We visited Uluru 9 years ago for our honeymoon and camped at the campground, it was lush green flat grass, quite an oasis in the red centre. On arriving at Ayers Rock Camp ground today we didn’t find any grassed sites as promised on the website over in the caravan area. It was basically a red dusty parking ground with allocated parking spots. The site behind us was raised up and had a 9 month old puppy tied to the pole right on the small retaining wall between the sites. This didn’t bother us until late at night when the pup wasn’t settling for the night and started to play with his little blue bucket. Unfortunately for us he lost his bucket over the wall and into our annexe area. It landed on our green mat and the dog had just enough chain to come down to our level but not enough to reach the bucket. He proceeded to use his paw at the edge of our green mat ripping up the corner while he attempted to reach it. Thankfully we heard him and Tig quickly got up to investigate the noise. With bucket back up on his level and the green mat pulled right away from the dogs reach we got some sleep. At about 6.30am (pre dawn) it felt like half the campground got up to drive to the sunrise viewing area in the national park and made as much noise as possible. It sounded like everyone kept slamming there car doors and yelling at the top of their voices, but it probably just showed what nice quiet places we have been staying at. We had no intention of getting up and had been looking forward to a lazy lie in. Thankfully shortly before sunrise calm returned to the campground and after some more sleep we had our trademark lazy start to the day.
Once organised we ventured round to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) for the Valley of the Winds walk. We walked in very slowly with the other hundred tourists and continued past where most stopped and turned around at the lookout. We continued down a steep rocky track and had a lovely lunch at a picnic table beside a stream in the middle of Kata Tjuta. After lunch we opted not to continue further onto the next lookout as we thought we had reached our limit with the kids and returned back to the car up the steep and rocky track. All the kids did a great job walking on the challenging track.
Next it was back to the campground to cook some BBQ pork to take to watch the sunset over Uluru. We arrived early, having done a drive through of the viewing area to identify the good spots to park, and watched the sun set on Uluru in style with refreshing drinks and fresh spring rolls for dinner prepared on the tail gate of the Landcruiser. Sunset was as spectacular as the postcards and very pleasant as we were there very early and therefor were not rushed at all.
Back to the main carpark at the rock at a reasonable hour the next day to join a guided walk along the Mala track at the base of Uluru. The walk was very popular and the guide was very interesting although a little difficult to hear with so many people.
Maddi was determined to climb the rock and applied great pressure to both of us. Tig took the two girls up to the beginning of the chain while Kai and Thea observed from below. Maddi agreed that it was very steep and she was a little nervous on the way down. We next went to the Cultural Centre for a picnic lunch before visiting inside. We observed an Aboriginal lady doing some paintings on canvas and looked at all the wooden artworks.
On returning to the caravan park we made friends with the family across the road (who we had also parked next to us the previous night at the sunset viewing area) and joined them for sunset on the sand dunes behind our caravans. The kids had a ball playing with the three older girls (12,10 & 9) on the sand dunes and again later in our caravan with one iPad between 2. Thankfully the new friends were heading to Kings Canyon Resort the next day too so the playtime could continue.
Next update maybe only hours away...
Tig and Thea
