Kulgera to Yulara

Friday 27 April

Distances are tending to become a blur, especially when you are travelling 300 kms with basically nothing at all between your departure point and destination. On the upside, the landscape is becoming a tad greener with some actual trees here and there. It is also a little bit hillier so not quite so boring.

About 80 kms from Yulara, you get a small thrill when a very large mountain appears on the horizon. Impressive as it is, you can’t but feel a little disappointed when you realise it is Mt Connor, not Uluru. We continued on with our eyes peeled and when finally around 20 kms from our destination, there it is, Uluru. It is absolutely massive and it’s red colour almost exactly echoes the colour of the land around us.

After we settled into the campground, we had a quick look around the resort shopping complex bought a few needed supplies and then set off to have a closer look at the rock, which is about another 15 kms down the road. As you get nearer, the sheer size of this rock just blows you way.

Brian went crazy taking heaps of photos as just about every corner you turned, the aspect changed to reveal a different view of Uluru. It isn’t smooth and even but full of crevasses, fallen rocks and different textures where there has been water cascading over the rock. We did a walk to a sacred site, the Mutitjulu Waterhole.  The walk is along the base of Ululru where there are some caves with  paintings made by the families that would shelter there in times gone by. We meandered along a very tranquil path until we came upon the water hole which looked like a sheet of glass. There was a trickle of water flowing over the rock into the pool. It is a permanent water supply for the local Anangu people

As it was getting on towards 6ish, we drove back to the sunset viewing area and joined the 27000 other cars, motorhomes, buses and 4 wheel drives waiting for the change of light on the rock. The changes were very subtle as the sun started sinking, but changes there were, until finally Uluru seemed to be glowing. As it got darker the horizon behind it started picking up a lovely pink and mauve tinge that accentuated the red and orange of Uluru.

Snap of the day