Uluru!
Day 6-part of 7: The road and Uluru
The spiders didn't eat us! Yay! In fact, they didn't seem to move. It was eerie. We got up, showered, had breakfast at our only option and then hit the road for Uluru. More wild camels on the side of the road. So regal and beautiful. The road to Uluru was uneventful and we just kept our eyes open for Kangaroos. One more dead on the side of the road. On the side of the road, we mistook Mt. Connor for Uluru and took pictures. Then finally, Uluru came into view and we pulled into the resort. What a resort! It's like a little town with a supermarket, post office, restaurants and bars. Our room is without a bathroom, small, clean with a set of bunk beds and a regular bed - I'm in the big bed and hubby's sleeping in the bottom bunk. We got lunch stuff from the grocery and ate that (more tim-tams!) and then headed into the park. The road is winding and Uluru comes into and out of view. So too did the other set of hills (Kata Tjuta). The cultural center was first with the story of the rock and the Aborigines in the area. We purchased two boomerangs, a bowl, a necklace and a painting. Lovely.
A lot was made of not walking up the rock; how sacriligious it was. So what do we see? People climbing the rock. There was a bad feeling in the pits of our guts watching that, over the sign practically begging people not to climb it. Started the base walk, which is a long-long 6.2 miles. Even in the temperate winter days, it was a hot walk and took nearly 3 hours. I wore long sleeves today to avoid being burned more and was plenty warm. Thank goodness for water! Not many people doing the base walk.
At the start of the base walk, there was a detour to a few sacred areas. The first, a mom and kids were off the path and sitting there. Awesome. Later, to the sacred watering hole to the Aboriginies. Signs say 'please stay off.' And there were bootprints into the water. Awesome again. It was seriously depressing. Much of the rock couldn't be photographed because of its sacred importance. So there was a lot of walking with things to see, but nothing to photograph, which was fine.
It was a LONG walk. Have I mentioned that? Phew. We got back in time for hubby to mail his boomerangs, which are considered weapons, and for me to do a bit online, most importantly, booking us a car for Cairns, before we headed back out to Uluru to see the sunset on the rock. It was supposed to be a rainbow of colors. It was if you consider a rainbow to be orange and brown.
Dinner was after, a pizza with shrimp and avocado and a diet coke that tasted like heaven.
This is the point of the trip that's inevitable. Where Hubby and I want to kill each other. He spent freaking 30 minutes debating between three different boomerangs! 30 minutes! As if it was a matter of life or death! The hell! This is also the point of the trip where I'm tired and ready to be home. It'll be good to settle in Cairns for a couple of days; we've been moving steadily and I'm ready to actually unpack my bags a little. And do a load of wash.
I had a chance to briefly skim my flist and saw that a few people are in need of good thoughts and good karma. I'm doing all I can from here, I promise! May the drama gods miss you and may you have peace and tranquility at least for a while. And may Thomas appear at Comic Con so I can get a hug (or two). Know that I miss you all and am thinking of you! Tomorrow, more hiking then flying to Cairns to stay in our bungalow on the beach. This is going to be great, I hope!
Day 7: Valley of the Winds
We got up early again and showered at the commDay 6: The road and Uluru
The spiders didn't eat us! Yay! In fact, they didn't seem to move. It was eerie. We got up, showered, had breakfast at our only option and then hit the road for Uluru. More wild camels on the side of the road. So regal and beautiful. The road to Uluru was uneventful and we just kept our eyes open for Kangaroos. One more dead on the side of the road. On the side of the road, we mistook Mt. Connor for Uluru and took pictures. Then finally, Uluru came into view and we pulled into the resort. What a resort! It's like a little town with a supermarket, post office, restaurants and bars. Our room is without a bathroom, small, clean with a set of bunk beds and a regular bed - I'm in the big bed and hubby's sleeping in the bottom bunk. We got lunch stuff from the grocery and ate that (more tim-tams!) and then headed into the park. The road is winding and Uluru comes into and out of view. So too did the other set of hills (Kata Tjuta). The cultural center was first with the story of the rock and the Aboriginies in the area. We purchased two boomerangs, a bowl, a necklace and a painting. Lovely.
A lot was made of not walking up the rock; how sacriligious it was. So what do we see? People climbing the rock. There was a bad feeling in the pits of our guts watching that, over the sign practically begging people not to climb it. Started the base walk, which is a long-long 6.2 miles. Even in the temperate winter days, it was a hot walk and took nearly 3 hours. I wore long sleeves today to avoid being burned more and was plenty warm. Thank goodness for water! Not many people doing the base walk.
At the start of the base walk, there was a detour to a few sacred areas. The first, a mom and kids were off the path and sitting there. Awesome. Later, to the sacred watering hole to the Aboriginies. Signs say 'please stay off.' And there were bootprints into the water. Awesome again. It was seriously depressing. Much of the rock couldn't be photographed because of its sacred importance. So there was a lot of walking with things to see, but nothing to photograph, which was fine.
It was a LONG walk. Have I mentioned that? Phew. We got back in time for hubby to mail his boomerangs, which are considered weapons, and for me to do a bit online, most importantly, booking us a car for Cairns, before we headed back out to Uluru to see the sunset on the rock. It was supposed to be a rainbow of colors. It was if you consider a rainbow to be orange and brown.
Dinner was after, a pizza with shrimp and avocado and a diet coke that tasted like heaven.
This is the point of the trip that's inevitable. Where Hubby and I want to kill each other. He spent freaking 30 minutes debating between three different boomerangs! 30 minutes! As if it was a matter of life or death! The hell! This is also the point of the trip where I'm tired and ready to be home. It'll be good to settle in Cairns for a couple of days; we've been moving steadily and I'm ready to actually unpack my bags a little. And do a load of wash.
I had a chance to briefly skim my flist and saw that a few people are in need of good thoughts and good karma. I'm doing all I can from here, I promise! May the drama gods miss you and may you have peace and tranquility at least for a while. And may Thomas appear at Comic Con so I can get a hug (or two). Know that I miss you all and am thinking of you! Tomorrow, more hiking then flying to Cairns to stay in our bungalow on the beach. This is going to be great, I hope!
Day 7 (first half):
We were up early again, showered in the communal showers and then headed off to Kata Tjunta, for the Valley of the Winds walk. This was described as "challenging." Challenging means not being able to look up as you walk for fear of twisting your ankle on the rocks that line the 'path.' It was 4.7 KM and we were both tired today, before we even started. We saw kangaroo dung, but no kangaroos! The walk was windy, which shouldn't be surprising, since it's called Valley of the Winds. We beat the crowds, thank God, and were back in the car, sweaty and exhausted. Nothing else to do beyond that but head to the airport where I could get online and Matt could read and we could ignore each other for a while. This is a good thing, ahahah.
Our flight leaves in two hours and we have a car and GPS reserved in Cairns. We're there for 2.5 days then back to Sydney where I'll get to see Deense!
This is the part of the trip where we both want to just veg and can't because WE MOST LIKELY WILL NEVER BE HERE AGAIN. So we put that pressure on ourselves, you know? But tonight, we will have a choice of where to eat and a bungalow at the beach. More later.
Love to you all!