We had booked a three day/two night outback tour with Emu Run Expeditions. This is the story of day one. Uluru...or, for those of you like me who still remember the school atlas when most of the world was still coloured a very Empire shade of red, Ayres Rock.
The tour bus picked us up at the hotel in Alice Springs just after 6am and we set off on the long drive to Uluru. Along the way the scenery changed very little, dense bush, sparse bush, tree bush, sand bush and bush bush. The trip was interrupted by several short stops along the way, mostly at cattle stations, where refreshments could be bought and legs stretched. We passed the impressive flat topped Mesa, Mt Connor, (sometimes mistaken for Uluru, hence its nickname of Fooluru), and eventually reached the Ayres Rock Resort at Yulura which was to be our camp site for the night. Lunch consisted of hamburgers, and all of our 24 travelling companions helped with setting up the camp and preparing the meal.
Once foddered and watered, the next stop was Uluru itself. I have to say that it's a mighty impressive piece of rock, formed by the surrounding earth eroding away to leave the hard rock standing high above the surrounding countryside. (I believe the correct geological term for the Rock is an insulberg...yes Miss Beattie, Convent FCJ geography class summer 1975, I was paying attention.)
By now it was 3pm and the day was at its hottest, in the mid thirties centigrade, so after a look through the cultural centre, we opted to do the half circumnavigation walk...nobody climbs the rock these days.
Park regulations state that everyone must have at least 1.5 litres of water with them, and it was easy to see why this is enforced....the heat was brutal. Anyway, we competed the 5k and found getting up close and personal with the rock fascinating.
Everyone piled back on the bus and it was time to head up to the sunset viewing point. We joined a crowd of several hundred, sipping champagne, as the colours played on the rock, turning it from bright red, through shades of orange to a dark ochre. It really was as good a view as everyone says it is.
Back at camp, we all mucked in cooking chicken and pasta for dinner and then climbed, somewhat exhausted, into our tents for the night.
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