Raining at the Rock

Our journey to Yulara passed quickly thanks to a very weird but funny Paul Jennings/Morris Gleitzmann audio book called "Wicked" - which kept us entertained for at least 2 hours, and that was only part 1 of 6! We experienced the thrill of our first sighting of Uluru in the distance (after a false alarm with Mount Conner) and queued for literally 15 minutes to check in at the Ayer's Rock Resort - now alternatively called Yulara. By the time we'd set up the van, rain was threatening and we had some heavy falls in the night. The next day was perfect, however (although forecast rain kept Uluru closed for climbing) and we tackled the Valley of the Winds walk around part of Kata Tjuta - the "many-headed" rock formation about 45km west of Uluru. It was a spectacular, three-hour plus walk with some great climbing sections. Tahlia led the way most of the time. I found it easy to see why the Aborigines found it a place of such enormous spiritual significance - harder to comprehend how the formation developed its many "heads" (that's what Kata Tjuta means) over thousands of millions of years.

The next day we headed for Uluru, and were disappointed to find that the climb was again closed - this time because of strong winds. But after we'd joined a guided walk around a small section of the base, we realised how windy (and freezing cold) it was - and when we saw the steepness of the incline with the single chain and heard and read everything the local traditional owners said about climbing (or not climbing) I think we were all quite happy about missing out on this. Tahlia was running a temperature as well - an amazing change after her athletic efforts the previous day - so we took it fairly easy. A guided walk in the late afternoon to the Mutji waterhole, with an Anangu storyteller and her Japanese interpreter (yes, into English) was a very memorable experience and suddenly the features of the Rock acquired a new significance and interest. To top off the day, we then set up our chairs in the sunset viewing area for Uluru - along with about 300 other people - and watched the colours change on the Rock while sipping beer/wine/lemonade and (in the case of the girls) shovelling down large quantities of chips!

The next morning we packed up as quickly as we could and made a beeline for King's Canyon, where you can't book a site so it's first in best dressed. Again Paul Jennings made the time pass very quickly, and we barely stopped for 4 hours. The girls' ability to tolerate long driving distances has greatly improved already! The first half of the journey was accompanied by a thick fog, and we (smugly) pitied those who were just arriving at Uluru that day - or had booked a sunrise walk. We saw no sign at all of the Rock, which in clear conditions we had seen from at least 40km away on the way in.

Captions for pictures

- Walpa Gorge walk between Mount Olga and its neighbouring "head"

- Views along the Valley of the Winds walk

- Kuniya the Woma Python leaves her mark on Uluru in Aboriginal legend

- So the postcards aren't all photoshopped - it really looks like this!

- Kiralee was here: at Uluru at sunset

- Real live Sturt desert peas at the Yulara Resort!