As we descended through the clouds above Ayers Rock, or more appropriately the native Uluru, I snuggled as close to the Aussie business man in the window seat as propriety would permit. His possible discomfort was my delight as the clouds broke and revealed Uluru, a massive red orange rock in an otherwise really flat terrain. As we found Uluru changes color by the day, the hour, the climate, but now glowed burnt orange like an aerial view like the university of Texas stadium at homecoming. Drove over to the lodgings, ranging from Sails in the Desert, über expensive, to Emu Walking Apartments and the Pioneer Lodge. we stayed in the Desert Garden units. we did not see, unfortunately the 15 individual tents set in a crescent looking at Uluru. We are saving our money for the Serengeti Plain, open tent flaps, see Zebra. This is desert but has a surprising amount of foliage and nurtured this day by rain. It ruined our Sounds of Silence dinner to be set with white table cloths looking at the sunset over Uluru, but we optimistically rebooked for the next day. Up in the middle of the night and drove to the park (first to enter) to proceed to the viewing area for sunrise at Uluru. We assume the sun rose but we only experienced a gradual lightening that revealed the rock had not left, but merely assumed more earthen tones in the rain. We went over to the start of the ascent trail, rather daunting but closed on account of rain. Frankly we had been having second thoughts about mounting the mount due largely based on hamstring strength and knee support but also because the Aborigines really discourage climbing. It is religious shrine for them, quite sacred, and tourists climbing it is an affront . We decided to travel to the Olgas a series of rock out croppings of substantial size about 40 kilometers away. Very striking even through the rain, but we were unable to walk around. We then drove back to Uluru and we were treated to a very rare sight....water falls cascading down the sides of Uluru, ranging in volume from a Yosemite like major fall to rivulets, horsetail falls and stair steps. The entire monument looked like a cake where they dribble the frosting on the top and it runs in small little streams down the sides. The rain, once again, cancelled our dinner, so we went to the Outback Pioneer lodge, stood in line to cook our meat for the evening and then I cooked it on their barbie while Leslie provided wine from the bottle store, and we dined under the stars. We of course could not see them, or sunset at Uluru, but we knew they and it were there. Not your usual trip to Uluru, but most memorable, rather like in winter 1971 when we went to Venice....and it snowed. Pictures to follow or Google Uluru
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 00:04:25 +0000
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