Gypsymichelle's travel blogs:
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Uluru Park
Entry 6 of 30 | show all | print this entry |
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Next morning was up at the crack of dawn to make it to Uluru National Park in time to do some walks before the heat of the day. First we went to Kata Tjunta which is in the same park about 30km away from Ayers Rock. Kata Tjunta means "many heads." The non-aboriginal name for it is The Olgas.
There are two walks you can do there. One is into the Walpa Gorge, only about 2km long. The other is called the Valley of the Winds walk, about 7.5km. It takes you right into the middle of The Olgas, out the back side and then around the edge back to where you started. Really beautiful views all along the way.
Here I also started my collection of wildlife roadside warning signs, my first one of a kangaroo. As we were making our way back towards Ayers Rock we couldn't help but to keep stopping and taking pictures, it is just that impressive. We also took some goofing off pictures with the rock in the background!!
We were told that accommodations in the park were outrageously expensive so we decided to rent some camping gear instead. They guy we rented from said he would give us a good deal-3 man tent for only two people-sounded good. It was not until we got to the campsite and started to set up that we realized we had a rain cover for a 3-man tent, but the actual tent was only a 1-man tent!! I didn't really matter that much since it was too hot to sleep inside the tent, but our tent did look quite pathetic compared to the others set up around us! Whatever, we got it set up as best we could and headed to the pool to cool off. As the afternoon clouds grew we noticed that the earth here is so red that it actually reflects off the bottom of the clouds and makes them look red! That evening we headed back to the rock to hang out and watch the rock change colors as the sun set-gorgeous!!
Up early again the next morning to watch the rock changing again as the sun came up. We were hoping to climb the rock just after sunrise, but it was not allowed that day because of high winds. Instead we did the walk around. We were right up next to it in some places. It is not as smooth as it looks from far away. It was a long 10km walk around and another scorcher of a day. And while I don't like to complain, I know I live a charmed life, I must say that the flies there were unbearable!!! Just your standard small black fly. They don't bite or anything, but they swarm around you face and head non-stop. And no sort of poison that you put all over yourself will keep them away. I can say from personal experience, however, if you get DEET on your lips it makes them numb, and ingesting small amounts of it does not appear to do any permanent damage.....yet!
They call this part of the country "The Red Center" and after walking around the rock in sandals my feet are proof of why. It was a rainy afternoon so we both crowded in the one-man tent for shelter. We had planned on splurging and having a nice sunset dinner at the rock, but that got cancelled because of the rain. Instead we went back to the sunset viewing area. Since I am on a personal mission to sample all the beers in the world, I had NT Bitter Stubby (Northern Territory beer I would hardly call a stubby, it was 2 liters!) while I watched the sunset that evening.
Next morning weather was better and we could climb the rock so after watching the sunrise again we were off. It starts off very steep with a chain to hang onto.
After the initial steep section the top is a lot of up and down, not flat like you might think looking from a distance. There are also plenty of narrow ledges to walk along, better watch your step! It was still early in the morning by the time we reached the top so there were some cool shadows. And of course we have our hero shots at the top.
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