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Published: March 5th 2008
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Digeridoo
Player at the Sounds of Silence Adelaide-Uluru (Ayer's Rock)
I've made some secret plans. and got some great deals online. Our flights are booked to Uluru and then 3 days later to Sydney. As we check in at the airport, we get a confused lady who can't understand why we haven't checked in, yet have boarding cards. This is suspicious to me and I mention to trish we may be double booked. Luckily we have a 2 hour lay over in Alice Springs so I phone Qantas. Yep - foiled by my friend the internet, I've double booked and double charged the tickets. They're more than happy to refund the extra charge and we continue on our way.
At Uluru, I've found a great deal at The Sails in the Desert resort. (wotif.com btw). it's a 5 star resort and I scored a last minute 60% off. Trish is impressed!! Upon check in I ask for an upper berth (lucky to have a layover, I read quickly on Lonely Planet's guide to Uluru and this was one tip). She gets us a room where we should see a bit of the rock off the right side of the balcony.
WOW!! The rock is not
Sunset
Sunset over Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) just off the right balcony, but holy crap!! it's right there.
We cruise around the Yalara village which turns out to be one big property owned by Voyages. They have The Sails in the Desert, Lost Camel, Emu Appartments, Outback Pioneer and Campgrounds. Something to fit every budget. In fact the Emu Apartments was the same price on Travelocity as what we had booked ours for.
The village has a tour booking facility, grocery store and souvenier stores. Well done indeed. The grocery store leads us to 'cheap' goodies and we stock up on a few big water bottles also. It's a quiet evening in after we watch the sunset on Uluru. Lots of pictures were to be had. This was viewed from a lookout point in the centre of the village. Lots of little flies! Not bitting mind you, but in your face! After sunset, they disappear.
Back to the room to watch some TV and crackers and the last bottle of wine!!
Uluru Day 2.
I set the alarm for 6 o'clock so we can see the sunrise. One of the coolest things about Uluru is the colour change. As the sun sets or
Moon
The moon really is upside down! rises, the colour on rock is brought from an ashen (sun rise) to purple to orange. and in reverse at sunset. So we have coffee in our robes as the sun rises, again with lots of pictures. I fall asleep shortly after!!!
Nothing is really planned yet, so we head down to the tourist booking desk in our hotel. We plan to attend the Sounds of Silence supper as well as hike Uluru. Kata Tjuta is also interesting (known as the Olgas) so we book a hike of that early and Uluru for afternoon and sunset.
We head for a walk over to some of the other properties. At the Outback Pioneer we're impressed to see a BBQ where you buy your meats, grill it yourself, add some veg and eat off your stainless steel plates. This early there's no one there and we're able to scope it out fairly well. Boughs restaraunt also offers a buffet style at the same property and we plan for one or the other.
back to Sails for a light lunch we then hit the pool. Nice to be here as it's a big deep pool with not many people. 5
Uluru
Ayer's Rock star accomidations that people pay through the nose for and no one enjoys the pool? very interesting. An hour ago, the lost camel pool had 15 people in it and the pool was easily half the size.
The pool is cool and refreshing as it's +34C out. We both burn a little in our pool chairs and head back to the room to nap alittle before the award winning Sounds of Silence supper.
We get picked up at 6:25pm (sun sets at 7:30 or so) and taken out 15 minutes from the property. We're lead to another vista where we can see Uluru, a digeridoo is being played and drinks are served. We enjoy the scenery and drinks until our digeridoo player invites us over for a lesson in the history of the instrument., He plays more as the sun set behind Kata Tjuta and more pictures are taken.
We're lead down a path where our tables await. We grab two chairs. Being at the back of the pack as the polite Canadians, we end up at a table with 4 japanese tourists, a couple from Wales, a single lady from Washington DC, a guy in the
Sunset
another sunset shot navy in Colarado (i know - funny) and another couple from the UK. We start conversation with the Navy guy and are surprised to find he knows Yellowknife, he's been watching Ice Road truckers. And the he starts in to the US vs. Canada. BORING>..... I turn him on to a few other topics, but am fairly uninterested in his military point of view and how he eyes up my wife. grrr.
Supper is served pumpkin soup with roll followed by a buffet featuring local food. Emu, kangaroo, crocodile, lamb, giant panda and koala. I especially enjoyed the giant panda!! Food was excellent and the darkness grew quickly.
After supper, the lights are turned out and we're all treated to star gazing. A knowlegable guy shows us constellations we'd' never see back home and takes us through history of them. He's also got a few telescopes set up set on a few of them. Interestingly enough, Saturn is in the Leo constellation and his telescope is trained on it. I am blown away to say that I saw Saturn with it's rings through a telescope. Something you'd only ever seen on a computer or TV. I was blown away.
We talk with the couples of our journey and saddly the night ends too quickly. At 11:30pm though a 5:30 wake up call comes even earlier.
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swissmaple
World Citizen, aka Mél
I wasn't loony!
I'm glad someone else noticed the moon was upside-down!