The Rock

15th - 18th January: Uluru

When booking our round the world tickets, we were told that we could fly to Ayers rock (and back) for no extra cost as we had available air miles. On checking with reliable sources that it was a good place to visit, and since it was 'free', we thought we might as well take a look. As you all no doubt know, Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is the large sandstone rock formation in central Australia.

Having had some grey weather recently, and in need of some sun before flying to New Zealand, we were looking forward to getting to the desert. Everyone guaranteed we'd find a lot of sun there, if maybe too much. However, on disembarking our plane, we were greeted with rain. No chance of topping up that tan then. Oh well, there were more important things to see and do.

We met our tour group shortly after and were taken to some of the main sights in the afternoon; the Cultural Centre, the Valley of the Winds and Kata Tyuta before heading to the Ayers Rock sunset viewing area. Uluru is notable for appearing to change colour as the light strikes it at different times of the day, with sunset being particularly remarkable. Unfortunately, along with many other bus loads of tourists, we weren't to see this remarkable sight, as no light was getting through those impenetrable clouds. No worries though, we were being fed tasty cheese and fizzy wine and had high hopes for sunrise.

So, up early in the dark the next day at the unsociable hour of 4am, we were taken to the sunrise viewing area. Again we were joined by many tourists, though not the hordes from the evening before. They obviously had something better to do, like sleep. Again we waited, seemingly in vain, to witness the changing colour of the rock. After an hour or so, just when we had nearly given up hope and wished we were still in bed with the rest of them, the sun broke through the clouds and hit our target. It really was a remarkable sight. As you can see from the photo, and the comparative one from the night before, the rock did glow. Luckily we managed to get a few shots in before the cloud covered over again but the wait was definitely worth the wait.


With our spirits lifted, we did the 10km base tour of Uluru and later met our guide to be shown some of the more interesting sights in the rock; including the 'kitchen', 'school' and 'nursery'. We were also shown many original Aboriginal drawings in the rock and where many of the legends originated from.

Unfortunately, here our tour ended, as the rest of the group were heading back up to Alice Springs via King's Canyon. And for us, due to some bad planning, we had the next two evenings and day to lounge in the rip-off resort. It wasn't all bad though as there was a pool and live music. Kind of cheesy but good entertainment nonetheless.