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Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia
25° 47' S 131° 30' E
Apr 24, 2005 03:46
Distance 739km

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Other entries in Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Welcome to the rock

Text written in: English

Ok where to begin.
2500kms after leaving the tourist infested east coast and driving through the desolate and very cool outback, I arrived at the tourist infested Yulara campground which is the only place to stay around Ayers rock unless you fancy a 880km roundtrip journey back to Alice Springs. Anyway despite the tourists and the buses the rock was incredible. Seeing Ayers rock and teh Olgas was just amazing and I found that it really didn't sink in that I was there until after I had left. Hopefully one of the millions of photos I tok will turn out.
So after seeing the sunset and the sunrise at the rock, my passengers and I (3 to be precise, made the decision to run my own tour instead of pay for one) went on the walk that goes around the base. Again very cool, it was neat to see the rock from a distance and then from right up close, it truly does seem to change everytime you look at it.
One funny thing though is that the rock is a sacred aboriginal site and the natives hate the fact that people climb it (not only because if the desecration of a hly site, but also cuz people keep dying) there are even signs every where asking you not to climb it yet the parks service still allows it. I guess they worry about the damage to tourism if they stopped the walks.
Anyway after Uluru we drove to kings Canyon which is about a 300km drive North West. We did a walk through the canyon the following day and just as I was remarking on how it was nice but couldn't really compare to Ayers rock, we rounded a corner and saw the most unearthly wind carved rock landscape - truly amazing.
After that we headed into the West McDonnel ranges for a night to see the various gorges and gaps and swim in the ice cold watering holes (odd since it was about 35 degrees out.)
Finally we headed back to Alice for a night before Madeline and I (one of the people I took to the rock) continued onward to Adelaide.

As a side note one thing I forgot to put in an earlier post was that I have now completed my Australian experience by hitting a Kangaroo on the road. It was dead but lying across the road and I saw it at the last second before swerving out of the way. I failed to avoid in completely however and bounced over part of it. We immediately began smelling the poor beast who had been evidently been lying in the hot sun for most of the day. I stopped in at the next service station to survey the scene. He did no damage to the car but there was blood smeared on the side and in the rear wheel well - euch! By this time the smell was overpowering and a local dog had come over to investigate. I had been saying to Alison earlier that I was tired of the tourist track and wanted more visceral experience - well be careful what yo wish for because 5 minutes later I was lying on the ground partly under the car washing the blood off to get rid of the smell and picking peices of flesh and fur off the metal under belly, doesn't get much more visceral than that now does it!