Ayers Rock Camping Day 2

Day 12 - Ayers Rock Camping Day 2

Ayers Rock

Wednesday, 3 August 2011

I woke at 5 and got up for a drink. It was quite cold when you get out of your swag. Everyone got up at 5:30. A quick shower (surprisingly good considering they're short of water), rushed breakfast as Jason was determined to leave by 6:30 and we had to pack everything away. Left smack on time while it was still dark and drove over to a viewing area near The Olgas to watch the sunrise near to Ayers Rock and The Olgas. When we had taken a million photos we left for The Olgas. Parked up near them and took another walk guided by Jason. He knows a lot about the different plants and which are edible and which were used by the Aboriginals etc. He left us after a couple of kilometres and went back to the bus and we continued the walk through the Valley of the Winds. It's a nice group of 12 people, half of whom are made up of Cathy and us. The others are just a shade younger than Wendy and me, being around 20/21 yrs old, but we're holding our own.

The temperature is about 28 degrees and the ground is hot and dusty, we still haven't seen a roo but there is lots of roo poo. We finished the walk after a couple of hours and headed off to the cultural centre at Ayers Rock. We had a good look round and then joined Jason for lunch. He had prepared beef which we put into wraps with salad and raw onion. Jason is looking after us well but he obviously has an agenda to get us to places in time, eg to see sunset, which on one hand is good and keeps us going but sometimes he gets a bit agitated if we take too long over chatting etc. I actually caught a moment with him and opened a discussion about how it must be hard for him to effectively be at work while we are all in holiday mode. I hope that will make him chill. I think it is just his manner but he can occasionally come across as a bit brusque.

After lunch we had a brief stop in Yulara to re-fuel, then headed off to Kings Creek Station which is where we were going to camp tonight. About half way there we stopped for firewood again. This time we needed big logs as the fire is a big fire pit, so we basically pulled down dead trees and strapped them to the top of the trailer. The trees have been dead for ages and the area had already been burnt off deliberately by the park management. This is to get rid of dry grass and vegetation before it gets so much that a bush fire would burn out of control. Hence we all got covered in black stuff from the tree trunks. Jason, the man mountain, was picking up boulders and dropping them on the tree trunks to break them into manageable sizes. When we had enough we continued our journey.

Jason warned us to make sure we had our seat belts on as there were wild horses (Brumbys) which have a habit of running into the road. We saw quite a few and some camels too. I have been sitting in the front with Jason and we saw a black dingo at the side of the road along the way.

We arrived at Kings Creek Station just after dusk. It really is out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by bush. It looks like a wild west ranch.

We re-fuelled and then drove to our camp spot. Like last night this was effectively a patch of red dirt round a campfire with a basic cooking area (ie a tap and a table) but we had a grill and some tucker from the trailer and it wasn't long before we were tucking in to Kangaroo steaks, chicken kebabs and sausages sitting round the camp fire. Jason cooked some damper bread in a cast iron cooking pot covered in ash and embers. It was cheese filled and heavy but quite nice.

After a bit of star gazing (the night sky is amazing out here, you can see the milky way and every star really clearly) we turned in for the night. We had seen a few mice running about but we were more worried about what might be hunting the mice rather than the mice themselves, so we arranged ourselves in a group around the campfire and everything was good. I woke up a few times during the night and looked at the stars and I had set my alarm for 5:15 so I could get up and shower before breakfast as I knew we had another early start planned.

	Sunrise starts at Ayers Rock [Map]		Sunrise [Map]
	First light on The Olgas [Map]		Camping group at Olgas [Map]
	Resting in The Valley of The Winds [Map]		It's a long and unwinding road [Map]
	Kings Creek Station [Map]		Campsite Outback Style [Map]
	Campfire, night 2 [Map]		Dinner at King's Creek Station [Map]
	Getting ready for bed [Map]		Orrrr (it's Wendy)! [Map]

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