Here we are at Sunset at Uluru, Ayers Rock -- Ayers Rock could have a blog all of it's own..Hmmm, maybe I'll do that...But the sunrise/sunset colors are like nothing else! You cozy up with a hundred or so of your closest friends, we brought hot chocolate but people brought wine, beer, even dinner to sit and watch the colors change.
Here's how it looks after the sun is gone -- Totally different.
And here it is up close, different again! You can hike all the way around the base, about 10K, totally flat, but pretty hot during the day. You can see why the Aboriginal people liked to stay here -- a lot of shade in a place without much )it's a big rock!!). You can hike around it, and if the weather/wind conditions are good they still let you climb. This is being phased out as it is a very sacred site for the Aboriginal people, sort of like hiking/eating/drinking/playing on someone's altar or grave.
What better thing to do after you hike around Uluru than to grill up some emu, crocodile, camel and kangaroo? This is a really fun restaurant in the little village of Uluru, where you get to grill your own meat, and then they provide bread and salad bar to go with it.
Sunrise at the Olgas, Uluru's cousins up the road...much bigger, actually, and instead of being a monolith like Uluru, it's many rocks together. A great place to watch the sunrise, if you can manage to get there in time!
When we were hiking at the Olgas we came upon this Mama Kangaroo, who actually had a joey in her pouch! She just sat and ate grass while we watcher her. She didn't seem to mind us much, but could move away pretty fast if we moved suddenly. Here's one you don't get to see hiking in Colorado!
This man is pulling the back half of a van that he cut off and turned into a wagon...And his "wagon" is being pulled by 2 camels. We were driving alont behind him, and could only see the back of a van and 2 camels, and figured, like Yellowstone, you just have to wait for the wildlife to get off the road to continue...but we couldn't figure out why he didn't just go AROUND the camels. Once we got closer we figured out it was a van/camel/wagon combo, so he couldn't go around because they were PULLING his VAN WAGON!! Probably the most random, wonderful thing to see driving in the Outback. (PS -- Word of advice, if you're driving in the Outback, do NOT forget your ipod car radio converter, because there are no radio stations. Someone you know might have made this mistake.)
That rock is gorgeous.
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