Dreams...: Uluru (alias Ayers Rock)

We got up early in Alice Springs to leave for a 2-day tour to Uluru. Our guide/busdriver (over here they do both at the same time) was a really fun guy who bombarded us with many interesting facts and anecdotes during the 5 hour drive to the Ayers Rock Resort.

On the way there we stopped at a camel riding place and Christine took the chance to go for a ride on a dromedar called Goldie. The camel driver was from a place where there are certainly no camels...Holland. :) But she enjoyed it very much. We had to wait for over an hour here because the aircon on the bus was broken. While waiting, Pat got close to being attacked by a camel. He wanted to pose for a picture and get close to its face when it turned and tried to bite him in the face :) Bad camel breath...

We went on and arrived in the afternoon. Just enough time for a quick bite to eat, a short rest and we headed off to look at Uluru.

We visited the local indigenous welcome centre and were told about the spiritual history and meaning Uluru has for the traditional owners of that country. Also, one should not walk up the rock. It's an offensive to the traditional owners. Yet, many people still do it...I guess for some pictures and being able to say I-climbed-Ayers-Rock is more important than respecting traditions old a few thousand years...

We then headed to a sunset viewing place where our driver put up a table with cheese, dips, crackers and wine and we watched the amazing colour spectacle from the setting sun on the rock. Quite a special moment...

We ended the day with an Ozzy barbecue under the stars, eating kangaroo, emu, beef and chicken. The perfect ending for a perfect day. :)

At 4:00 the next morning we got up (horror for Pat) in order to see the sunrise. Another amazing game of changing colours on the reddish stone of the rock as the sun crept up from behind the desert horizon. It was definately worth the early rise... :)

We then headed over to the Olgas and the gorge, an impressive rock formation about 50km away from Ayers Rock. We saw some wild camels... by the way, recently about 6000 wild camels 'attacked' a small outback town of only 350 people... :) Wild things.