7am departure from Alice Springs this morning for the 450km drive to Ayers Rock – or Uluru to give it it’s correct Aboriginal name.
The above was the scenery on both sides of the coach for the majority of the journey! Sand, sand and more red sand!
Snack lunch at Ayer’s Rock Resort before heading back out to the desert to a viewpoint where we had good shots of the Rock and Kata Tjuta (or site of 36 Heads) another site, sacred to ths Aboriginals.
Back to hotel after visiting the Aboriginal Cultural Centre.
Back out by coach to a viewing area close to the Rock to watch sunset on the Rock. Sun did a relatively fast fade to blackout over about 25mins. The next series of photos gives an idea of the changing colours of the Rock over this time!
Photos could be better, but restricted to taking them with my tablet, to avoid having to transfer for the purposes of this blog. Deny absolutely, that the quality had anything to do with several glasses of bubbly offered by our host on arrival, accompanied by canapes. – They know how to look at a bit of rock over here in Oz! This afternoon when we passed by, we could see quite a number of people climbing the Rock- climb was via one of the ridges and assisted by a guide wire all the way. All climbing of the Rock will cease from the 26th October this year in recognition of the meaning it has for the Aboriginals. The monolith is currently 1042ft in height but is sinking in to the sand – very slowly! It is 6mls round the base, of which we will be walking part tomorrow, and according to a study completed by Darwin University, it weighs apx 145 billion tons – a useful piece of information for the next pub quiz! Temperature was a pleasant 36deg today, but both this area and Alice suffer from vast numbers of flies. Like small house flies which don’t bite, but due to the lack of moisture in the soil, they seek out any human moisture, especially around the eyes, ears and mouth! Extremely annoying! Hence the reason for us modelling the rather natty, 2019 fly net creation.
Maybe looks a bit daft, but it does the job!
5am departure tomorrow to see the sun rise on the other side of the rock. Were warned it might be a bit chilly at that time of the morning. 17degC apparently!
Have a good day everyone!
M & A in Oz 
Is the rock sinking or is the sand building up around it?!?!
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Very sensible idea! I was just quoting what Gary our driver/guide was telling us! ________________________________
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Dramatic change of colours. Glamourus heads ware!!
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