We woke up at 4:15 so we would be at the park at 5:00AM which was opening time. It was a beautiful ride through the desert as dawn was breaking coloring the desert and Uluru/Ayers Rock. Unfortunately by this point Hendrik’s camera had totally broken and was unsalvageable and mine was also slowly deteriorating and refused to turn on. It seemed to only turn on when I didn’t actually need it to but when I did it wouldn’t. So unfortunately we don’t have pictures of this morning.

The sun had not yet risen when we started the Valley of the Winds hike around the Olgas/kata Tjuta and the earth was still cool. We had loads of water with us this time but it was pretty unnecessary since it was cool and there are 3 water stops along the hike. It was a beautiful hike and often strenuous. There were signs everywhere that depicted a stick figure falling on rocks which we thought was funny. The walk only took us about 2 hours and progressively it became hotter and hotter. We passed by many people just beginning the walk when we had ended and thought to ourselves that we definitely wouldn’t want to start in this heat. It wasn’t even 9:00AM and it was already hot. It was a gorgeous hike and I definitely recommend getting up early for it because the switch of colors and temperature from night to day are amazing.

We were glad we had made good time because we needed a shower and we would still make breakfast and yes buffet breakfasts excite me. I have to admit as food goes the Ayers Rock Resort was one of the nicest (far better than at Kings Canyon Resort) and I enjoyed the dinner as well as brekky. After breakfast we had a few hours to kill before we had to catch the plane so I just surfed the internet and hung out by the pool.

The Uluru Airport is tiny and is there solely for a rock. I thought that was pretty funny that a rock can have its own airport. We arrived in Cairns in the evening, booked a Great Barrier Reef tour on Reef Magic for the day after next, and just relaxed.

We drove through the desert towards Uluru/Ayers Rock. On the way we hardly passed any cars but we did see plenty of huge birds eating road kill by the side of the road and even saw a dead camel. When we got closer to the rock suddenly we were surrounded by coaches. At a lookout we could see the dry Amadeus Salt Lake and a rock which looked like Uluru/Ayers Rock but we later learned that it wasn’t Uluru/Ayers Rock but Mount Conner or Connor or Attila or Artilla, or the mountain with lots of names. Apparently Uluru/Ayers Rock, the Olgas, and Mount Conner all line up in a straight line. The sand at the lookout was even redder than at King’s Canyon and very soft.

Hendrik and Mt. Conner behind him

When we arrived at Uluru/Ayers Rock it was funny to see the village which existed here solely for tourism. It was made up of only hotels, resorts and campsites. We stayed at the Ayers Rock Resort which had mediocre rooms, the worst we’d stayed in thus far, but I found out that the hotel was the most expensive one we stayed at during the whole vacation so someone was really getting rich off the rock.

Hendrik and I went to see the rock without his parents since his mother wasn’t feeling well from yesterday’s sun. As we drove up to the thing it was amazing as it rose up from the earth in front of us. I had pretty low expectations because at the end it is just a rock but it’s definitely worth a visit. Out of nowhere there’s this gigantic red monolith which some claim to be the largest monolith in the world. Others say it is the second largest next to Mount Augustus. It stands 1105meters tall while Uluru/Ayers only 348 meters so my vote would have to go to Augustus but at least most everyone agrees that Uluru/Ayers Rock looks way more spectacular. We were definitely in awe of the rock. We visited the info/ Aboriginal cultural center and drove around the rock stopping at the highlights.  I particularly liked the Mutitjulu Water Hole, a crevice where a waterfall appears when it rains and forms a pool at the bottom. I would have loved to see the rock in the rain becasue not only would lots of waterfalls appear on the rock but also it would cool the earth down, but no such luck since it hardly ever rains in the desert.

On our way back to the resort we stopped by the sunset lookout point which had at least 100 campervans and cars all parked in a line already staring at the rock. Minus the crap-load of people if was beautiful and we were able to take many nice pictures as the rock changed colors because of the setting sun.

The typical postcard pic