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Ayer's Rock

1 May 2019 Wednesday

Early up again to get a ride to the airport, check-in, breakfast and the flight to Alice Springs, then a short flight to the resort area of Ayers Rock, near the National Park that is home to Uluru, (the aboriginal name for Ayers Rock), and Kata Tjuta. There was a bit of a mix up with our room and we found that we had been upgraded to a nicer hotel than originally booked. All of the accommodations are owned by one company and the resort itself is managed to some extent by the aboriginal people.

We got checked in, then took a brief walk to the town square where there are some shops and a few restaurants. There's not much there there. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, and it was pretty mediocre.

2 May 2019 Thursday

Very early get up for our sunrise view of Uluru. We were met at the hotel by our tour guide, Keri, and her associate, Taml (I think). The latter is Italian and Syrian, speaks Italian fluently and lives in Torino. The sunrise was beautiful, although the viewing platform a bit crowded.

          Uluru before and at sunrise and in daylight

Afterwards we had a light breakfast then drove to the car park where we started our walk between two of the large rocks that are part of Kata Tjuta. The footpath was very difficult because it was so rocky. Taml gave me an arm up and back, which gave me yet more time to practice my Italian. If I lived here I could become fluent!

    The story of Kata Tjuta

       Local rock composition and Kata Tjuta cliff face

We returned to the hotel about 11:00 am and had lunch at the hotel, another mediocre meal.

At 2:30 we were met by the tour guide/driver, Dan, for our tour of Uluru. Dan was very knowledgeable and respectful of the aboriginal culture and traditions, so we learned a lot. We are surprised that there is a pathway to climb the rock, but it is being closed in October. Dan told us there had been about 37 deaths of people climbing the rock, some from falls, others from dehydration or exposure. Since Uluru is sacred to the aboriginals, we were surprised that people were still allowed to climb it, but apparently this was a condition of the agreement that turned over the ownership to the aboriginal people. That agreement has since been renegotiated.

    The dark spots are stains left by waterfalls

    There were lots of flies, but we had head and face nets

Dan drove us all around the perimeter of the rock, including a stop at a water hole, then we went to a viewing platform to see the sunset behind Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

       Aboriginal wall painting

    Kata Tjuta at sunset

Because there is very little by way of settlement in Ayers Rock, the stars are brilliant, quite lovely.

We opted for dinner in a restaurant in the village. Sigh, another mediocre meal.

One comment about the area: the flies are small and everywhere. They are a real annoyance. We had purchased fly nets to keep them off our faces. I will probably use mine when I garden at home as a way of dealing with insects, especially the darn mosquitoes.