Saturday, 18 April 2024
This morning we pulled out of the Erldunda Roadhouse and turned onto the Lasseter Highway, heading for Uluru. Our first stop was at the Kernot Range Rest Area which featured a lovely stand of casuarina trees. There wasn’t much else of note in the rest area but we spied a small hump so we decided to walk up it hoping we could take a photo of the verdant desert. It was so green as we drove along the highway that we wanted a photo to capture the lushness. From the top of the hill we spied an outcrop. We almost got excited that it was our first glimpse of Uluru but both decided it wasn’t the right shape. Too square on top!
Back in the car, looking at the Hema Australia Road & 4WD Touring Atlas, I was reasonably confident that it was Mount Conner. As we continued on our way, we made another stop to photograph Mount Conner again … although we had to climb a barbed wire fence to find a vantage point from which we could see it. A lot of trouble for a rock that was not The Rock?? A little further along the road we came to the official Mount Conner Rest Area which confirmed I was reading the map correctly.
During our journey I calculated that it was 46 years since I last travelled this way, when I was fortunate to visit Central Australia on a Year 12 excursion. And nothing looked at all familiar! Of course 46 years is a very long time AND how much attention was I paying as a teenager???
We rolled into Yulara, the township that now exists to support tourism at Uluru Kata Tjuṯa National Park on the land of the Anangu people. From the town we couldn’t see Uluru so the glimpse that we had from the highway was all we saw of The Rock before lunch.
We ate at the Kulata Academy Cafe, an enterprise that provides hospitality training for young indigenous people. We shared a smoked chicken and coleslaw sandwich before checking out the IGA supermarket. So much food, it was hard to believe that we are in such a remote location.
From the main township we drove out to the Outback Hotel & Lodge. Check-in was advised as being from 3.00pm but even though we were early we decided to try our luck. Yes, our room was available. We couldn’t park right outside our room so we had to make a few trips to transfer our gear from the truck to the room where we will be for the next three nights.
Now to get serious about seeing Uluru. We drove out Uluru Road to see The Rock and scout out the sunset and sunrise viewing areas and the Cultural Centre. I could not get over how much BIGGER Uluru is than I remember! Bernie, who has never seen it before was impressed with its size.
We stopped at the sunset viewing area and took some afternoon snaps of Uluru. I was impressed with the colour. It was rather grey and overcast when I was here in 1979 and I don’t recall it being so red. With blue sky and sunshine today, the colour was intense. We spent about an hour at the Cultural Centre which was not enough time to explore all of its displays. We spent most of our time there watching a video about the Anangu peoples’ long, long fight to have Uluru returned to them.
Hoping to find time to return to the Cultural Centre at some stage over the next couple of days, we continued our drive out to the sunrise viewing area. With bikes booked to ride around the base of Uluru tomorrow and plans to hike the Valley of the Winds at Kata Tjuṯa on Monday, we will have to fit sunrise in on Tuesday morning before we leave.
We drove back to Yulara and bought the biggest pineapple we have ever seen to keep us in fresh pineapple for breakfast for the next few days. We cannot believe that we could not find a pineapple in Renmark or Adelaide, but we have been able to source one in the Outback.
After delivering our purchase back to our room, we drove back out to the sunset viewing area to secure ourselves a good position. It was hard to know how busy it would be for sunset, so we decided to head out well ahead of sunset. Out at the viewing area it was a bit like a great big long sundowner with most people unpacking seats and drinks and nibbles to watch the sun go down on Uluru. Spectacular!
Tonight we chatted with a couple from the Netherlands. They gave us a good tip for when we do sunrise – be early! They advised us to be there by 6.00am even though the sun will not rise until 6.49am. I think we’ll be tumbling out of bed to go straight out to the sunrise viewing area and then showering and eating breakfast when we return to our room.
Driving back to town after the sun had set, the truck decided to do an emissions burn. With Bernie being paranoid about it only doing a partial burn and tripping the Check Engine warning again, he decided to drive past the turn off into Yulara and continue along the highway until the burn was complete. In the dark! Fortunately, with the light bar on (I’m not supposed to call it the bogan light) visibility was amazing and we didn’t see any wildlife. Thank goodness for that.
Our accommodation does a BBQ dinner where you buy your meat (we opted to share a scotch fillet steak) then BBQ it yourself. They have an extensive salad bar from which you can choose your accompaniments. Yum!
Steps: 7,522 (4.86kms)
