April 28th, 2006 – Walk About

We arrived at Uluru shortly before sunset and rather than waste our dying hours of sunlight with the dozens of other tourists at the designated sunset viewing area, we drove around the base of the rock to get a better grasp of the magnitude and beauty. The next morning it was off to the designated sunrise viewing area, where we were once again surrounded by the mobs. As we left the crowd to venture towards the access rails to the hike, I was devastated to find out that the hike was closed due to high winds at the summit. I slunk back to the car and we headed to the Olgas, another less publicized sacred area with large rock formations in the national park and hiked the Valley of the Winds. A stunning 7.4 kms circuit that we finished in record time and drove back past Uluru to discover they had indeed opened the hike, which I found out later had been for only half an hour. Laure decided to stay back but the adventurer in me couldn’t pass up the opportunity and I headed up the rock like a shot. The steepness of the trail is unreal and many people turn around in fear before even making it to the midway point. As I trudged on quickly, I found myself alone at the top, with not a sole around in a kind of surreal type of way. I’m not saying the rock is sacred, but with its red color from the iron mineral deposits, its shear magnitude and the shape forcing the wind to howl past I can easily understand how Uluru came to have such a significance to the Aboriginal people. Coming down was even more terrifying. Imagine hiking down a slip and slide using a hand rail that normally would be between your knee and hip but as you step down you must reach to your ankle to reach the guide rope.

Next it was off to King’s Canyon, as if I hadn’t done enough hiking already and it was only 11:00am. King’s canyon was another geological marvel. Caused by the erosion of sandstone, there’s only one way to describe it…pancake stacks. Lots and lots of pancake stacks. After a steep ascent we walked the outer rim trail and then back down the other side of the canyon. The wind wasn’t as much as at Uluru and we were forced to wear our bug nets to keep them from driving us insane…needless to say we were a stunning couple. Then it was back on the highway as long as we could towards Adelaide. We hit a new low and camped the night in our car on the South Australian border and had an early morning of guess what? Yep, you guessed it, driving! At this stage we’d already tackled 3000km and were still chugging along. After our longest driving day yet, we treated ourselves to a deluxe Motel on the side of the highway for the bargain price of 35$ per night…need I say more? Believe it or not, it was clean and had everything we could have asked for. Quite a step forward after the car the night before.