We’re on a short, 4 day trip to Uluru – I came here about 25 years ago (back when you were allowed to climb it, which I did) but Song has never been.
Up at 05:00 to get a 09:00 flight, travel to the airport via train and Skybus, flight was about 30 minutes late to take off but arrived on time.
It’s actually pretty cold here, gets down to 3-4C overnight and a high of about 19C, so winter clothes are essential.
Coach picked us up from the airport and dropped us off at the hotel, the Desert Gardens. There are a few hotels here, including one that costs around $4000 a night (we’re not staying there).
I’m writing this on day 2, I wasn’t going to bother but today was pretty amazing so thought I’d put it in writing so I’d remember it.
We arrived at about 11:30, by the time we were at the hotel and settled in it was around 12:30 so decided to head into the town to get lunch. There is a shuttle bus that runs every 20 minutes or so, we had a 10 minute wait and in the meantime I found a map of the area and realised the main area (called the Town Square) was about a 5 minute walk away so just set off.
To call it a town is a bit of an exaggeration – it’s basically a square with a few shops and a couple of cafes. We went to eat and shared a salmon salad thing and a pizza, I had most of the pizza.
Suitably stuffed, went for a look around the shops, including an IGA supermarket and a few souvenir shops. Song bought the traditional fridge magnets, and some fruit from IGA, I went and had a look in the tour office to see if there was anything worth doing (we’ve booked a sunrise base walk and a sunset thing), but apart from helicopter trips there wasn’t a lot. There was a light show with drones, but it was based around telling Aboriginal stories and culture, which to be honest doesn’t interest me. There was a stargazing trip which I thought about but decided I didn’t want to stand in 4C temperatures for 3 hours.
I sat down to wait for Song, then we headed back to the room. Whereupon we realised I’d left the water bottle somewhere.
I watched the Euro Cup Final between England and Spain, and I’d managed to avoid the result all day which I was amazed at. England lost, played well but Spain the better team.
We went back to the shops to see if I’d left the water bottle in the restaurant, but it wasn’t there. Walked around and saw it sat on a wall where I had been sitting. The same thing happened in Tasmania last year when Song left the bottle on the floor and we found it after a day trip.
The room was good – spacious and clean although a little dated, and had a balcony and a view of Uluru which was a bit obscured by some small trees and was a way away, but it was impressinve. We decided we didn’t want dinner so just crashed and went to bed early because of the early start and we have to be up at 05:30 for the sunrise walk.