caravan park with a queue of many waiting to book in. We set up camp and had some lunch as most days we seem to miss this step while driving. Tonight we have booked a Field of Light tour. This is a field of 50,000 LED lights set out in front of Ularu. We were taken there on a huge bus and led to the top of a hill overlooking the field. While waiting for sunset we were fed canapes and drinks. I wanted the party pies and pasties but we got kangaroo, crocodile, prawns and beetroot nibbles. Should have had tea at 4 pm today!! Once the sun set the lights (solar powered) started to come on. WOW ... read more
I can do this
Yep he loves it
We look good hey

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Ayers Rock May 30th 2017

Hi all, well we finally reached Uluru. When we started to plan this trip Uluru was to be the final destination of our trip. To date we hav found that this rock has become part of our journey and not the ultimate standout. Mind you it still sparkles. Ok now let me start you on this very interesting day. The first couple of hours was consumed by breakfast and the loading of our cars. It is harder to re load your cars against the clock than it is to just quietly load your car at home. Anyhow we had every scrap of useless piece of camping equipment loaded onto the car and off we went. Now given we had a 450 km trip you would think we would head straight out. No that wasn't going to ... read more
Transport Hall of Fame
Transport Hall of Fame
Transport Hall of Fame

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Ayers Rock March 10th 2017

Thursday March 9, 2017 A day in 2 parts: morning a free program at the resort and an afternoon sunset hike around the Uluru rock. The morning activity was with a local aboriginal who, in the circle of sand, explained us about the tools and weapons used by the locals. Interesting the explanation regarding the different instruments, in particular the boomerang. As it turns out, different tribes in different parts of the country use a similar instruments, but adapted to the animals they are supposed to hunt and kill. Here in the centre of the country, the boomerang is for killing larger animals (kangaroos, emus, etc.). As such the boomerang is heavy and a little curved and does not come back to the thrower. The ones that we typically consider boomerangs, and that come back, are ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Ayers Rock March 9th 2017

Wednesday March 8, 2017 Getting up to go and see the sun rise, is quite a sacrifice, but, as it turned out was really worthwhile, and this taking into consideation that we did not get a full sunrise. Clouds covered a real complete sunrise, so what we saw was the reflection of the sun on the clouds with sparce rays really shining through. Gives a real nice effect nevertheless and lights up the Kata Tjuta (KT) rock formation in a continuous different colour. The KT formation is one of the two major attractions here. Whereas Uluru is a monolithic (one rock), KT is a series of rocks. Where from a distance it looks like a single stone formation, coming up close you see that it is consists of many stones and sand glued together under enormous ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Ayers Rock March 7th 2017

Tuesday, March 7, 2017 A travel day, i.e. Getting up early to go to the airport. Today we left Sydney to fly to Ayers Rock, or in the local aborigines language Uluru. Uluru is the name of an enormous rock formation, red in color and alone standing, quite spectacular, As the Turtle rock in Venezuela, Uluru is sacred to the aborigenes Uluru is in the middle of Australia with no settlement anywhere near. Truely the middle of nowhere. A couple of things drew our attention on the airport in Sydney, a boy with a baseball jacket/shirt of Magallanes, with advertisement of PDVSA and Maltin Polar included. We asked the owner if he had been to Venezuela, but the answer was, no, he had bought the jacket because he liked the model. Kind of surprising nevertheless. The ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Ayers Rock August 30th 2016

Tuesday 23rd August 2016 Just as well we did leave Curtin Springs early, as there was a queue of vans in front of us at the entrance to the camping area at Ayers Rock Resort and more coming. Because all there large van sites were already occupied, they had to put us in the campervan area, which suited us as we were placed right at the rear with the bush behind us. We will be here for 4 nights as they had a special where we only pay for 3. This will give us plenty of time to explore and give us a rest from travel. Ayers Rock Resort is like an oasis in the desert with various accommodations to suit every taste and budget. It tries to fit with the environment and is hard to ... read more
Uluru
Uluru
Uluru




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