Blogs from Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 19

After an extensive bus journey through the streets of downtown Sydney early in the morning we had an uneventful flight over barren red lands. It was strange to be heading to an airport in the middle of nowhere with no big skyscrapers or any buildings of note for miles around. The bus picked us up and took us to the resort only 5minutes down the road and 30km from the rock itself. On checking in we were informed that we had booked two male dorm rooms but a brief discussion later the manager saw our point regarding the online booking process and upgraded us to a smaller dorm at no cost. Result! It ended up that in our 4bed dorm we had no roomies for the 3 nights that we stayed there. We had booked on ... read more

Here is part two of two. A blog so big they had to increase the space in cyberspace! Congratulations to Amanda Kennedy, Vancouver, our lucky blog reader who correctly answered last blogs Austrivia question. Amanda correctly answered that platypuses are the worlds only other monotreme - mammals who lay eggs (the other being echidnas). Your platypus is on its way. Get that terrarium ready. Good on ya, girl. The destination this blog is Uluru (Ayer's Rock) in the outback of Northern Territory. The quote below describes the rock better than I could and it comes from our bible of travel, Lonely Planet: Australia, . Now let's rock. Open another window/tab and copy and past this link to hear a great song to get you in the outback spirit. Give it a go! And crank the volume! ... read more

As I write this Nick is just starting his 3 hour shift of driving, to the left is absolutly nothing but sandy dessert/bush and the odd tree, and to the right is exactly the same, behind and in front is nothing but long long straight road. Its currently 9am and the temperature is already 88 degrees, I've already driven 400km today putting in 3 hours starting at 6am. The last 5 days have been long, hard, and very rewarding, its not long since our last blog but this is deserving of its own. It all started 5 days ago.... We woke up in Airlie Beach in our posh 2 bed apartment we had been renting, had a quick clean up and headed to the car rental offices. By 10am we had a nice Toyota Carolla automatic, ... read more

The early morning call that I had booked hand me springing out of bed at 04:00. This was they day that I had been waiting for since I booked the trip. I checked out of the hotel at 04:50 and waited in the darkness with my fellow passengers for the bus to arrive. We were picked up at 05:00 and headed for 40 minutes towards Uluru (Ayres Rock) as the bus drove on the rock loomed in the distance, it was quite spectacular with the dawn breaking and the rock in silhouette in front of it. The bus pulled into the sunrise viewing area and everyone was in a mad dash to get the best pitch. Again I walked further along beyond the scrum and managed to get a lovely pitch with the best view of ... read more

Yesterday was another full day of sightseeing. We started with an early rise to go and see the first light of day strike Uluru. It was lovely but the coach driver wanted us back on our way just as it was getting to it's best colour. We then wondered round it's base and "listened" to some more culture. Later in the afternoon we visited Kata Tjuta, which although not as famous as Ayre's Rock we enjoyed more. This was probably down to the much better driver and guide (they slammed the breaks on at one point to go pick up a thorny lizard from the side of the road to show us!) Next we returned to Uluru for a glass of wine (or a few!) while we watched the sun set on it's other side. We ... read more