Tuesday 23 November 1999 – Ayers Rock

I waked up in the cold morning at dawn time and watched the sunrise on Uluru before taking my breakfast.
During the morning, we visited Ayers Rock. We walked around the Rock and Scott explain us the signification of all sacred sites. He spoke about the Tjukurpa, the aboriginal life and law codes and creation mythology. At the end of the morning, a fine drizzle began to fall and a wind to blow. The temperature dropped down and we were cold.

On the track way, we saw a huge spider. Its size  was half of my hand. Scott warned us not to touch it because it was very poisonous.
At the end of the walk we came back to the bus without climbing the rock. It was wet and windy. Therefore, the Ayers Rock board closed the climbway.
Afterwards, we drove to the cultural Centre. It is a complex where aboriginals feature their society and their life ways. It’s also a shop where we could buy some handcraft and others items.
The afternoon was on own time. I spent it with Lidia. We visited the camping and made shopping together. For the evening, our groups went to see the sunset from Ayers Rock’s Resort. Scott brought some biscuits and sauces for this occasion. Unfortunately, for the second time, it was too cloudy and too cold. Consequently, we were in fact more interesting by the appetizer than Uluru.

Come back to the camping, we made a big fire and ate a barbecue for dinner time. After, I had a beer (4,50AU$) alone at the hotel’s piano bar. The others were too tired to come with me. The night was cold and windy (but this time, I didn’t forget my sleeping bag)


Wednesday 24 November 1999 – The Olgas and Ayers Rock under rain
This day was the most existing of the trip. During the morning, we hiked in the Olgas (Kata Tjuta). We needed 2:30hour to walk through the magnificent Valley of the Winds and to come back to the bus. This visit was wonderful and more existing than Uluru. The Olgas are bigger and all the valleys are between tall cliffs (nearly 500m). It’s odd that Olgas are so unknown face to Ayers Rock. It’s a lot more impressive.

When the visit finished, Scott brought us to the Olgas lookout. It’s here that the thunderstorm began. I’ve never seen a so violent storm in my life. In maybe 10 minutes, the sky became dark and we couldn’t see more than 200 meters. Around us, thunderbolts fell down every 3 or 4 seconds. The deluge began and only 5 minutes later, some rivers had been forming. We could see some big pools appeared with sometimes 30cm water deep. During half an hour, it was really heavy and noisy, with hails and powerful winds. Incredible !!

After the passage of the storm, we came back to the bus. Scott decided to go back to Yulara for a short lunch before watching Uluru under rains. Olgas and Ayers Rock are parted about 50km and we had the time before the storm arrived on the Rock.

Thus, at 1:00pm, we took the bus for Ayers Rock. When we arrived, it was terrific. Water fell down forming by this way plenty of big falls. For representing the sight, you must imagine a huge rock (about 300m tall), cover by a lot of river, falling straight down. A so white water streaming down a dark brown rock. There is in fact so much water that you couldn’t have approached the cliffs. Ayers Rock was like swimming in a pool about 30 or 40 cm deep. Pictures and words can’t describe the felling you get when you see this unreal landscape. You need to observe it. But unfortunately and it’s the reason we were so lucky, this event appeared only three times in the last 6 years. And above all, our guide, Scott said that this storm was the strongest he had ever seen on Ayers Rock!

So after a drive around the Rock, some pictures, and a clothes change in the bus (too wet), we took the road for Watarrka National Park and Kings Canyon. It rained during all the journey and Scoot had to drive through some rivers, flooding over the road. We did a pitstop at Curtin Springs before to reach the Kings Canyon Resort.

For the dinner, Scoot cooked a Mexican meal. After we went to the pub for 2 or 3 drinks while my swag and sleeping bag was drying (they were wetting inn the trailer during the day). At midnight, we went to sleep under cover, though the rain was beginning to stop.