Day 356 – Ayers Rock & The Olgas

• Yulara
• 33°c

Even though we were up early this morning, we had never intended to see the sunrise at Uluru although judging by the amount of cars that were gone from the campground we may have been the only ones?!

As we neared Ayers Rock, the sheer size of it became apparent, it is absolutely massive and has striations running across the width of it, I would love to see the rain falling on it in the wet season.

We hadn't decided whether or not we would actually climb Ayers Rock but once we got out of the car and walked up to it, we all decided that we would. It is a controversial issue and a choice for each individual to make, they ask that you don't climb and are trying to get it closed to climbers next year. No cultural ceremonies are held here anymore and from what I can gather the main reason they don't want you to climb is that they feel responsible for any injuries that happen. 

It is a really steep climb and there is only a small chain to hold onto, we weren't sure how far we would go up but it became quickly apparent that it is no feat. We made it about halfway up and Steve & Oscar decided that was far enough for them, Ella really wanted to keep going "It's on my bucket list"! How could I not after that comment, so up us girls went. It didn't get any easier the further up we got, but we made it to the top, well the top part where the chain ends and Ella was happy with that, I wasn't going up any higher with her with nothing to hold onto.

We sat in the shade and rested whilst soaking in the view around us, boy were we high and what an amazing piece of nature we were sitting atop. Then it was time to make the journey down to sea level, we had seen people as we were going up with gloves on and I thought to myself that's a bit precious but as we were making our way down I realised they were just smart! Going down we let the chain run through our hands so if need be we could grab it and gloves sure would've been a lot kinder on the hands. 

We were all glad we had seen, touched and climbed Ayers Rock and we truly appreciated it for the magnificent piece of Australian nature that it is. The texture of the rock was really different to anything else we've seen. Ella & Oscar had commented that it didn't seem like a real rock because when you knocked on it, it sounded fake, I think it looks like a meteor that's fallen from space. They also said that parts of the rock looked like there could be a waterslide when it rained.

Needless to say we were all buggered, so Ella & Occy had a little shut eye whilst we drove the 50kms to The Olgas. Again these were some amazing natural formations but to get to them was a bit of a walk and the day was starting to heat up, so we admired them and then it was back home for a rest.

A family pulled into the campspot next to us, they're on a 3 month trip, like so many we meet, taking long service leave or a leave of absence and seeing as much as they can in that time. The kids headed off to the playground, I think Ella & Occy were happy to have some "little people" around again.

Ayers Rock at sunset was something we'd decided would be a must see, so we headed back out to The Rock and found ourselves a good spot in the Sunset Observation Area. It was really quite amazing to watch the shadow cast as the sunset and the changing colours of not only the rock, but the surrounding horizon as well.

Day 355 – I spy a really big rock

• Desert Oaks – Yulara
• 269kms
• 35°c

The flies were soo bad this morning that despite the fact that I had to put my trackies and jacket on in bed, it was that cold, there was no way I could’ve lasted longer outside than the 5 minutes of stretching I managed to do! Not a very long drive today, so we made a quick pitstop at a roadhouse and as Ella, Oscar & I walked around to grab a drink from the van we were startled by some emus hanging out up close and personal at the fence.

After dashing inside for some bread we fed the lovely emus, one in particular was quite greedy and didn't want to share with a cute baby one that appeared once we had bread. Well cute it was until it bit Ella when she fed it, then she wasn't particularly impressed with it at all. 

We also spied a Big echidna and Frilled Neck Lizard, haven't seen those mentioned anywhere before, maybe we just discovered them? Anyways, they've made it onto our list!

As we laid eyes on the massive rock formation below we got excited that we could finally see "The Big Rock", however this hat shaped formation is Mount Conner but I have it on good authority from Wikipedia that they are easily confused!

I spy... this time it was The Big Rock and it wasn't as smooth as we expected it to look but it sure looks Big! The Olgas were also visible from the campground, which is the closest and only place to camp near Uluru. Can't wait to get up close to these massive rocks tomorrow.

The town centre of Yulara is only a short drive from the campground, we had some mail to post and were in need of food, again! The pool at the campground is not swimmable due to the fact it has no water, however we were able to use the resort pool which we decided to check out. I think we got two toes in before we all decide that would have to be in the top ten coldest pools of the trip!

Ayers Rock Resort Campground, $55 a night, power, water, amenities, pool (no water but able to use resort pool)

Day 354 – School of the Air

• Alice Springs – Desert Oaks
• 182kms
• 31°c

On the road to Uluru this morning but the caravan brakes were not working as they should after being adjusted yesterday. Steve called the mechanic who said he would have a look at them but it would be after lunch sometime. Seeing as we were all dressed up and nowhere to go till later, we decided to take a visit to The School of The Air. What a worthwhile trip, the centre is really interesting and the tour allowed us to see how the studios worked to provide real time classes to students in remote locations over the internet and enable them to interact with their teachers.

