Week 16 - Yulara, Uluru and Kata Tjuta

It's another Thursday morning and it's time to hit the road. We are heading off to Ayres Rock (Uluru) and The Olgas (Kata Tjuta). Today we are only travelling about 300 to 400 ks and we will stop at one of the many rest spots on the way. Travelling up the Stuart Highway Gaila and I were both amazed at the amount of vegetation evident, far more than we had been expecting. It really showed the great seasons they have had in the area over the past couple of years. We pulled in for the night a Agnes Creek rest area about 50 to 60 ks from the NT boarder. A large area with some shade and a few already set up for the night or even longer. We joined a couple who pulled up near us for the obligatory happy hour and discovered that they spent the majority of their time on the road. They have a base in Howlong but most of the time they travel, they have a small business that they operate on the road - Electrical Tagging and testing. they do it all over the place, Darwin, Alice Springs, cattle stations in western Queensland down through Wagga Wagga, all over the place. We had a pleasant evening with them swapping stories of our travels etc.
The following morning we headed of towards Yulara, but our plan was to spent another night on the road somewhere along Lasseter Highway. Our second night was spent at Curtin Springs, a roadhouse and camping area about 85 ks from Yulara. They unpowered camping was free or $25 for a powered site, we went unpowered. While travelling the highway to Curtin Springs you come over a rise and there off in the distance to you left is the 300 mt high Mt Connor - a truly awesome sight.


MT CONNOR

The following morning we headed off for Yulara - Ayres Rock Resort Campground. I don't know if it was an optical illusion or not but the road always seemed to be going up, beats me. Again just over a rise there came into view Uluru - the deep red of its sandstone really standing out in the surrounding landscape and blue sky.
Just behind the campsite was a lookout that gave a 360 degree view of the surrounding landscape. We were treated to a great view of "The Rock", "The Olgas"and a pleasant sunset.

As magnificent as "The Rock" is The Olgas are a truly magnificent sight, the closer you get the more breath taking they become. I remember seeing photos taken many years ago (I was probably in 6th grade) by a very close friend of my parents and although you sort of knew the the Rock was big you didn't appreciate the magnificence and sheer size of The Olgas. I think I preferred The Olgas.

It was really worth the extra 50k drive to get right to them.

On our second day we went into the "Park" $25/head for a 3 day pass. Heading off to The Olgas, the walk through one of the gorges was almost reverential in a way, the sense of the place was quite mystical, it felt like the place spoke to you.

We joined the throng of people for the sunset viewing of "The Rock" and it showed some of the different colours the she is famous for, Gaila chose not to join me on the sunrise viewing, again I joined the throng of people, it was OK but nothing too spectacular.

SUNSET

SUNSET

The cultural centre at Uluru gave a very informative and interesting indigenous history of the area and the clans and tribes that used Uluru as their place of ceremony, we joined a guided tour of one of the areas of "The Rock" that was used by the Mala people for ceremony and that gave us a really good insight to a small part of the culture and customs.

One of the waterholes at the base of Uluru, the one is at the end of the Mala walk at the base of Kantju Gorge. This was obviously a very special place for the Mala people, however they never took water for themselves from here, this was left for the animals, they would wait for the animal to have its drink and when it was leaving the waterhole they would then hunt them. The Mala people took their water from soaks some distance away from the waterhole. This always ensured that they had good hunting in the area.

One of the many Wedgetail Eagles that we have seen since since Wilpena Pound. This one was on the road from Yalara to Alice Springs. To get this photo we had to creep along the road verge so that it would not scared off, they are truly magnificent birds.

Tomorrow we head off to Alice Springs, about 440ks away. Today I filled the main and aux fuel tanks at $2.13/lt, $235. Luckily we filled up at the resort, on our way in Curtin Springs was $2.30/lt. In this vast country you really do use the fuel. Since leaving Bairnsdale in December last year we have used about 2,900lts, travelling about 20,800kl (about 9,400k towing the van), costing approx $4,600 at about 13.9lts/100kl or about 20mpg and you know what it has been worth every cent of it..