OUTBACK ODYSSEY - ULURU

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Day 13 - Uluru

Finally, the day we'd all been waiting for had arrived. Today we packed up early and headed to Uluru. From the pictures, it seems like Uluru rises out of a flat open plain with nothing else around for miles and whilst that is true, I had this idea that the whole of the country side would be flat, never-ending open plain. So I was surprised that the countryside is actually very hilly right up to within probably 20 klms of Uluru. I thought that we'd be able to see Uluru from about 150 klms away! In fact, the first monolith you come across is actually Mt Connor, which apparently often gets mistaken for Uluru.

Its still quite a long drive to Uluru from the Mt Connor lookout and the broken records in the back seat began their chorus - slowly at first, but building in momentum as time dragged on - "are we there yet?" Caitlyn was the first one to catch a glimpse of Uluru through a break in the sand dunes and shortly after, we topped a hill and there it was! Awe-inspiring is an overused term and doesn't quite convey the right sentiment but its as close as I can get. I was not really expecting to be impressed by this rock because Ive seen so many photos of it but it is a truly amazing and inspirational sight. I can well understand how it was so special and sacred to the indigenous people of Central Australia and how they came from as far away as Tennant Creek to hold their special ceremonies here.

We booked into our campsite at Yulara and went for a swim - once again, the water was freezing! The resort is huge and you really need a car to drive from one section to another. There are several types of accommodation from camping to 5 star and there are several restaurants and a small shopping precinct. Its situated in the sand dunes so unless you have one of the expensive units which face Uluru at the front of the resort, you can't actually see the rock.

The entrance to the National Park is not far from the resort but you have to purchase a 3 day pass, even if you won't be there that long. After our swim, we went for a drive to Kata-Tjuta (The Olgas). Once again, these are a pretty impressive sight. It was still too hot to do a long walk like the Valley of the Winds so we did the walk up Walpa gorge - along with about 500 other people! It was amazing just how many people were there and this wasn't even the high season. It was late afternoon and the red walls of the Olgas were really vibrant in colour, especially when contrasted against the clear blue sky.

When you arrive at the campground, you are given the expected sunrise and sunset times for the next couple of days so we figured wed better start heading back to the sunset viewing area a little bit early in order to get a good spot. Lucky for us it wasn't high season because it would not have been early enough! There are approx. 200 carparks and it was over three-quarters full the day we were there. You can see the rock quite clearly from the road but unfortunately, there is a long section of the road where you cannot park on the side of the road at all. We stayed for sunset and watched the rock turn various shades of red but we never saw it turn the beautiful purple shade that you often see in photos.

After sunset, we followed the processional of cars that led back to the resort. We had been wanting to try croc meat since we were in Darwin but had difficulty finding somewhere where it was on the menu. However, wed been told that you could BBQ your own meat, including croc, at the Outback Pioneer Lodge at Yulara so we headed there for dinner. We weren't disappointed - we got to try croc, kangaroo, emu and barramundi. We all liked the croc, the kangaroo was a little gamey but still quite good and emu is even more gamey. To top it off, there was a great guitarist playing - a fitting finish to a long awaited, fantastic day.

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Photos

Mt Connor
This flat topped mesa is the first of the 3 large Central Australian monoliths and is often mistaken for Uluru.

Walpa Gorge, Kata Tjuta
The walk goes up to the end of this canyon.

Awaiting Sunset at Uluru
Cait, Brad & Nic at the Sunset viewing site with Uluru in the background