Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Walpa Gorge, Black Flies and Those Crazy Drinking Aussies!

We arose early again (having trouble sleeping in on this trip) and had a whole morning to catch up on things before our afternoon flight to Ayers Rock. The hotel we were staying in had a good internet connection, so Capt. Larry worked on uploading a couple of posts to the blog while Jane did whatever Jane wanted to do. After lunch our driver arrived and took us to the airport for the short flight to Ayers Rock.

Arriving at Ayers Rock Resort, we found the weather to be very much like that in Alice Springs- very hot, very dry, and very sunny. We are in the desert. We checked into our hotel and decided to take a short walk to the resort square to scout things out. There were three restaurants, a coffee café, gift shops, mini-supermarket, post office, and a bank. AccorHotels, the French hotel conglomerate that formerly owned Motel 6 and Red Roof Inns in the U.S., owns everything (except the bank and post office of course). In fact, we were told that Accor bought up all of the hotel properties in the resort and has a major interest in the tour operations. Ayers Rock Resort is located about 10 miles from Uluru and surrounding attractions, and originally all of the hotels, restaurants, and an airstrip were actually located at the rock. This changed around 2000 when the aboriginal people regained access to the lands which they consider sacred. Everything as then moved to the present location in the town of Yulara, making Yulara the fifth largest town in the Northwest Territory (NT) with a population of around 1,200! You get the idea the NT population density (0.4/sq. mi.) is low when you consider there are around 250,000 people spread over approximately 500,000 sq. mi.

We returned to our room and started to get ready for our first tour event, Sounds of Silence, a dinner and Australian barbecue “under the sparkling outback sky.”

Dinner under the clouds

However, we judged by the looks of the sky that there wasn’t going to be much sparkle as thick clouds had moved in during the afternoon. A short shuttle ride brought us to a sand dune set up with an outdoor kitchen and tables laid out for dinner. We walked to the top of the dune and were served wine and canapés. We mingled with some Australian and American couples who turned out to be our dinner companions. We were supposed to be treated to vistas of Uluru and the domes of Kata Tjuta (KA ta JEW ta), the vast surrounding landscape, and the most spectacular sunset we had ever seen, but the clouds wouldn’t let that happen. No problem, the wine was working and dinner was ready. Our barbecue buffet of authentic Australian delicacies included barramundi (a very delectable fish), kangaroo, emu, crocodile, bush salads and sides, and wonderful desserts.

We even had music (noise?)!

And the fine Australian wine kept flowing. The resident astronomer was supposed to take us on a tour of the southern night sky, but the clouds allowed more time for drinking wine (it all works out!), tea, coffee, and port. Billed as the Sounds of Silence, the dinner was anything but silent given the few abstemious souls and the carousing nature of the roisterers. We returned to our hotel and crashed for the night.

The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed at 0400 so that we could catch a 0500 bus that would take us out to Uluru for a sunrise viewing experience. We got ready and walked out of the room only to find that it was raining (it’s spring and rainy season).We had some doubts that this was going to come off as planned.

Uluru at daybreak

However, our guide tried to convince us how lucky we were, because only about 1% of visitors get to see Uluru in the rain. Some luck. Uluru and Kata Tjuta are contained in a national park, but a 12-member council equally divided among non-aboriginal, aboriginal male, and aboriginal female (there are sites in the park that are devoted strictly to women) members make decisions as to how the park will be accessed and utilized.

The breakfast bus

Since a unanimous vote is required for changes to occur, not much is ever changed. We entered the park as the rain stopped, drove to a roadside pullover, and waited for the sun to rise. Our guide served us a continental breakfast and we waited. And waited. Sunrise came according to the clock, but the heavy clouds blocked didn’t show much change in the amount of light.

