Oct 7

We have decided not to head away from here today but stay another <g>.  The sun is shining this morning, the sky is blue even though clouds are about and after all, the pass to get into Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park is valid for 3 days,  Booked into Curtin Springs for another night we headed back to the Nation Park.  En-route we stopped at Yulura Tourist Village, Alan needed a bank <g>.  A very well laid our area for visitors with shops, post office, eating places, manicured lawns and 4 hotels offering different levels of accommodation from camping at about $34 per night to en-suite rooms at $930 per night (about 600 pounds sterling).  We have opted to stay at Curtin Springs which means a 90 km drive to the park but worth it just be be away from the masses of humanity and our en-suite is $140 a night.

With the sun shining and having explored Uluru yesterday, today we were very ambitious.  Generally the walks we have done have been around 2 to 4 km but with time to spare we talked the 'Valley of the Winds' walk.  Reading the bulb it is described as being not particularly arduous to but I wonder who they are saying that too, the general tourist or the avid walker.   The walking boots were donned again, the flasks filled with cranberry juice and cameras at hand we set off into the unknown.  I kept everything crossed that I would be able to do this walk, those who know me have a pretty good idea of my level of fitness.

http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/uluru/visitor-activities/walks-kata-tjuta.html
'The track to Karu (1st) Lookout, 1.1 km from the carpark, is moderately difficult with some loose rocks to negotiate so please mind your step and wear sturdy footwear. The view is breathtaking and worth the little bit of effort. This lookout is also the closure point when the temperature reaches 36 degrees or greater.

The track to Karingana (2nd) Lookout, 2.7 km from carpark, is challenging and very steep in places but also worthwhile.

Down the other side but still not trusting the walking boots in helping me do this <g>

 The remainder of the Valley of the Winds Walk, 7.4 km complete circuit, takes you down between the domes, through creek beds and away from everyone and everything'.

Yes, we had to climb slopes like this <g>

The last incline before the car park came into view.

You can just see the car park in the dip in the middle of the picture, still a wee way to go.

 Wow, another awesome experience, I was so chuffed I had managed it and we completed the circuit in the the suggested 3 hours it would talk. Time for a well deserved beer - ahhhhhhhhhh refreshing and just what the doctor ordered.

Time to set off to the sunset viewing point at Uluru again, blue skies, a few clouds - perfect.

The sun started to set and the shadows got longer,

The shadows reached Uluru

The skies darkened

The eerie glow of the night setting in

Uluru saw the last of the light for the day

Goodnight from magical, mystical Uluru.

Oct 6

More folks came into Curtin Springs last night more drowned out than us, it looks as if one has any chance to get a roof over their heads then the opportunity should be grasped with both hands.  The wind howled and the rain lashed down all night and this morning we woke to still more rain, more thick dark clouds and big muddy puddles.  We have to go to Uluru and take our chance that we will see this magnificent rock in all her glory but we knew our chances were slim.  At least there was a visitor center where we could kill a few hours and learn something of the magic of this place and there was always the car to keep us dry as we drove around.  I asked in the visitors center what the weather forecast was for tomorrow and was told more cloud and rain but it should clear by the weekend, too late for us, we must head back to Alice on the 8th and return the vehicle on the 9th.  I was told by the rangers that we were so lucky to see 'water on the rock' a phenomenon seen by only 1% of visitors, I think they were trying to cheer me up <g>.  In the next sentence they told me I could always buy a postcard of the sunset to which I replied, if I couldn't take the photo myself I didn't want somebody else's Photoshoped version!!!!  They laughed.  After the visitors center we did one of the short walks to an area we were told by the rangers we would get some great pics of water coming off the rock.

Our first sighting of Uluru

Taken with the zoom lens from the sunset viewing area

Next a drive around the rock to another section where there was another waterfall.  The rain did stop and instead of rain we had showers but no sunshine worth speaking of.

Rock art at Uluru

We spent a good couple of hours investigating what we could then decided to check out the sunset viewing area, just in case the sun came out later, it gave us a good idea of what to expect. 


Next stop was a drive to Kata Tjuta, another sacred site and consisting of 36 weathered domes, worth a look and it killed more time and meant we could stay in the car for a while.  I feel a bit bad about including this pic here and maybe I shouldn't have but it is part of today's story.

Kata Tjuta appears to be another magnificent place to visit and equally sacred as Uluru but without the sun it looks so sad and gray.  We chatted to a chap in the car park who had just returned from doing one of the walks - Valley of the Winds, a 7.4km trek, and he was saying the waterfalls were magnificent.  Neither Alan or I are sure if the folks here know what a waterfall is <g>, to us it appears to be water seeping from the rocks with occasional drops of a few feet where it is trickling over the edge.  Again, we have been spoilt with Africa with the sights of Victoria Falls in Zambia, Murchison Falls in Uganda and Thompsons Falls in Kenya.  Time to head back to the sunset viewing area at Uluru, just in case!!!!!  Constantly looking up and hoping to see a clear bit of sky the sun would have a chance to shine through we were rewarded with a sliver of blue, if our luck held it might just be in position to catch a few rays of sunlight on 'the rock'.

I think we were at the viewing area for about 2 hours, making sure we did not miss the chance of at least one nice picture, (between us we took about 400!!).  Thank you nature yet again for obliging, the sun and the sliver of blue sky sidled into position for a few minutes and we captured the moment.

A great advert for Britz who we hired the vehicle from.  Ours in the foreground.

