I wanna rock, I want to rock!

After driving for so long, only seeing a few cars between roadhouses, it felt odd to pull up at Kata Tjuta and find a reasonable number of tourists milling about. We stopped at the first lookout area for lunch, and Becky went into what can only be described as a photo frenzy. The place was magnificent, and looked almost like it had been painted on to the sky. It was a slightly overcast day, so unfortunately none of the 872 photos that we took really convey the feel of the place. It was a very hot day so we opted of the Karingana walk at the Valley of the Winds, as it was shorter than the full circuit.

Cloudy, with a chance of sweating buckets

 It was a lovely walk, and the rocks and crevices were amazing.

DIRTY MINDED FUCKERS!

There were also some little zebra finches that filled the valley. Becky has become a real fan of the finches we've seen and insisted we post two pictures of the little birds.

Once we reached the lookout Becky decided to do a yoga pose she saw Lorelle doing on her Instagram. It seemed like a nice way of making the photo more interesting, and Becky seemed to think she pulled it off rather than looking like a 42 year old woman who'd never done yoga before in her life.

The pinnacle of the bastardisation of yoga has been reached

Becky asked me to do a similar pose later on, but I was too tired to try... that was my excuse anyway.

Nailed it!

We drove to several other lookouts and tried to get some nice shots but the clouds made the pictures look dull so we gave up and headed towards the famous red rock. It was on the 50km drive that we realised we hadn't yet paid to enter the park. It turns out if you enter from the central highway you avoid the entry gate situated between the park and Yulara, so you can view the sights without paying the $25pp fee. We'd originally planned to view the rock that evening, spend the night in the poorly rated, and very expensive Yulara campground, and then spend the majority of the next day there too. We started to think that maybe we could get it all done in one day, and not bother coming back to see it tomorrow and by doing this avoiding the entry gate and the fee.... I mean, how much rock do you need to see?

However, after further discussion about how stupid it would be to drive all this way, simply to rush around the thing to avoid spending $50, we decided to give the rock a second day, I mean the place is pretty special and deserves a second take. It was already getting quite late, so we opted for a quick drive around the base, then we'd watch the sunset before heading to Yulara.

The drive round was nice, and we stopped briefly to take a few photos.

Different up close

There is a specific location for sunset viewing, and even during off-peak periods like this, it still fills up. We circled around several times, before finding a spot. As we had 3G signal, I briefly skyped my parents to say hi, before we set about filling our memory cards with photos of the iconic red blob.

The classic sunset shot

As we stood there, it starts to dawn on you how many photos there must be of this place. We were one of 40-50 cars and that's not counting the coach parking sunset area, all snapping away in one out-of-season evening. However, the place is so iconic it's nice to get some of your own personal shots of the place.

Worth the 1000km of dirt roads

We stayed for as long as the light held...well I tried to leave, but Becky stopped me so we could enjoy the final changing colours.

photo 811

After the sun had set fully we headed towards Yulara for the night. It was dark by the time we reached the campground, which was just as well as the night disguises the number of people. It had been a long day, so we headed into the "town" to have dinner. There wasn't much choice, but we ended up having a reasonable tasting burger at the only casual restaurant. One of the most noticeable things about the place was the number of indigenous workers. In most of the communities we have passed through, the shops, campgrounds and roadhouses are run by outsiders. The resort at Yulara was bought up by the Indigenous Land Corporation in 2011, and the number of indigenous workers has grown from 2 in 2010, to 318 in 2017. Without wanting to sound like a patronising prick, it was nice to see the indigenous population at Australia's most famous landmark seemingly doing so well.

The next morning we awoke to a reasonably quiet campsite. In fact it had been much better than we'd been expecting, mainly because we were out of season and the tourist numbers are relativetly low. We packed up quickly and headed back to Uluru. We had much bluer skies, and even after paying our $50 entry fee we were pleased we returned for a second day.

New day, new light, new side

I'd specifically worn my PCYC Lang Park vest, so I could get a shot to send to my mate Adam. He put the shot on the clubs Instagram page. We got one of Becky too.

Got to warm up properly before attempting such complex yoga poses

We planned to do the 10km walk around the base, but it was hot so we only walked 6km in total, including two smaller walks. Besides, we decided it is better viewed as a whole from a far.

Different up close

The rock appears so smooth from distance, but up close there are plenty of caves and cracks. Becky, feeling like a yoga master, tried the bastardised yoga pose again... it's not even a real yoga pose.

Peeling back the years

It was a lovely walk, but there was one controversial walk left... the 348m walk up the rock itself. Although it is perfectly legal to walk up the rock, weather conditions permitting, it is considered a sacred sight by the local indigenous population, and they ask that people not climb it out of respect for their beliefs. I have always felt that this should be enough reason not to climb it, especially considering how the different communities all over Australia have been treated over the years, it seemed a small ask to respect the wishes of this community. The worst part is the rock is now "scarred" by all the visitors who have climbed it since the 1950's, leaving an eroded white trail on the rock.

The scar of Uluru

Having now visited the rock, I must admit a small part of me wanted to climb it, but I fought my inner dickhead and won... plus it was closed due to strong winds, so we continued with our walk on the ground. As we sat to rest in some shade under the rock, a bogan with a nice grey mullet walked past and we exchanged "ha's it gan?". He exclaimed he was frustrated, as the walk to the top was currently closed, and he really wanted to climb it. This confirmed to me that only selfish twats climb the rock, but I didn't say that and just replied, "hmmm, that's a shame". After our little sit-down we started our return walk and again passed the gate at the bottom of the climb and found it had been opened. We noticed bogan mullet man was striding towards the start. He saw me and gestured that I should join him, but I just pointed at my flip-flops as my excuse and shrugged my shoulders.

A typical climber!

The best part was he didn't even make it to the start of the saftey chain. The chain starts about 50m up, the thought being if you can't make it to the chain, you won't make it to the top. We got to watch as he turned, sat down, took some photos, looked at the soles of his shoes as if this was the reason he couldn't continue and then started his descent. I didn't wait around at the bottom to hear his excuses, and we continued our return walk back to the car chuckling to ourselves.

We did a final lap of the rock in the car, and Becky took the opportunity to do the "yoga" pose... and it was the worst of the lot.

I thought you were suppose to get better with practice?

She blamed me and my poor photographic skills. We headed for the sunset viewing area, where she tried again.

Better, but still...

It was better, but finally a light came on and she became self-aware of how bad they looked. We both found it hilarious, and she returned to the classic jump shot. Far more dignifying for a middle-aged lady.

Better to act your age!

And with that we left Uluru and headed for a free campsite called Curtin Springs for the night. I don't really have much to say about this place. It was OK for free but they charged $3 per shower. It worked well for what we needed, and Becky got to have her much needed morning shower. I saved us $3 and stank out the car. They also sold novelty items, like shit. It was amusing, but not $5 amusing

I've spent some money on crap, but this...

After we fuelled up, we shipped out with Kings Canyon in our sights, making a short stop to photograph Mount Conner, considered to potentially be the most photographed red herring in the world.

Not Uluru