It says- "Meet me here at noon, Tom"

We were supposed to witness the dramatic color changes the rising sun produced on Uluru, but the diffuse light didn’t have the punch to do that. About an hour after sunrise we loaded up the bus and headed to the Mutijulu (MU ti JOO loo) watering hole. Uluru has 8 watering holes that collect rainwater. All holes were used by the natives, but the Mutijulu hole was the most reliable. The availability of water also attractsd various game animals which were hunted by the natives.

The rock near the Mitijulu hole

We viewed some cave or rock paintings that our guide said were used to teach children. We drove around the rock to where the hotels and air strip used to be and saw the path that climbers use to ascend Uluru (an effort is underway to stop these climbs). Capt. Larry thought a climb might be a good bucket list item, but Jane would have no part of it.

Our photo of "Big Red"

We returned to our hotel, had some lunch, and prepared for our afternoon tour of Kata Tjuta and the Valley of the Winds.

Did we mention the flies were bad?

We traveled to Kata Tjuta where our guide explained the geological history of these rocks. In a nutshell, Uluru and Kata Tjuta were formed from the uplifting or epeirogeny of alluvial fans. Uluru was formed from the sedimentary deposition of fine sediment, while Kata Tjuta more coarse sediment.

At Walpa Gorge

When the epeirogeny occurred, Uluru emerged as a single monolith while Kata Tjuta, being from coarser origin, developed in to a field of very large boulders and domes. That’s the science, but the natives have their own version and we listened to the stories they hold about the rocks formation. We started our 2-3 hour, rocky walk through the formation, a walk requiring a good level of fitness and one that had Capt. Larry swooning all over the place, until we came to a dead end. The path we were to follow was closed by the rangers due to the high 97° heat.

Food, drink, and flies

Seems the extended walk in these conditions causes many hikers to experience dehydration and heat stroke. We thought we were going to get to go back to the hotel, but the guide, not wanting to cheat us, announced we were going to nearby Walpa Gorge. At the first stop along the trail we decided to leave the group and make our way to the end, rather than listen to all of the cultural talks our guide had a penchant for giving.

Kata Tjuta at sunset

This tactic made us the first to return to the bus. After the rest of the group joined us we drove to a rest area to view the sunset and have some more wine and canapés. By this time the clouds had lifted and we finally had some dramatic views of the rocks in the changing sunlight. Then again, it could have been the effects of the wine. With everyone feeling great, we boarded our bus and headed home. Our guide played some Aussie drinking songs and with the help and encouragement (little was really needed) of some Aussie tourists, the bus was really rocking. Jane had seen an Aussie with a soccer shirt with Holden on it.

Just thick!

She told him it reminded her of home (we live near Holden, LA). He kept filling her wineglass and was the major leader in the singing.

Crazy Holden!

At the first hotel we stopped at he jumped up and yelled “PUB,” and half the bus jumped up and followed him off. He tried to get us to go, but Jane was already pretty far gone and we had a flight back to Sydney tomorrow. Prudence prevailed over temptation and we returned to our hotel. We were very happy of the choice we made the next morning.

Our flight from Ayers Rock to Sydney took us back through Alice Springs. We arrived in Sydney and proceeded to the meeting point to catch our shuttle. However, our driver wasn’t there. After 15 minutes a group of 12 people who were using the same shuttle had assembled, and 3 couples from Florida started to become quite agitated and vocal about the missing driver. Capt. Larry called the bus company, but it was past their closing time.

Our hotel- Sails in the Desert

Compounding the situation, the emergency number that was given wouldn’t connect. Capt. Larry suggested that we just wait, the driver likely was caught up in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic, but that did little to quell the emotional pitch and started to make him a target for their anger. After 45 minutes of waiting the driver finally appeared, but at first it seemed like he didn’t have enough room for all of us (he seemed Balkan in descent and didn’t speak English very well). Somehow his appearance didn’t stop the bitching. After 15 minutes of phone calling, he led us out to his van which had seating for 13 people! This really got the Florida folks in a lather. We were finally delivered to our hotel, got checked in, and had a couple of good stiff drinks to put an end to a wearisome day.