We arrived at Ayer's Rock resort in the early afternoon to set up on our little green patch of turf. The Browns were in a separate part of the park so they planned to drive their vehicle over to prepare dinner. We were 200m from the amenities (again) and the camp kitchen was very basic, not even any hot water for washing up, so much for the "resort" label! We decided it was too late to go out viewing the rock and planned to ride out (weather permitting) then ride around Uluru a distance of around 40km.
We couldn't believe how cold it was, the wind was quite gusty and we rugged up so we could be comfortable enough to cook outside. Lucky for me I was able to blog inside the tent!! It ended up being too cold to eat outside so we cleared the annex and had a cosy dinner inside. Vinnie had organised to hire a fire recepticle (half a 44gallon drum) so we sat around the fire to try and keep warm.
Thankfully, the next day dawned calm and a little warmer as we prepared to ride out to Uluru. The great thing about bikes is that you get to see things for much longer so we saw lots of the rock as we pedalled closer. We had decided to ride around the rock rather than climb it out of respect for the local pitjantjara (not sure of the spelling!) people . It really is a beautiful and haunting place. We enjoyed riding around it and probably got photos from 45 different angles!! Zelinda decided to climb it and said her legs were jelly when she got back from the 2 hour climb. She said it was a really tough climb, so she opted not to ride back to camp. By the time we got back we had ridden 55km. It was Vinnie's turn to cook so we prepared for dinner, Uluru Ragout he said, not to be confused with King's Canyon vegie ragout! We were able to eat al fresco as the temperature had risen slightly inversely proportional to the wind velocity!
Our final day in the centre and we planned to do it in style. We traversed the hollows and rocks of the Olgas, viewed the wonderful display of wildflowers growing on the track, and completed the day with the Sounds of Silence Dinner in the Desert.
The Olgas were interesting as they seem to be made up of conglomerate rock with lots of different textures. We scrambled up rocks, slid over rocks, marvelled at rocks, tripped over rocks, gazed at rocks and sat on rocks. I would love to have a path made of rocks at home but Vinnie said we couldn't fit them in.
Dinner in the desert was awesome. We arrived at sunset and toasted the rock. Then we watched as the sun slowly set to see the many different hues on the horizon. Simply stunning. The food was delicious and we sat at a table with Brits, French and Czechs. Dinner conversation was stimulating and it was a wonderful way to farewell the centre and the part of our holiday shared with Charlie & Zelinda. They were, as always, great company and we did everything we wanted to do and more.
We have a long haul to Coober Pedy tomorrow, over 700km, so we hit the sack after saying our goodbyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment