13-14 July Uluru and Kata Tjuta (ie Ayers Rock and Olgas)

It was bloody cold last night (excuse the language kids). The thermometer in the car said -3 degrees. Too cold even for the dingoes to wander around the camp! Tents were a wee bit more challenging for Tim to pack up this morning because of the ice. Give me the hot days of the Kimberley!
We reached Uluru just after lunch with a stop at the “false” rock called Mt Connor. Don’t know why it isn’t in the guidebook because it is a beautiful site. Our first views of Ayers Rock (Sammy managed to lift her head briefly from her book) were very exciting. Since then I have taken about 10 photos at different times of the day. The Yulara Resort is about 10 km’s from Uluru, and caters from the budget camper (us) to the high end traveller. It is well segregated so that anybody staying at the upper end doesn’t have to suffer from looking at our three filthy children.
After setting up camp, we headed out to the Uluru culture centre for a bit of education, and then a drive around the rock. The rock is certainly more imposing from a distance, but impressive nonetheless. We then managed to squeeze into the sunset parking area with 200 other cars to watch the colours change on the rock. Well, change from light to dark!!
The next day we headed back to Uluru and had a 1 hour tour around a part of the rock with one of the rangers. It was an interesting talk giving an insight to the mythological aboriginal view of the rock. There are signs posted all around asking visitors not to climb the rock, so despite constant nagging from the children we decided not to climb.
After the walk, we drove 50km to the Olgas, another striking rock formation. Kata Tjuta means “many heads” in the local aboriginal dialect, and it is clear to see how the name came about. We did a short walk to a lookout, but were stopped from moving on further by Lara and her somewhat dubious claim of urgently needing to return to the carpark to go to the toilet. Oh well, at least she’s learning some street smarts on the trip!
The Webbs and Serisiers had finally left Alice Springs after 11 days as the Webbs car was now road worthy again. It was great to have a final night dinner at the Outback grill with everyone, and to top it off, the boys were able to kick back and watch the final origin game.