The Red Centre

With heavy hearts we packed our bags and headed off to Ayer's Rock to see a big orange rock. The flight was via Alice Springs and as we came into Ayer's Rock Airport was had a great view of Uluru from the plane window - impossible to miss as its the only mark on the landscape for as far as the eye can see. Uluru is serviced by Ayer's Rock Resort, a collection of hotels and shops situated half an hour from the monolith and run by a single company. It has a strange feel to it and it must be an odd place to work, hundreds of kilometres from the next town. All the accomodation is outrageously priced because of the monopoly so for the first time this trip we found ourselves in a dorm room. We were only four, but it was quite awkward as we were two couples in a tiny room, in two sets of bunk beds - it felt like you'd gatecrashed the other couple's private room. We got settled in, and found the bar and the supermarket in quick succession. We booked our tours for the next day and had an early night ready for our sunrise tour the next morning. Up at 4.40am, we climbed onto an air-con bus with a million others and made our way out the uluru in the dark. Set up with a stool each, a cup of tea, biscuits and a view of the back of someone's head we settled in to watch the sunrise. Andy took lots of pictures and wandered around a bit, I sat on my stool and stared at what can only be described as a bloody big orange rock. With the sun firmly in the cloudless sky we joined our next group of around 12 people for a journey to The Olgas (why isn't Uluru called The Uluru?), a collection of 36 rocky "bubbles" which rise to around 500m from ground level. By 7am it was already hot, but as we were in the Valley of The Winds the edge was thankfully taken off the heat a bit. The flies were also out in force - I don't think you can imagine unless you've experienced it; five flies at a time determined to crawl in your eyes, your mouth, your ears and up your nose. It drives you MAD. Despite this we had an enjoyable 3 hour walk with an interesting guide who gave us a lot of information, and an even more interesting bunch of travellers. Out of 12 we had one girl who, in buttcheek-revealing hot pants and a bikini top was rather eccentrically dressed for a 3 hour hike in searing sun, a Canadian guy who was in total denial that he belonged to - shock horror! - a tour group and ran about 100 metres in front of everyone else, a lady in her fifties with flip flops on (we were in rough, rocky terrain) and language on her that would shame a navvy, and the obligatory couple of Japanese, a law unto themselves at all times. Andy and I hung back on the return journey with a lovely English couple in their seventies, doing remarkably considering the length, terrain and heat of the hike. We were finally delivered back to our lodge hot, dusty and sweaty at 11.30am, by which time the temperature was pushing 41 degrees. We had a lovely couple of hours in the pool, before leaving again at 4 for a nature walk at the base of Uluru and wine and nibbles whilst watching sunset over the rock. By this point I had a crashing headache from being out in the heat all day. However we really felt like we'd made the most of our only full day in The Red Centre. All we needed was a cool shower and an early night in our air conditioned room, bliss!