Monday 4th December – Dawn at Uluru and exploring Kata Tjuta

I’m not sure if it was just random or whether I woke myself up early because of where we were, but it was still dark when I came to and the thought popped into my head that there was still a chance to catch the sunrise! Simon was still out for the count but I decided that I could drive us into the park without having to disturb him… much!  But it turns out even Simon notices when the van he’s sleeping in starts driving out of a bumpy campsite!  I joined the throngs filtering back IN to the park but wondered where the best place to see the sunrise would be.  This indecisiveness nearly made me miss it, but we made it just in time to the sunrise look-out and the full moon was still present to assist in the photos.

I know what you're thinking... looks pretty similar to last night's sunSET but I can assure you this is a totally different photo

Looks a bit steep anyway....

Once the sun was fully up we drove round to the start of the Mala walk where the Uluru climb also begins.  There was a ranger there who told us that the climb was closed and probably would be for the rest of the day due to high winds at the summit. 

We had a back-up plan – we’ll try again here tomorrow to see if the winds have dropped and instead we’ll go and see Kata Tjuta today.

Kata Tjuta (or the Olgas to give their non-Aboriginal name) is within the same National Park as Uluru.  We stopped at a viewpoint on the way to the start of the trails.  

Even the pigeons here are special - crested pigeons

Then we headed to the valley of the winds walk to get started before the temperature rose too much.  There are two viewpoints on the trail.  The first one was a little disappointing (right) so motivated us onwards to the second, Karingana, which was very impressive. The red rocks towered above us on both sides.

Karingana viewpoint and, below, with Simon for scale

There and back was a 5.4km round trip.  Despite starting to feel achy, we still wanted more!  So we drove round to the shorter, flatter Walpa Gorge walk, a 2.6km return walk.

 

Happy with our day’s exertions, it was back to the camp ground where we hooked up for air con and did some internetting.  Being a scorching hot day, we headed to the pool for a couple of hours in the afternoon before having our first BBQ on the road of chicken kebabs and rice.

Then it was back to the sunset viewing point for the second night in the row, but this time we were one of the first there meaning that we could bag the very first and therefore BEST sunset spot!  Then we met our neighbours, a lovely Dutch couple called Nico and Francine who had driven to the centre after visiting their daughter in Sydney.   

Set up for cheese and wine with the neighbours

We were in plenty of time before sunset – they’d brought the cheese and biccies but hadn’t managed to purchase any booze.  We stepped in there by supplying the red wine! We had a lovely hour chatting and watching the sunset and having another couple there was handy for all of us when it came to reciprocal photograph taking:

Nico and Francine and wine in front of Ayers Rock!

Simon won the best photo of the night competition, taking this awesome image on his iPhone...

We had an even earlier morning planned tomorrow but after the amount of fresh air we’d had today we had no problem getting an early night.