Left Alice Springs 7am with the APT bus to head out to Uluru.
It was a cold start to the morning and sun only came up behind us whilst we were on the road.
Alice springs runs along the now, bone dry Todd River and sits on the end of the McDonnell Ranges.
First stop an hour out of Alice is the camel farm – great I guess for overseas tourists but many on this bus seem to be Australians to whom a camel is something we’ve all seen before! Okay, been there – 25 min stop, camels, dingo, emu and the necessary toilet stop, takeaway Food and oh, souvenirs – of course! What did I partake in? The toilet!
Next stop – the supposed geographic centre of Australia – Erndula??
Just another quick pit-stop and we’re on the road again.
The Stuart Highway we have been traveling on, the Ghan rail link between Adelaide and Darwin and a major fibre-optic cable running in parallel with the highway are 3 major links to the Northern Territory around here and any breakdown in any one causes a major disruption. This we can verify after having to fly from Darwin to Alice Speings due to a train derailment on the main line well over 1000kms from where we are now.
Looking out the bus window as we travel is probably not what I expected – looks much the same inland Victoria an NSW – very scrubby. But have to admit there’ not a building in sight and we’ve now covered nearly 300kms.
Uluru (Ayers Rock) is about 450km from Alice Springs and the odd road-house every 100kms or so is the only sign of life.
Finally arrived in Yulara (the Ayers Rock township) at 12.30pm – checked into the Desert Gardens Hotel, found a bit to eat and being picked up again at 2.15 for our afternoon excursion.
Spent the afternoon driving the full circuit around the base of the rock with a couple of stops along the way.
This ‘Rock’ is amazing – absolutely enormous and even more so up close. All very well looking at pictures but nothing can show the enormity of it when you are in touching distance.
The usual cultural centre – ‘drop you here meet you there’ bus drivers indications and a great afternoon had by all.
Come 5.30pm, it’ time to head to our sunset destination – but hey, guess what! The suns behind all those thick clouds – somewhere!! But that is made up for by the setting – 10 or more buses lined up, each having a prearranged table setting with food and wine ready and what more could we want – a delightful Shiraz (or 3, or 4) and cheese and bikkies and dip, waiting for all those magnificent colour changes on Ayers Rock – wrong!!!
But the drinkies and food was fun!
Back to the hotel – 6am pickup for sunrise in the morning – gotta find some dinner – BYE!!
Oops – Kemm’s just laid down and yawning… could be a worry!
Next Day …
We have been out of range for the past 24 hours in this very remote part of the world and in another hour we will have completed 1450kms on the bus amidst having seen Ayers Rock (Uluru), The Olgas (Kjuta ??) and Kings Canyon, all totally amazing in their own ways.
Ayers Rock – so much bigger and eye-opening than any pictures can explain – an amazing piece of ‘rock’ just protruding up through the ground with a supposed 6kms of rock underneath – something so hard to believe. Dependant on the time of time and which direction the sun is shining, will create totally different images of the very same thing, a couple of images of which I have attached.
As per our normal luck when we are on holidays, for our early morning sunrise viewing, the eastern sky was covered in cloud and within the timeframe we had to get back on the bus, the sun had not yet got up above the clouds so the spectacular colour changes that some people would obviously see on the Rock, was not for us!
From there we headed over to The Olgas and a walk up to the Walpa Gorge. We were told it would be very cold and windy up in the gorge which channels between two huge boulder rocks. Turned out to be a really pleasant wander. My photos did not do the area justice as the light was not overly good but it was still an amazing place and as with the other areas here, I am pleased I have now seen this part of the country. I have added a couple of links to this email also which will direct you to the Facebook album I have uploaded everything to.
These bus tours really do attempt to fit a lot in and everything is seemingly timed to the minute which is usually a good thing though. Those on the trip with us though are always at the bus 5-10 minutes before the due departure time, haven’t had one person late for anything.
Western Australia border is only 200kms away from the Ayers Rock region, but 1300kms to drive if you were to do that so we really have been in the middle of nowhere. It has been cool out here but not overly so – was about 13 very early this morning and heading to a top of about 23 I think.
Left the Ayers Rock Resort region Tue afternoon and headed out to Kings Canyon. Kings Canyon would have to be one of the remotest areas we have been in – about 300kms from Ayers Rock and being so remote and holding a captive audience, costs are not exactly cheap! Our telstra phones and internet access were non existent but the facility is available at $10 an hour if you wish, The resort had al we needed, comfy beds, warm rooms and recently renovated bathroom (well ours was) but what was the ‘restaurant’ was a combined cafe, bar, coffee shop, breakfast area – you name it! Dinner last night was a choice basically of fish and chips, burger or pizza. Kemm thinks the $27 pizzas were really $9 pizzas with a different price on them!
Respectable hour for breakfast and onto the bus this morning and we were off for a stroll through the creek bed of Kings Canyon. Having been at the base of the Grand Canyon in the US before, a little smaller but none the less an amazing natural formation. I had expected a nice stroll along a ‘babbling creek’ but not to be – not a drop of water in sight!. A small group amongst us had decided on the early morning wake-up with a 3 1/2 hour walk around the rim of the canyon. Would love to have done it myself but a certain fitness level was recommended for those wishing to undertake that walk and sorry, but not my cup of tea I don’t think! Those that came down afterward said I really should ahve done it – there were others less able doing the walk and things were just bit slower – ho hum, another day (not!).
Anyway I have been typing this whilst bus travelling so that once back in Alice with reliable access again I can just press ‘go’ and I’m free for the night!!
We board The Ghan tomorrow morning (TODAY!!!) for the 24 hour and overnight train trip down to Adelaide and from there, we have a night in Adelaide and it’s back home again – another great holiday under our belts!
