This morning we broke camp and were on the road soon after nine, having purchased just twenty litres of diesel and four onions at eighty five cents each, from the resort store. The return trip across the same landscape was lovely and threw no surprises at us.
We stopped at the Mt Connor Lookout Rest Area, about thirty kilometres after turning on to the Lassiter Highway. As we drew near to the spot, Mt Connor appeared above the relatively flat landscape and one could understand how it could be mistaken for being Uluru, closer than expected. Not so of course, but still very impressive.
After lunch we crossed the road and walked up a rise to the lookout. The ground was just hot red sand, similar to many of the ridges and low hills of the same all about. We were surprised to see a lake on the north side of the ridge, there being no indication on the map.
Back on the road, we continued to pass and be passed by coaches and busses, all on a mission with tourists aboard, rushing from one attraction to another on a busy timetable.
Fifty kilometres west of the rock, we spotted firstly the Olgas and then Ayre’s Rock rising above the terrain. The ground cover had diminished but all was far greener than Chris remembered and to make matters worse, clouds had gathered, further diminishing the dramatic contrast of the red and blue that one expects from having seen the tourist brochures and postcards.
Yulara is a purpose built settlement to cater to the demands of tourists, here in the middle of this desert, a far cry from the collection of camps back in the 1970s. There are four hotels and a camping ground, which together apparently can accommodate 7,000 people at any one time. Thank goodness it is the off season because the numbers here are still rather overwhelming.
Once we were set up, we drove to the shopping centre which boasts a post office (which was closed), a supermarket (which sells onions at normal city prices) a booking office, a newsagent where we were able to buy yesterday’s Weekend Australian, and a couple of tourist gift shops; most impressive. We then found the Information Centre which doubles as a small museum and spent time there until we were asked to leave as they needed to close. The history of the resort, the geology of the Rock and the Olga’s (now more correctly called Uluru and Kata Tjuta) and the wildlife of the area were well explained and we came away more informed, which is, after all, the whole point of a museum and information centre.
Returning to camp, we delighted in the fact we had internet coverage and made contact with Larissa and Olly, and Charlie who should have been in bed, then discovered we had television reception which we are still marvelling at. We cannot imagine where the television repeater aerial can be!
After our first course, we walked across to the camp’s own lookout and watched the sun set over the Olga’s, and waited for some sort of wonderful light change show over Ayres Rock. I was impressed, Chris not so. He has seen better and tomorrow we will pay the extra fee required to enter the Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park (on top of the exorbitant tariffs for accommodation) and discover the wonders of this area.
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