Uluru (Ayers Rock) Diary

Tuesday 5th August

We are at Uluru (Ayers Rock)

We had to leave the Fire Station fairly early this morning as our flight was at 9.40am. We first flew to Alice Springs where we had a two hour wait before our flight to Ayres Rock. Both flights were on time which was great! Lots of people we have met along the way are asking - as are those who have emailed us how we are coping with all the travel and to be honest so far it has been easier than we thought it would be. We are amazed by how much we have already seen and done - and looking back over these pages for us is quite amazing to think we have only been away just over two weeks! It has been tiring at times - but not overly so - and the hardest thing has been that the boys are going to bed around 10pm each night and we have been up around 6am the last few mornings (and planned tomorrow!) so hardest on them really - but so far so good. Staying only 2 or 3 nights has been fine - the hardest thing is finding everything in the suitcases and never really unpacking anything!!

Anyway - Ayres Rock or Uluru. The weather was perfect flying in and we had window seats on the right side of the plane (lucky for once) so we had a good view of the rock and also The Olgas from the air - here.

We are staying in a cabin at the campsite about 20km from the Rock. It is very flat, sandy and barren apart from the complex of hotels and campsites etc where we are. It really is difficult to get used to the concept of distances involved in Australia - the country is the size of Europe - flying between cities here is like flying London to Rome (today was a short flight, only 2 hours!). And in the outback, there is just hundreds of miles of nothing - Alice Springs to Ayers Rock is 450km, without any town, and not really any civilisation at all in between, just the one road - the Stuart Highway, and a 5 hour drive.) We have a hire car - and I am sure you will find it as amusing as we did - not sure why we have a personalised plate - maybe it is a personal insult - not sure - but makes the car easy to find in a car park anyway!!!!

We drove closer to the rock tomight to see sunset. It is hard to describe really - it dominates the skyline and is hard to believe it is 20km from here as it still seems so big and close here is a picture from just down the road - hard to believe this is still about 18km from the Rock, but then it is nearly 400m high, and apparently extends down 4km deep underground, like an iceberg, but not as cold (thought night time is cold - almost 0 degrees!)

We won't bore you with too many pictures as we already have a fair few and we have only been here a few hours - and in pictures it probably just looks like a rock - but when here it really is quite different and the way the colours change as you watch is really something you need to see to understand! Tomorrow we plan to do the 9.4km walk around the base as well as hopefully seeing it at sunrise if we can get the boys up in time! (another advantage of being here in winter - sunrise is at 7.30!)

Ok so I said I wouldn't bore you but these pics were taken within an hour of each other around sunset and you can see how much it has changed (sorry about the wonky horizon with me and David I think Sam has one leg shorter than the other when he takes pictures!!) More rock pictures for you tomorow!!!

Wednesday 6th August

We walked around the base of Uluru

Today we got up early and went out to he sunrise viewing point to see sunrise on the rock. It is was very pretty and is the opposite side of the rock to the sunset - so a different perspective - (see I promised more rock pictures!) It is really cold at night here but quite hot during the day. Although winter it is the busy time of the year as in the summer it is way too hot (about 22 degrees at the moment)

We hen set off n a walk around the base - the walk is 9.4km - but e also did a few detours to waterholes etc (although it is winter all the waterholes are dry - we are told they have had very little rain for the last 2 years) so did about 12km or so (all before lunch!!) it gave a really different view - and made us realise just how big it is - and that it also looks different to the classic pictures that you just see in books etc. A lot of people were still climbing it although you are asked everywhere not too as it is disrespctful to the Anganu people - and you are asked nt too take photos at a lot of points aound the rock as they are sacred places. These are some of our favourite pics (as you can imagine we have loads!)

After our walk we went back to the campsite and for the first time this holiday we actually spent the afternoon sat down and read books! The boys went in the swimming pool and had a great time - and we realised it was the first real relaxing time we had had!! I did still do some washing in the launderette (for all who knew I was worrying as of today all clothes were clean again!- except that red sand doesn't wash out of white socks!) and we spotted some lovely Gallahs in the tree outsie the cabin and Sam wanted to keep all the local rabbits that were running around!

Thursday 7th August

We woke in Uluru - visited Kata Tjuta - and went to bed in the rainforest!

We all had a little lie in today (Jack didn't wake until 9am!) and then packed up and left the campsite. Here are some pics of the cabin and the amount of luggage we are still lugging around!

We then drove out to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) which I didn't know about before (oops) but is about 40km from Uluru and in the flat terrain they both make impressive landmarks. From a distance I may prefer Kata Tjuta with all the lumpy bumpy bits!! This picture is still about 10km away

We then drove right up to th erocks and did the Walpa walk - which takes you through a gorge between two of the rocks - they were so tall (500m) we all say we can't really find the words describe here and Uluru - they are just so big and impressive and made us feel very small.

We then drove back to Ayers Rock airport for our 3.30 flight - we could really get used to these domestic flights - checking in about half an hour before boarding - very little security (we took 4 litres of water on board today - as well as a chinese hat, an australian hat - a didgeridoo - we look like a walking gift shop!!!). We were amazed on the flight - having such clear skies - of the vast amount of nothingness that is central Australia. For the vast majority of the 3 hour flight (David estimates approx 1500 miles) there was just nothing on the ground except red rocky sand and bushes etc. Occasionally there was a small cluster of buldings and a long streching road - but that was about it - hundreds of miles from any other kind of civilisation. Here are some of his pictures - David thinks it lookd like the surface of Mars!

We arrived in Cairns about 6.30 - to be told the 4WD we had ordered wasn't available - so have been given a Ford Falcon XR6 4litre (great for fuel consumption!!!) (fuel is about 80p a 75p a litre) and had to spend ages cramming everything in - then we went shopping and crammed that in too!!! - and drve for 2 hours up to Daintree/ Cape Trbulation. The whole drive was in the dark - through rain forest with small unknown animals running in front of us and frogs (or toads?) sat in the road - and it sounded like the rainforest cafe out there!!! We finally arived exhausted at 10.30pm to be greeted by a bandicoot on the terrace!

Round the world home, Dillo home, eek home

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