Uluru Day 2

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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 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 restaurant 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 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 navy in Colorado (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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Photos

sunset
Sunset at Uluru

Height of the Sun
The sun's height to change colours

Trish's Buddies
Trish's new friends groove to the diggeridoo player

Sunset at Kata Tjuta
Sunset at the Olgas

Feet
Desert is red - so are her feet!!