Day 5 Yulara

It is very nice to finally complete an entry that doesn’t have “to” in the title. Finally a day not on the road even if the sleep in did not happen. Next door van’s baby put paid to that little wish. But it is good to be up early, even NT time. We are living in 2 time zones and have only been concerned about the time so we could work out when sunset would be so we could get out to the viewing area on time!

Time. Today we had some for a change. To sit around and eat brekky and not make lunch at the same time. Washing some clothes and going to the supermarket were a treat! The kids swam in the pool with their friends and I felt a little guilty about not dashing out to the rock along with most of the campground inhabitants at 8am.

We did eventually get around to going out to Uluru and the cultural centre. We learned some of the history and the Aboriginal culture and stories about the area. We decided to head to the Mala car park where the climb starts. We had already found out that the climb was closed due to the wind being too strong at the top, so there was no debate as to wether anyone was going to climb it. Instead we walked to the Multijulu waterhole, where water was still flowing in a trickle from the not so recent rain.

Superlatives fail to describe the massive presence of Uluru – Ayers Rock. I don’t remember it being so big in 1986 when I was here before. Keith and the kids have never been here before and seemed a bit overawed by the whole thing. It is enormous, impressive and beautiful. We dutifully attended the sunset viewing area with hundreds of other pilgrims from a hundred different countries.

The German couple across the road from us Robin and Vanessa have a van that needs parts to repair it. They have been waiting here for days. They really can’t do anything but sit and wait so we have asked them to come with us to Kata Juta – the Olgas tomorrow morning. Some of our other neighbours have become very familiar to us as we see them on the road around the Resort and the Rock. Many will apparently be moving on to Kings Canyon on Saturday too.

The rubbish has been properly binned tonight so hopefully our dingo friend will not be causing any more commotion. Now if the Rotary Exchange kids would only go to bed…