3rd July (Photo's now in photo album)
Up at 6am so Sandy can drop me at the airport before she goes to work. I arrive at Ayres rock early afternoon and take the bus to the resort. I have a heart attack when I have to pay $30 to pitch me tent. I wonder about the resort and moan to myself how expensive everything is. They know they have the monopoly here and are making the most of it. I find out the bus to the rock s $45. Its only 20k away. So I refuse to pay it and decide I will walk their in the morning. I walk to one of the view point to watch the sun set over the rock. This is supposed to be amazing, however it is really cloudy and trying to rain. We have a few really large drops of rain but then it gives up. The sun set is really unimpressive. The 5 of us now have the fun of walking back to our accommodation in the dark. Not one of us bright sparks has brought a torch. I head back to my tent and have cereal for breakfast because they don’t sell the fuel for my stove.
Wednesday
I started the walk to the rock at sun set. (The camp was so noisy they was no chance of sleeping in). I walked about for 2 hours when got a lift with 2 Dutch guys who were trying to make a documentary about the aboriginal community. I wondered about the rock in ore while deliberating whether to climb or not. It’s bizarre cause every where there is signs asking you not to climb the mount but they have it set up for you to climb (they have chains to help you pull yourself up and thousands of people climb everyday) after debating with myself I decided I would be pissed off if I didn’t so off I go. It was like climbing a motorway, it even had the white centre lines to show you the way. The top was really impressive. The surface looks like pictures of the moon. It was lunch time 'ish when I summated which was really good timing because I pretty much had the place to myself. The millions of people seemed to have fallen away. So I had my own little moon walk. Took fare to many pictures (most of which are rubbish) I then wondered back down before the crowds returned. It was a very pleasant scramble but pretty dam step and gutsy for a tourist walk. I wondered about some more. Then walked to the cultural centre to be educated. I watched the most boring documentary ever then headed back to camp. Got a lift with an aboriginal guy who filled me in on the local community and the resent bad press that they have been receiving. (Not sure if it has reached the English news but they were under major scrutiny for child abuse allegations. The government has despatched arm troops into the community to solve the problem).
Thursday 5th July
A big thank you to all of those who sent birthday wishes. I was impressed with how many of you did. I got a lift to a different rock this morning. A couple from the west coast who were camping next to me. We headed to the Ulgas to do the valley of the winds walk a 6.7k trek between the boulders. Then we did the Walap Gorge walk this one was short at 2.6k and very flat. So we cruised this. We then headed back to the rock to take some pictures of the aboriginal art work. we head back to camp and enjoy a glass or two of wine.
