ULURU (Ayers Rock)

Saturday, 08-DEC

First, a note about “typos”. We wrote this in word, and cut/pasted it once we got internet. But, the blog site evidently doesn’t know what to do about a “smiley face” so it converted them into “J”. Why? Who knows. But, if you read our blog and thought, “What? Why is there a random ‘J’?” now you know.

So, we flew from Cairns to Ayers Rock Saturday morning. Our first “Coach” flight of the trip. I can’t say I was thrilled. They served me three extraordinarily dry crackers and a little bottle of water. Whereas Theresa, seated right next to me, was served a ham and brie sandwich on a whole multigrain bread, mild cheddar cheese, coffee or tea, and even a Mars bar! (She may have a different version, but she can not refute the facts of my version! : -) Also, Both Ayers Rock and Alice Springs (part of central Australia known as “The Red Center”) are 15.5 hours ahead of Central Standard Time. (The East coast of Australia is 16 hours ahead.) I guess the “Red Center” is not far enough to warrant a complete time zone?

Arriving in Uluru (Ayers Rock), we got going immediately to drive to the Rock. It’s a big red rock. The aborigines see it as sacred and a part of their culture, so I’ll be nice. It was very large, and unique in that it sticks out from a basically flat surround. It is also home to what seemed like one million flies. Many of them took the time to journey with us on our short hikes to see the rock up close. As we circumnavigated the rock, the temperature varied from 35-41C (95-106F). Considering it was only 26C (79F) when we left the airport, both were hot. The texture of the rock was unlike I’d ever seen before this. It sort of looked like stucco, or “knock-down” wall texture. The picture with the water shows the texture. There is a high ferrous content, so it rusts, giving it the reddish color (I’m told). Large cavities can be found at random places. The aborigines have stories for how each hole came to be (like a giant lizard running up the surface with stolen food).


Nearby, there is a similar outcropping of rock called “The Olgas”. There are several groups of dome-like rocks jutting out from the desert floor. We took a short (1.75 mile round trip), but moderately strenuous hike to a viewing position between two of them. They are fantastically huge when you stand between two goliaths with shear faces going more than 500 meters (1600 feet) up. I’m not sure if the flies from Uluru followed us or just had friends meet up with us upon our arrival, but they were quite in force there too!!

We went back to a sunset viewing lot afterwards to watch the sun set, and the rock change colors. Well, I guess Theresa got more out of that than I did. But, since there was some cloud cover especially to the West, a lot of the color changes did not occur. We considered watching the sunrise, but as it came at like 5:30, and we were told to be there an hour early, and it was 30 minutes or so from our lodging, we opted to sleep in instead!

For lunch, I had an “Outback Special” which was a hamburger with lettuce (quickly removed), tomato, onion, pineapple, bacon, cheese, fried egg, and a slice of beet. It was actually very good, but quite messy. For dinner, we went to a place that sold the meat, and you cook it yourself (called an Australian Grill). They had a side bar with salads and sides too. We shared a sampler that included kangaroo, crocodile, emu sausage, and beef sausages (Theresa said they were more like hot dogs!). The croc tasted more or less like chicken (and really looked quite a bit like that too once cooked, but was much whiter when raw). The kangaroo is much like beef.

Our cabin (half of the building shown) had all the amenities of home minus a bathroom. So, we had a short walk to the toilets and showers. There was a little TV that got four channels, a small fridge, table and chairs that looked like it was from the 50’s, and a bedroom on either side of that “entry room/kitchen”. One bedroom had four bunk beds, and the other had a full size double bed. Most importantly, it had Air Conditioning. We had considered staying in tents, but hearing the temps could be well over 100F in the summer, we went for the AC. Good thing too, since it stormed fiercely that night. It would NOT have been fun in a tent. As it was, Theresa sat up a few hours waiting for it to pass. But, the next morning everything was fine, and we headed out to the Outback.