The Wilko's Australian Adventure: Ayers Rock Camping Day 1

Day 11 - Ayers Rock Camping Day 1

Ayers Rock

Tuesday, 2 August 2011

Up at 5 to be ready for the bus pick up at 5:45. We have put our bags in the hotel left luggage room last night as we are taking minimal stuff camping with us, so it was just a case of showering, grabbing our stuff and going to meet the bus. The bus arrived dead on time, it was still dark. It is an 18 seater with big trailer behind with all our food in. Our swags were rolled up and tied to the top of the trailer. Our tour guide, Jason met us. He is about the same build as me but 6 foot 8. He is a true blue Aussie bloke and it wasn't long before he was calling us Poms and complaining about all the Kangaroos. We loaded our stuff up on to the bus and then we headed out across to Ayers Rock which is a journey of 450 km. As it was dark, Jason suggested we get some sleep and we duly obliged although I stayed awake in the hope of seeing an elusive kangaroo. Apparently there has been sufficient rain recently to allow grass etc to grow all over the place and so the Roos are scattered about and not so easy to see. We haven't seen one in the wild yet.

We arrived at our first stop, a camel farm at 7am where we could get a coffee. Wendy and the girls went on a short camel ride. Wendy and Jess's camel was called Eddy, the other one was called Blacky.

Back on the bus after about half an hour then on with our journey. A brief stop at a service station called Erdunda. While I queued for coffee here I noticed 3 snakes pickled in jars along the bar. I asked about them and found that they were brown snakes (poisonous) which had been caught under table 8 in March.

Next stop was a cattle station called Curtin Springs where we bought some provisions for our camping.

We then did a couple of hundred kilometres and then pulled off the road to collect firewood. Basically we walked in to the bush and broke down dead trees, collecting branches about as thick as our arms. We dragged them back to the bus. Jess climbed onto the top of the trailer and we passed the wood up to her and she piled it up. When we had enough we strapped it down and helped Jess off. We got covered in black dust but it washed off easily. I got a splinter but I think I'll survive. I don't think Jason thought I was as seriously injured as I did!

On to Yulara which is the town nearest Ayers Rock (I should really be calling it Uluru). We went to our camp site and dropped the firewood off at our patch of dirt then headed straight off for the national park and Uluru. We arrived and parked in the croak at the base of the rock then went on a short guided walk with Jason who explained some of the Aboriginal stories about the rock.

We then had a choice of either walking round the rock or climbing it. Climbing the rock is discouraged by the Aboriginals, but Lizzi was keen as she thought she might not get the chance again, so Lizzi and I climbed the rock while the others did the walk around it's base. 5 of our group climbed, Lizzi and me, Johann, Max and Lee. It's really steep and narrow in places with a steep fall either side of the path. There is a chain to pull yourself up by and it's scary in places. Quite a few people have died doing the climb, either by falling or having heart attacks. The last person to die had a heart attack in April last year, and the last person to fall off was in 2007 (he tried to take a short cut as he thought he was going to miss his bus). It took about an hour to climb and the view from the top was great. I texted a few people, we took loads of photos and then headed down. It's steep and slippery in places but we managed ok. The others had had a nice walk round the rock and were waiting for us at the bottom.

A quick bite of watermelon then off to the viewing area to watch the sun set on Uluru. It's amazing how the colours change while the sun goes down. A glass (or two) of bubbly and some dips made for a fantastic hour or so.

Then back to our camping area. We lit our fire and prepared a stir fry on the hot plate. It was very nice, then we spent the evening round the campfire until we eventually unrolled our swags and went to bed. A swag is basically a sleeping bag inside a canvas outer bag. It was surprisingly cosy. We had no tents so we were basically sleeping under the stars which, because of the darkness, were amazing. I used my iPhone app to identify some of the stars, many of which we never see in the northern hemisphere.

We were getting up at 5:30 to go to see sunrise at The Olgas and so were soon all asleep, lying next to each other, in our swags, on the red sand, under the stars.

	Tour bus with swags on top of trailer [Map]		These are smelly and stubborn, the others are came [Map]
	Fancy a job? [Map]		En route to Yulara [Map]
	Jason, the man mountain [Map]		Jess loading up the firewood [Map]
	Strapping the wood down [Map]		The start of the climb up Ayers Rock [Map]
	Halfway up [Map]		The top (Johann, me, Lizzi, Lee, Max) [Map]
	This is the view on the way down! [Map]		The sun begins to set [Map]
	Sunset at Ayers Rock [Map]		In a swag at The Billion Stars Hotel [Map]
	Home from home [Map]