Jaypatrol

On the 1st of June, we leave Coober Pedy and begin our long journey to Ayres Rock.

We stop off at the border of South Australian and Northern Territory to take photos and read the information boards on display.

We didn’t stay too long as I had come down with the virus that Arthur had the week before and I was very tired. I slept most of the journey that day.

We stop off overnight at Kulgera. This is a simple roadside caravan park behind the local roadhouse and petrol station. There were some lovely people to meet at this park, but as I was unwell and not wanting to spread my germs, I stayed in the caravan. Arthur was left with the meeting and socialising..
I did surface later to go to the local hotel for a lovely meal of Braised Lamb Chops. Delicious! 
We retired early that night to prepare for the next long leg of the journey.

We rise early the next morning to get on the road. We were meeting Lindy it Ayres Rock (Uluru).

We stopped off at Erldunda. Whilst Arthur fueled up I went to the shop for drinks and some dried apple to nibble on the way. We then travelled on to Curtain Springs and looked at the price of fuel. We decided it was too expensive at $1.88 a litre against $1.64 at Ayres Rock (as someone had told us earlier),  so decided we had enough to get to our destination and travelled straight through to Ayres Rock. Arriving at 12.45pm. Lindy arrived about 45 minutes later from Kings Canyon. We stayed at the Ayres Rock Camping Ground in the Resort.

The first evening we were there, we packed up some nibblies and a bottle of champagne and headed for Uluru, (Ayres Rock) to get some photos of the sunset on the rock.

 It was a cool night, but it didn’t dampen our enthusiasm. There was quite a bit of cloud cover so the sunset wasn’t as spectacular as we hoped, but it was lovely. As night came down, we were the last 3 left in the park, so we packed up the table and chairs and the leftovers and headed back to camp.

After a sleep in, we went for a walk around the Resort checking out what was on offer there. We stopped off at the Information centre and then had lunch at a restaurant. This was a lovely relaxing meal in the warm sunshine.
After lunch, we went out on a tour to Kata Tjuta National Park (the Olga’s).

We walked up the gorge to view the beautiful vegetation, the colours of the rocks and breathe the crisp fresh air. Whilst we were there the sun began to set. So again we got more beautiful photos of the sun setting and reflecting off the Olga’s (Kata Tjuta).

On Saturday, we again went out on another tour. This time we went out with a smaller group with a couple Aboriginals to Uluru (Ayres Rock).

This was a most informative tour. Because we were with the original caretakers of the area, we were honoured to  be instructed on the culture and the different foods that the original Aboriginals eat. We were even offered different “bush tucker” to try. We were told that as we were guests of theirs we were allowed to try foods from their kitchen. We tasted wild figs and wild plums. They were quite different than I thought they would be. We were also permitted to go into areas otherwise not permitted to go. They explained the importance of the Rock to their culture and the Spiritual  significance of the area. They also explained to us why they do not like people to climb the Rock. We had already decided not to climb it, so we were glad of our earlier decision after talking to these men. They showed us important secret womens and secret mens areas as well. There were areas we were not permitted to take photos or video, but we were still able to get plenty to remember the tour. At the end of the tour, the elder man gave us permission to take photos of him and each of us with the Rock behind us. A truly memorable day.   

In the afternoon we went for a walk around the other side of the Rock to see some more of the sights and take more photos, where permitted. This was a lovely experience as well.

Then that night we went back to the Rock, to get some more of the sunset photos, without the cloud cover this time. We weren’t disappointed. We found a better position this time and Arthur set up the tripod in readiness for the big show. We again took nibblies and drinks and set up the table and chairs to absorb the moment. It was lovely.     

Early the next morning, Lindy and Arthur headed back to Uluru (Ayres Rock) and the Olga’s (Kata Tjuta) to get sunrise photos this time. I stayed back at camp and packed up the caravan ready to head off again. They arrived back exhilarated with their booty of the dawn photos.
As soon as they were back, we hitched up and were on the road again. This time we headed for Alice Springs.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 13th, 2006 at 10:44 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.