The Red Centre
Trip Start
Mar 18, 2007
1
59
101
Trip End
Mar 16, 2008
Uluru,
Australia
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Its been so busy lately its been hard to keep up, but out time in the red centre was brilliant. It was a really scenic flight from Cairns as there was very little cloud cover so it was possible to get a view most of the way including a view of Uluru as we came into land. When we stepped out the plane it was although we were in an oven, such an amazing dry heat. Once arriving at the resort we met our new roomies for the next few days, Majken and Nicholas, a lovely danish couple (even staying in the dorms at Uluru is expensive, about 20 GBP pppn that is a flash hotel in Peru!) and booked a space on the Uluru express which was going to take up to both Uluru and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas, a less well known group of rocks near by). Here is a little more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluru-Kata_Tjuta_National_Park
On our second day, we got up very early indeed (4am) to see sunrise over Uluru and to do the 9.4km base walk (you are encouraged not to climb Uluru due to the significance for the aboriginal people) and very unusually for this hot area, it started to rain
First views from the plane
. However this made what can be quite a taxing walk very pleasant and we were actually lucky as only 3% of visitors get to see Uluru in the rain when it actually turns black and with enough rain even has waterfalls! This was a really wonderful walk and it was great to see the pieces of rock art along the way and notice that the rock up close looks so different with various cracks, crevices and even wave like formations. After the walk we headed to the cultural centre to learn a little more about the significance of this area to the aboriginal people.The following day we took a bit of a lie in (4.15am) before heading off to see the sunrise over Kata Tjuta which was gorgeous due to the clear skies, if a little on the chilly side. We then took the Valley of the winds walk which gave some great views, and on the way back we got to see some wild kangaroos including a little joey peaking out his mum's pouch!
Getting up early has some advantages as we had this 8 km walk under our belts and were back at the hostel all before 10am, phew!
After a little break we headed back out to catch Uluru at sunset (if you are wondering what this sunrise/sunset thing is all about this is when the rocks are supposed to be reddest, so it is all about your viewing pleasure), which with the clear skies was also spectacular.
If you have the chance to visit Uluru I certainly recommend it, although it is an expensive place to stay the rock has something very special about it that I can't quite describe with words.
Bye for now.
