Day 22 – Uluru

Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) domed rock clusters.
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Hot hot hot! We were woken up at about 9 am by the heat. The sun was burning and there were few clouds to give us a bit of shade. We cut the breakfast short, packed up and were happy to switch on the air conditioning. The trip to the Ayers Rock Resort took us about an hour. We got the camping site and decided to drive on to see the Olgas and the Rock.

It was quite an amazing view and drive towards the Olgas. You see the Ayers Rock on one side and the round mountains on the other side. The closer you get, the more impressive they become in their height. We got down at the Valley of the Winds walk. Although it was overcast in the meanwhile, it was still hot and we only made it to the first lookout as from there onwards the path was closed due to extreme heat. The temperature today was 37 degrees, but thanks to the clouds it only felt like 36.9 degrees!

View of Ayers rock from The Olgas
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We had a quick stop at the other walks and lookouts, but decided not to take the walk and enjoy the aircon in the car. We made our way back to Uluru and visited the Cultural Centre. In the centre, the Aborigines are presenting their story about the creation of the world, how Uluru came about and about their culture and how they make a living in the outback. It is very informative and worthwhile a visit. Next, we drove around Uluru, the street comes very close to the Rock and it has great places to take photos and of course do some walks. The climb on top of the rock was closed as well due to the high temperature. However, we would have skipped it anyway, because it is a sacred site for the Aborigines and they do not climb and wish that visitors do not climb too. Well, we are also not quite happy if someone dances on the altar in a church.

Walking around the Olgas
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For the evening we booked the removed “Sounds of silence” dinner. The plan is to have dinner on a sand dune while the sun sets with view of Uluru. It is supposed to be a fantastic display of the colours and afterwards an amazing view of the starry night. The dinner place was set in the dunes just a few minutes’ drive from the Ayers Rock Resort. After the greeting with a glass of champagne, we went on for a nice three course dinner. The food was cooked onsite and the serving staff was very polite, attentive and made us feel very welcome. The entertainment, apart from the view onto Uluru and the surrounding green desert, was a play with the didgeridoo and an explanation of the starry night based on how the aboriginals understand it. The second part fell a bit short due to the weather, but we learned that the Milky Way is actually the canoe parked by an ancient fisherman. The event was great, apart from the thick black clouds that turned the colourful spectacle into a simple grey-greyer-black show.