Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Saturday, December 16, 2023.  We had to get up early this morning (like 5:45 am), to make sure our luggage was outside our door and we were ready to go get breakfast at the Croft Restaurant in the hotel by 6:30 a.m. Breakfast was buffet style and they even had little packets of vegemite (I was not brave/foolish enough to try one - at least not today).  Then we all gathered in the lobby around 7:15 a.m. and boarded a bus for the ride to the Sydney airport to catch our Qantas flight to Uluru (home to Ayers Rock - a rather famous geological formation in Australia's outback).  Flight took about 3 hours and I love Qantas airlines!

Uluru is close to the geographical center of Australia, and it really is the outback -And, oh my, is it hot!  It is so hot at this time of the year, that it is illegal to tour in the heat of the day - you have to wait until 4 p.m. or so before you can go out.to see Ayers Rock

Ayes Rock

 

Even leaving at 4 p.m. it was still over 100 degrees F. this afternoon.  We were clearly advised to bring and drink LOTS of water (I think I went through a 2 liter bottle twice)/  We got a presentation on aborignial ciulture from a Park Ranger assisted by some aboriginal women.  Carl and I both got roped into being a part of the ranger's presentation.  It was fun and very informative.

From the cultural center at Ulurua Kata-Tjunta National Park. our bus took us over to a watering hole at the base of Ayers Rock.  We walked in and spent a moment in a cave that had aboriginal paintings on the rock wall.



Aboriginal cave painting at Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Watering Hole at Uluru (Ayers Rock)

There was quite a lot of water at the watering hole and our guide said that is because the region has actually had alot of rain recently.

My only other note for today is that it was SO hot that my eyeballs actually dried out severely and now I'm dealing with eyes that are so bloodshot and irritated that I can hardly see.  I've put a whole bunch of nighttime eye ointment in both eyes (which makes it very difficult to see/type - so apologies for any typos.  We're back at our hotel now (actually a lovely resort called "Sails in the Desert") and it's off to bed because we have to be up/out tomorrow morning at 4:45 a.m. to see sunrise at Uluru (we did the sunset this evening - I'll post pictures of the sunset/sunrise tomorrow.  Nighty, night, everyone!

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