After visiting the School of the Air we still had time before we had to meet the caravan mechanic, so we headed into Alice to drop off our postal votes and pick up some supplies. Walking into the pharmacy and who's walking towards us but Jennie & Chris! You wouldn't believe it, they are staying on a property about 250kms from here and were just in town for a few hours, talk about coincidence! We had a good catch up and Jennie told Ella & Occy about the best ice cream place in town, so of course that was our next stop and boy was Jen right, I had the most delicious Lime & Pineapple Sorbet, Ella chose Burnt Caramel and Oscar chose Rocher. 

In perfect timing we had just finished our ice creams when the mechanic called to say he could adjust the brakes now, so half an hour later we were all set and heading out of Alice Springs towards Uluru.

Desert Oaks, $0 free camp, toilets, water, shade

Day 353 – Downtown Alice Springs

• Alice Springs 
• 32°c

Some shopping in Alice, we needed some groceries and visited Afghan Traders, an awesome wholefoods shop where everything is bulk, organic and awesome. Next stop was a couple of vintage stores, not a lot of great picks but Ella & Occy scored a dvd and some books. Not sure what the sale on "Bush Bags" was all about, but we had a guess....

Oscars hair is growing so quick and he doesn't want to cut it, which is fine so long as he looks after it, so he wanted shots of his hair from all angles so he can see how much it grows!

Day 352 – The Alice

• Ti – Tree – Alice Springs
• 196kms
• 31°c

We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and whilst it didn't mean a lot to us, we discovered that it is one of the five major circles of latitude and is the southernmost latitude where the sun can be directly overhead.

Hello Alice Springs!

We checked into the caravan park and set up before heading out to restock on groceries and have a quick look around the town.

Back at the van I whipped up some yummy snacks.

G’day Mate Caravan Park, $44 a night, amenities, pool

Day 351 – The Karma Bus gets new shoes

• Banka Banka – Ti Tree
• 414kms
• 28°c

I was so happy to hear little Banka howling this morning when I awoke, he had made it through the night, tough little thing! After a no coffee start to the morning thanks to the generator chucking a tantrum, we said goodbye to Glenn, Dan & Banka and wished them well in finding a carer in Tennant Creek or Alice and set off down the road ourselves.

We arrived in Tennant Creek and Steve had a chat with the guy at Bridgestone and was able to work out a good deal to get a new set of tyres for the van and a new rim for the spare. So we waited around in the van for an hour or so whilst they were fitted as there isn’t a lot to see and the town is truly in the middle of the never never.

We drove for what seemed like one of the longest days so far and didn’t see a lot, other than a couple of pushbikers, about 6 burnt out cars, lots of empty beer cans and a couple of termite mounds having an ugly jumper competition! My vote was definitely for the Elvis knitted jumper.

We pulled into Ti Tree about 3.30pm and did a quick camp set up before wandering over to see the horses and goat. I got a fright as I went to step out of the van and nearly stood on a massive male peacock that was having a nosey around. We managed to handfeed him and were rewarded with a display of his beautiful feathers.

Ti Tree Roadhouse Caravan Park, $20 a night, amenities

Day 350 – Injured Wildlife

• King River – Banka Banka
• 516kms
• 29°c

I thought we were up and pulling out nice & early and was quite surprised to see that most of the vans had already left. There were lots of oversized loads on the road today, some absolutely huge diggers and some massive menacing looking tanks. We decided to stay at Banka Banka again as even though there was no power, they had water and really nice hot showers. Once again the lady kindly gave Ella & Occy an icypole each and we were shown to a nice shady spot.

We got chatting to our neighbours; Glenn & Dan and soon discovered they were caring for a baby dingo they’d found about 70kms back. The poor thing looked so sad and Glenn told us that it seems like he’d fallen off a moving vehicle by it’s injuries, she had sprayed him with antiseptic and bandaged him up and kindly let Ella feed him. Boy was he a gutz, after a full tummy and lots of pats and attention he went off to sleep for a while. After dinner I could hear him howling and asked if I could give him a cuddle, I wrapped him up like a baby and rocked him to sleep, he was just scared and lonely, such a beautiful creature.

Whilst Banka was napping Ella & Occy went over to visit the horses and cow we'd met when we were here last time.

Banka Banka Station, $25 a night, water, amenities