Uluru and Kata Tjuta


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August 18th 2008
Published: August 18th 2008
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After three weeks in the tropics and four weeks travelling along the stunning Queensland coastline I was quite sad when we flew out of Cairns!..... But I knew that more adventures awaited...next stop Ayers Rock!

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is about a 5 hr drive from Alice Springs, and with no other settlements in the area a purpose built resort (not so originally named, Ayers Rock Resort) has been created. It was here that we stayed for the last few days. The surrounding countryside is desert plains with bright orange and red soil and, perhaps surprisingly, quite a lot of vegetation. The temperature was a warm 18 degrees celcius during the day but a rather chilly 2 degrees at night (feeling even less than this due to wind chill)! This was quite a shock after the tropics!

There isn't much to do there other than see the rock and the nearby Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), so that's basically what we did (Oh and had a cook your own BBQ where we tried Emu sausages! ... They were quite good... not at all like Pork sausages, and apparently like game but since I've never really had any game I can't say if I agree.)

It was Kata Tjuta that we visited first. These are a group of rocks (36 domes), the highest of which is actually taller than Uluru. Emily still wasn't feeling completely well so I followed the "Valley of the Winds" walk with the rest of the group on our bus, while she rested at the resort. The walking track took us between the rocks, around a few of the domes and show-cased some wonderful scenery (I think the pictures should do the talking here)! The walk was 8 km in total and took about 2 hrs and 20 mins as some parts were quite steep. Afterwards we took the bus to the Uluru sunset viewing area to watch the sunset. The rock really does change to a brilliant bright red as the sun goes down. Unfortunately we had to leave (on the bus) as soon as the rock went into shadow, which was just before the sky turned a wonderful lilac colour with a few whispy clouds framiing the sillohuette of the rock!...It was just like a postcard! And as the bus kept pulling away we moved so that the (almost full) moon could be seen rising above the rock! It was fantastic but unfortunately we coudn't really get any photos on the bus :-( So we'll just have to remember instead!

The following day we visited Uluru properly, walking along some of the walking tracks around the base and visting the cultural centre to learn about the rock's spirtual significance to the native Anangoo people. Uluru looks quite differnt up close. the surface is almost mottled, which looks quite strange, and there are cracks, caves, gorges and vegetation dotted around the surface (again see the pics).

It was really good to see a completely differrent type of scenery here and, although I pobably wouldn't go again (as its pretty expensive) it was definately worth seeing "the big rock in the ground" and I'm glad we did!


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Sunset Sunset
Sunset

(Facing the opposite direction to Uluru)


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