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Guido's Down Under Experiences: August 2004

FlyingDutchman
2006-03-19 18:32:33

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Mon 30 August 2004
The Big Red Rock
Alice Springs, NT

On Friday we drove the 450km to Yulara, the resort town next to Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park. After we set up the tent, we drove into the park and up to Uluru (a.k.a. Ayers Rock, a.k.a. the Big Red Rock). We did not have enough time to walk around, so we decided to check out the visitors centre instead. Afterwards we drove to the sunset viewing area, where we were able to make some nice photos of Uluru changing to a red colour.

Saturday we got up really early to see the sunrise at Uluru, but the sun was hiding behind some clouds, so it was pretty disappointing. After sunrise we drove to the other side and climbed the rock. A little note on that: the Aboriginal owners ask everyone not to climb it, but they have not actually closed the climb (except in bad weather conditions), so still thousands of people climb it. Also, the park entry fee for Uluru - Kata Tjuta is A$25 p.p. for 3 days, which is exorbitantly expensive, considering you pay only A$22,50 for a car for 30 days for all the national parks in Western Australia. If they do not respect my financial situation (being a poor backpacker), I do not respect their wishes not to climb it. However, I did refrain from calling people from the top (yes, there is mobile coverage on top of Uluru), and sent SMS instead. On top of Uluru it really felt like I was in the centre of Australia, with a huge expanse of flat country almost everywhere I looked. After climbing Uluru, we drove to Kata Tjuta (a.k.a. the Olgas), where we did the Valley of the Winds hike, passing along some of the characteristic domes. Next was Walpa Gorge, a short hike to a lookout into the gorge, not very interesting. On the way back to Uluru we stopped at the sand dunes for a view of Kata Tjuta, but it had become really cloudy, so it was not very good. Back at Uluru the climb was closed because of high wind speeds at the top, and we did our ...