Uluru

We left our hotel in Alice Springs at 6:30 a.m. for our 462 km (287 mile) bus trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock). We travelled 200 km south on the Stuart Highway which runs right through the centre of Australia.  Stuart was an explorer who travelled across Australia in the 1800's.  He forced his men to carry boats on their heads because he was convinced that they would discover a huge inland sea. When all he found were salt flats he gave up exploring and became a cartographer.  Mark from AAT Tours was very good about making bathroom stops every 100 kilometres, the first being at a camel farm where we opted NOT to ride a camel.

The next leg of the journey was on the Lasseter Highway to the west. The story of Lewis Hubert Lasseter is a mystery.  He claimed to have discovered gold and was backed financially by several large companies.  Eventually, when unsuccessful, all of his party left him and he wandered in the outback until his decomposed body was found near Uluru. His bones were buried.  However, many believe that his death was fake and he later lived a very luxurious lifestyle in the United States  under the name of Harold Best, as he had in fact discovered a rich gold reef and wanted it all to himself.


On the approach to Ayers Rock,(native name Uluru), we saw Mount Connor, a flat topped rock made of sandstone.  It is 4 feet shorter than Uluru and does not have the impressive colour or cultural significance of Uluru. We passed through a 1,280,000 acre cattle station which houses 3000 cattle.  The vegetation is so sparse, 300 acres are needed to feed 1 head of cattle.



Finally, the impressive red rock came into view.

Everywhere we stopped the little flies were terrible, gathering around mouth and eyes, so the nets came out. On the way, Jack visited a "long drop", deep hole with a toilet on top.  I had been warned to pass on the opportunity to use a long drop.  He said it wasn't too bad.  I decided at lunch in our hotel to experience eating kangaroo in a gyro since this might be my only chance.  Later, at dinner, some native Australians told us that they only use kangaroo meat as dog food!

This was the temperature outside our hotel as we boarded the bus for our dinner at the Field of Light Uluru.  Bruce Munro is a renowned artist whose medium is light.  The installation on the outback consists of 50,000 solar powered lights connected by fibre optic cables which come alive at sunset.  After drinks and canapes in a viewing area of Uluru and the sunset to the west, we descended the path to the dinner tables set up below.

After dinner, the tables were darkened and a "star talker" pointed out the features of the southern sky.  The moon was full and bright. This was our last official event on our trip and we could not have asked for a more beautiful night.  AND the flies disappear after sunset!

We walked through the paths among the lights back to our shuttle bus to the hotel.

This is the end of our blog.  We hope you have enjoyed sharing this adventure with us.