The Perfect Day
Trip Start
Jul 29, 2005
1
9
11
Trip End
Aug 16, 2005
Uluru,
Australia
Friday, August 12, 2005
Today was a perfect day. We once again got up before daylight and caught a bus to the National Park. This time we went to the other mass of rocks, known as Kata Tjuta (or in the olden white days, as The Olgas). These rocks differ from Uluru in that they are a mini-mountain range, where you can walk between their massive walls. Also, these rocks are particularly holy for the Agnagnu men, so only a quarter of rocks are open to the public for walking, etc. Anyways, we stopped at a lookout along the way in order to see the sun rise on both Uluru and Kata Tjuta. From there we hurried down to the trail head and spent three hours walking the Valley of the Winds trail. Getting there early allowed us to avoid seeing people (all the tour buses started pulling up when we were leaving) and increase our chances of seeing wildlife. We were successful at both
A Red Kangaroo
. We saw numerous green and yellow parrots and we had a red kangaroo hop across our trail. The scenery of the valleys, mountains and the never-ending red desert were great. After the hike we spent the afternoon wandering around the resort and relaxing/sleeping/drinking beer by the pool. That evening we were picked up and escorted out to the middle of the desert and dropped off...for the "Sounds of Silence" dinner. We started by watching the sun set over the rocks and drinking champagne and eating light snacks and listening to a didgeridoo. From there we walked down to our "restaurant" and open air 5-star setting under the southern sky. The food was amazing (I even ate kangaroo, hopefully not the one I saw earlier, and crocodile, since they eat us). The wine and beer was non-stop, which of course leads to great conversation amongst strangers. And who would have known there were so many stars in the sky. There was an astronomy talk and we were even able to see not only Jupiter, but four of its moons. At our table we had two German Couples and a couple from Melbourne, Australia. We all got along great, and by the end of the night we were singing such Australian classics as "Waltzing Matilda" (which is really about taking a sheep down to the billabong and killing it, lovely children's song eh?). We were the last table to get on the bus back home.
At the Top
With a night like that, we couldn't call it quits yet. We checked out the lounge in our hotel to see what was happening, but we should have guessed, the Cricket was happening. The Australians and English have been in their annual match before, during and after we were in Australia. Cricket is a strange game. I think it's best out of five, but each game last four or five days. Anyways, the English are kicking ass, and we got an introductory lesson on the game from an English bloke at the lounge before heading down to the bar at the hotel down the street where we enjoyed a couple of beers and some piano music before deciding to put a close to this perfect day.
Visit Klenske, Ink.
