Day 19 and 20 Wheels on the Bus, Rock of Ages and Sounds of Silence

Day 19 and 20  - The Wheels on the Bus

6:25AM off we went to Ayers Rock and the Red Centre. Looking in the guide book the area seems to be a place one could visit for several days, taking in all the crevices, hills, gorges and of course Uluru. We will be there 2 days.

On the road - great vegetation

Red Center plant life

The trip from Alice Springs takes 5 1/2 hours with three stops for food, bathroom and some photo stops. The bus driver, Adam, was also the guide and we tooled along for about an hour and a half, stopping first at a camel farm. They don't raise camels but give camel rides, have toilet facilities, a restaurant ( which was good because we left before breakfast), some kangaroos, emus and a dog.

Outback Tour Driver - not ours

The next pit/food stop was at an aboriginal center, a restaurant but this time had aboriginal art instead of animals. Maddi found her mint Magnum ice cream bars there just like the ones in China and Namibia.

The third stop was to transfer some passengers to another bus for their trip to Kings Canyon (wherever that is).

The final leg of our trip took us to Ayers Rock Resort, our home for the next 2 days.
We checked in around noon, had ridiculously expensive Caesar salads for lunch and at 2:15 were off for our first journey to the Rock, Uluru in aboriginal. Much of this land is aboriginal and reserved for them (reserved sounds a lot like reservation to us). Our afternoon tour consisted of several walks, viewings of aboriginal art on the walls of the rock, a visit to the cultural center and a final stop at the Sunset

Aboriginal wall writings

viewing area. Talk about a crowded little area!! We set up our tripods and took a whole lot of photos of the sunset and incredible night sky. Our next and last stop of the day was an official Australian outback barbecue which included steak, shrimp (yes - on the barbie) and kangaroo meat which was okay. Being out in the middle of nowhere with no city lights the night sky is amazing. Being in the southern hemisphere made it all the more interesting. After dinner we had an explanation of the Southern sky. Our sky guide pointed out the Southern Cross, Leo, Sirius, Gemini, Virgo, and of course Orion ... very interesting. We got back to the hotel at 8:30, Pat was asleep at 8:45, Maddi a bit later for a 5:00 wake for the next journey, sunrise at Uluru. We did get a message when we got back to the room that there was a problem with our trip in Kakadu.

Sunset

As this is one of the first times we have traveled for any length of time in a group we actually met some people to chat with. Of interest, at least to us, was a very elderly woman and a much younger man. It turns out she is 90 years old, he is her butler and she goes all over. He was wonderful to watch with her, good fun on the bus rides and told us he and she had an extended trip to the US planned for next year.

Day 20 - Rock of Ages or Sound of Silence (readers get a bonus ... This is a 2 song day)

Tree with white bark - at the hotel (Patricia)

We awoke at 5:15 and set off for Uluru for sunrise. Neither of us was impressed with the sunrise on the rock, although the sunrise itself was quite lovely. From there we went to The Olgas, Kata Tjuta in Aborigine, for a walk at the god awful hour of 7:15AM. For some time management reason we had our early walk, when the sun is golden and the light spectacular on the opposite side of the rocks where the sun would not get to for several hours. These are very impressive structures, millions of years old and way larger that Ayers Rock. From there back to the hotel at 10:30AM when we both took a long nap. Had the afternoon free so we took a walk to the Town Centre (read shopping mall) on the grounds of the resort, had lunch, went to the supermarket and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in our little back patio playing cards., the gin game that has been going on for almost 10 years.

Kata Tuja (Patricia)

There is much history here. Some is aboriginal folklore and some in geologic past, all of it intertwined. It seems that this whole area where Uluru is was a huge water basin thousands of years ago and the aboriginal tribes of the area have many tales of how this last evolved to the outback we know today.

Sunset at the Sound of Silence Dinner (Patricia)

At 5:15PM we left for the Sounds of Silence dinner, which brought us back to Uluru for sunset, this time in a beautiful location with champagne and hors d'oeuvres before dinner. The menu was a little different but also included grilled kangaroo. We sat at a table with some people we had been on tour with that morning and the previous day and dinner was great fun. After dinner there was a minute of silence, not quite what we expected, but the wine kept flowing, along with the tawny port and another explanation of the southern sky. There were two telescopes set up for incredible viewing of Saturn and the moon. We returned to the hotel at around 9:30 to pack for the next day's journey to the north and Darwin. FYI by now the issue at Kakadu has been sorted out after some communication with out rep in Australia and an E mail to our contact in the US.