Up at 5.45, and into Uluru by 6.30 (all packed and checked out of campsite cabin) to watch the sunrise over Uluru (Ayres Rock).
Sun rose on cue, but seeing the rock change colours was a bit of a damp squid because there was a bit of cloud around. (Wondered if the whole, "must see Uluru and sunrise was a clever invention by tour companies (who charge £100 for a 4 hour trip!). The hire car really is a much cheaper version.
Last time we climbed Uluru - but there is a bit of a debate raging over the ethics of this, but we recall that the views were good. However the decision was taken away from us because the climb was closed "because of strong winds on the top". We checked at the visitors centre, and they reassess every 2 hours (ie 8am, 10am, 12 noon and 2pm). The climb can also be closed because of culturally important days or extreme heat. Weather today was not extreme heat, in fact we all had long trousers, jumpers and our rain coats on for extra warmth. If we had been on a posh tour we would have been provided with a poncho!
With the climb being closed, we did several walks around the base of Uluru, - which were pretty rewarding. At 10am we checked back at the climb - but it was still closed. Instead we took a free ranger guided walk, which explained some of the history of the rock, some of the food harvested by Aboriginals etc. The guide to be honest was fairly young and not that good - not able to answer that many questions.
As we understand it the reasons that they don't want us to climb are 1. Its of cultural importance to the traditional owners. (Only men climb it for ceremonial reasons), 2. The danger of death (falling off - but mainly heart attacks - although statistically with 500,000 visitors a year - mainly retirees, this may not be surprising) and the most spurious reason of all, that those who climb it may wee on the top and this would contaminate water below for animals! I found this reason ridiculous - given the heat it would evaporate - indeed as its an arid climate, evaporation outweighs the benefits of precipitation most of the year.
Apparently the business plan is to close the climb by 2019. It could be sooner. This fact prompted the kids to really want to climb it as a "last chance". It will be closed sooner according to the guide if less than 18% of visitors state they want to climb it - or if surveys show more than 70% are coming for cultural reasons. This led to lots of jokes about spurious reasons to close the climb to keep numbers down below 18%
Anyway we had an early lunch at 11.45am, and at 12 noon the climb was opened. When we were here last time, our diary shows that we saw the sunrise, then started the climb at 7am (alongside all the other back packer tours, and were done by 8am) - given that it was high 30 degree heat then. We remember the climb looking like a stream of ants. Then the backpacker tours move on with their itinerary.
By climbing at 12 noon, we were pretty well the first up (actually we were overtaken by a couple who were the first up that day), but there were not big numbers at all climbing - the back packer tours etc had all left on their itinerary's.
Climbing it is steep, (and going down is a bit more hairy - especially when escorting a 6 year old up!)
Anyway we all made it and were rewarded with stunning views - in fact it is only the elevation that shows how the rock at 1000 feet dominates and otherwise completely flat landscape (apart from the Olgas, 50km away). It really is a spectacular geological formation.
It took us around 50 minutes to reach to top, - coming down is not too much faster (and in my opinion more scary!)
We had about 20 minutes at the bottom watching a few others struggling up - and several people start but turn back - sometimes only after 60 seconds - its that steep! Certainly not 18% of visitors climbing it today - probably much less than 1% - there is an electronic counter at the top monitoring climbing - so it may well be closed by the time the girls or Joseph return if they do the back packers circuit. Bet the pilots who offer the 245 dollar half hour scenic flights are rubbing their hands with glee
We were delighted NOT to be bothered remotely by flies. My last memory of Uluru is hordes of flies - indeed I remember risking my life to retrieve a head fly net on the top of Uluru that had blown of some one elses head.
We left Uluru at 2.30 for the long drive back to Alice. (We are a bit cross with STA travel because we originally asked to fly from Perth to Uluru, then do a 1 way car hire to Alice Springs and fly out of there. They said it could not be done - but in fact it could with a jiggle about of a day here - and this would have saved us a $50 dollar taxi ride, plus 500km of fuel + allowed us to visit Kings Canyon. Wish I had double checked a bit closer at home - indeed the travel agent originally had us flying from Alice to Brisbane via Sydney 6 hours instead of the 2 hour direct flight by swapping a day!)
On the way back we saw 2 groups of wild camels (and indeed a dead camel on the side of the road which had been hit by a vehicle - as it started to get dark was a bit nervous of this, but we got the hire car back in one piece - with the exception of 1 million insects which now cover the bonnet.
A mix and match meal using up left overs before our flight to Brisbane then collapsed exhausted into bed!
Stayed at Desert Palms Resort 74 Barrett Drive, Alice Springs NT 0871
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