Looking behind us at the sun was a magnificent sunset too, I think these are two of the most beautiful pictures I have ever taken. 

No longer with a heavy heart which I had carried around all day.  Since I first heard of 'Ayres Rock' when I was a kid I have longed to visit, one of those places that goes down on the 'to  do' list and to be here now and not see the sunset would have like been waiting for the release of a fabulous film then finding the projector is broken on the night you go to see it.  We have seen Uluru, majestic Uluru, in all her glory, a truly magical place, totally awesome, breathtaking in every way :)

Oct 5

Cold, tired, stiff, uncomfortable, miserable, and probably another bunch of adjectives describe our night last night - not much fun but we have been so lucky with the weather up until now we can't complain.  In all honesty, although it was miserable trying to sleep in the car with either no air or the rain coming in through the one inch cap of the window, we would not have missed last night for the world, what an experience and it is experiences we have come to OZ for.  I am still cross with myself for not having my camera on the go to share the show with you, it was breathtaking, awe inspiring and was just another example of nature showing how small and meek humans really are compared to her capabilities.

Sometime during the night Alan managed to make a cup of coffee to warm us up when the rain looked like it might be stopping, yummy, hot, strong and laced with sweetened condensed milk <g>.  Bless the dawn, a welcome sight I can tell you.  Time to sort the disaster area, thank goodness we did not bother with the tent, with half the tent pegs missing and being in a sandy location the thing probably would have collapsed on us with the wind - sorry, did I forget to mention the wind getting up during the night too <g>.  The air beds were sodden, the chairs no better but the sleeping bags and pillows came to the car with us and were nice and dry.  We did our best to pack things up and were back on the track heading for Kings Canyon by 7am.

Boring drive, once Alan had negotiated the track back to the main road which was now pretty soggy in lots of places, it was a stretch of tarmac which greeted us then another corrugated, graded road for about 280 kilometers. 

During our drive to Kings Canyon we picked up a hitch-hiker, a frog on the bonnet of the vehicle.  We have no idea how he managed to jump the 3ft onto the bonnet, maybe he accompanied the water as we splashed through one of the many puddles or maybe he fell out of a tree and landed on us :)  He/she clung onto the bonnet pretty well then hopped off about 5 minutes later. Another picture I should have taken but I was sidetracked watching him.  With all the rain the landscape has changed dramatically, the land is green and spotted with patches of bright yellow and purple where the ground covering plants have come into bloom.

Needing more fuel we stopped at a petrol station, what a great sign they have up.

There is a cracking sense of humour here, I wonder if in the UK you would find road warnings and messages like these two:-

Before the corner

After the corner

A little further down the road (about 100km) we stopped again, the sun was shining and we fancied a cup of tea.  This stopping place was a viewing area so we took the obligatory pictures, made a cup of tea and had sausages and bacon to fill our empty tummies.  Still more rain in the distance as you can see.

Alan had a cracking idea, get the air mattresses dry, they were unrolled and put on the bonnet of the car, with the heat from the engine on one side and glorious sun beating down on the other they dried in no time at all.  We also managed to get the chairs dried and packed away again all in about 30 minutes, pretty good going.

Kings Canyon, I am a little lost for words.  Everybody has told us - make sure you go to Kings Canyon, don't miss Kings Canyon etc but we arrived it was like being back in Mitchell Falls although in a different way.  There were two walks, one through the creek bed at the bottom or one over the ridge.  Having been watching rain clouds while driving and knowing the rain was about to fall again, feeling rather tried after last night and seeing paths ready made with little arrows pointing in this direction or that we opted for the quick route.  It has always been stunningly beautiful on canyon's floors up to now, looking up at the rocks looming above you, changing colour at ever turn but Kings Canyon was not like that.  Plenty of vegetation, so green, small flowers, pavement like paths and people.  We complete the walk and there was a beautiful view at the end then we turned tail and came back to the car for a beer.  We were just in time, the heavens opened again, not as dramatically as earlier but enough to kill the light for photograph and get us soaked.  Not having seen King's Canyon at it's best maybe we have to come back one day and do the walk along the top.  It may require us visiting a gym for 6 months before hand though!!!!!  I am having mixed feeling about visiting here, it is a sacred site for the Aborigines, a place men who have been 'initiated' visit as part of their 'dreaming' and visitors are requested not to go any further by way of respecting their ways.

The most difficult bit of the walk.

Even the wildlife don't flee from people, this guy let me get within about 4 inches of his face and didn't batter an eyelid.

Seeing hordes of people trampling over the ridge and through the creek I cannot help but feel we are trespassing, all be it with permission.  We made the decision not to walk on Uluru for the same reason some time ago.  Did you know Uluru was only given back to the Aboriginal community if 'tourist' would be allowed to walk it, part of the agreement the community had to give in to in order to get something of their sacred place back!!!

Do we camp at the next campsite or head straight to Uluru area.  There was space for camping but after such a miserable night last night we really want a hot shower and a bed, alas no rooms available.

 

The latter won the toss.  A mound, could it be, it is big, it looks like Uluru.  Well, I have made the same mistake as so many folks, I even read about the mistake but obviously discarded the info instead of processing it properly.  It was Mt Conner we saw <g>. We are now snuggled up in a bed at a place called 'Curtin Springs', about 80km from Uluru.  I have just had 400gm T-bone steak followed by bread and butter pudding and guess what - the heavens are chucking it down again.  At least tonight we can think about all the poor folks who have not made it to a nice warm, dry, bed <g>.