Sunrise at Ayers Rock

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Although we’d gone to bed early the night before and set several alarms we seemed to have misjudged the time of sunrise so we rushed to get to the viewing area inside the park. With this Will was given permission to go faster than the recommended speed limits.Fortunately we made it despite some other people on the roads who seemed not to be in such a rush, although there were a lot of other people who were there ahead of us to claim the prime viewing spots.

With a little clever manoeuvring we soon found our way into the right areas to catch the images, but unfortunately luck was against us today and cloud was blocking the sun from illuminating Uluru. Not deterred we stayed just encase and got some good pictures given the conditions.

Listening to our stomachs we drove back to the resort enjoy a breakfast of ham and cheese rolls, muffins and fruit before heading back to the base of the rock and contemplate the climb to the summit. The local Aboriginals ask that you don’t climb the rock as it’s sacred, although Will and Mark saw this as a once in a life time opportunity and joined the crowds to take on the precarious climb. Focused on the climb the boys managed the assent in under 30 minutes despite the limited safety precautions in place and the blustering wind. After capturing the views from the top they then ascended back to the car park and a relieved Jo!

The next part of the self-defined tour took us to Kata Tjuta. Equally impressive this formation of rocks would be ten times the size of Ayers Rock had it not been for the erosion, so we assumed this meant they were older. With a couple of viewing area linked by a 7.5km trail, we decided to walk it all and breezed round in under two and a half hours despite the undulating tracks. Back at the car we enjoyed some more of our ham and cheese rolls to top up the energy level s before driving back and returning Will’s racing car!

With the last few days being a bit nonstop we decided to unwind next to the hostels pool with some chilled drinks for a few hours before dinner. After washing off the sun cream we decided to try some local produce including Emu, Kangaroo, Crocodile and Buffalo on their DIY barbeques. With dinner over we chilled out in the bar with what seemed to be the resorts entire population of locals which made ideal people watching territory to keep us entertained for the evening!

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