Sunrise last day, home tonight

Early start to check out the sunrise at the rock.  Pretty chilly but worth the effort.  Sadly the last look at this most iconic symbol of the Australian red centre.  At the airport now waiting for our flights, rather than Uluru to Brisbane as planned (flight cancelled!!) we have to go Uluru - Melbourne - Brisbane.  We'll land in Brisbane at about 8pm.

The saga continues......the plane was 40 minutes late getting in to Uluru and 40 minutes late getting in to Melbourne.  That gave us 15 minutes to disembark, then 25 minutes to collect our luggage.  On the dot of 24 minutes our bags finally came out, we had to bag drop 40 minutes before the flight, we had our luggage on the ramp on time, as we scanned our boarding pass it clicked over to 39 minutes and it rejected our luggage, went to service desk, lots of shaking of heads and shrugging of shoulders, we're bumped to the 8.55pm flight, given seats apart, fixed that, given $8 refreshment vouchers, can't use them for alcohol, flight is now delayed an hour, due in Brisbane at midnight.  Eventually got home and to bed at 2.30am....long day!!!

Just before sunrise

Sun touches the rock

Kata Tjuta in the background getting a bit of the early sunshine

The lonely old tarmac

Finally!!!

Yulara with Kata Tjuta in the distance

One last look

One last look....promise

Weather has been great, one cloudy day and the rest have been glorious sunny days, a little warm in the north, a little chilly in the south but not a complaint to be had.

We'd make a few changes to the trip if we ever did it again but we've not been too busy, not too lazy, just a nice relaxing holiday despite travelling 4980 kilometres.  We spent $900 on fuel (diesel), the dearest being $2.90/litre at Pine Creek.

The roads are very very good, wide and well maintaned, no problems with any traffic.  Hundreds of caravans all doing 90km/h in the 130km/h zone, the only saving grace is most roads are so straight and wide we have no trouble getting around them.

There haven't been any crowds we've been; staff at Uluru tell us they are about 65% capacity with June and July getting up to peak performance.

The tourist parks and attractions are in excellent condition, well laid out, information signs all over the place explaining the history of the people and places. There were (mostly) easy to follow established paths.  All the staff in every town, motel, park and pub have been super friendly and welcoming.  Plenty of backpackers from around the world.

Back to Kata Tjuta

Drove back to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) to do the Valley of the Winds walk, a walk of about 10 kilometres up and over a couple of lookouts on well defined tracks of mostly loose rocks.  Got up there early before the crowds and the flys and managed to get back to the car park at about 11am.  Kata Tjuta is a series of dome covered rocks which are as high as Uluru and have a number of valleys between them, the purpose is to wind your way through them, over them and between them without breaking an ankle or getting lost.  We were sucessful in all aspects and got back to the car before the flys became too annoying.

Lunch at the resort then an afternoon of sorting luggage before our flights home tomorrow.  Lots of photos again, I've sorted them out into the best of the very best!!

Fun start, overwhelmed by the size of these mounds

Just a few scrambles too

Been through a few dry gullies together this trip

Almost home

Kantju Gorge, Uluru

As promised we returned to Uluru to walk the Kantju Gorge, once again beautiful weather and interesting walk along the base of the rock and into the gorge.

Went up to the sunrise lookout to go for a short walk and have some smoko, got chased away by the very aggressive butcher birds, have to assume they get fed regularly by the tourists.

The Yulara precinct is in the middle of the desert and sits outside a circular road, there is a lookout in the middle with a bit of a walk to up to the top.  It's not very high but it allows a full circular view of the complete 'town'.  We had a late lunch and had a bit of a look around the area, including up to the Imalong Lookout, we have a couple of photos of course.

Drove out to the sunset viewing area to watch the sun go down against the rock.  As you can expect - more photos of the rock.

Couple of caves along the base of Uluru on the way to Kantju Gorge

Three hundred metres straight up

Patterned tree

Little lagoon at the end of the gorge, at the bottom of the cliff face

Rock broken off

This one cracked on the way down

All the shelters are painted red, because if they're not, they'd be red in 6 months anyway

From the sunrise lookout with Kata Tjuta in the background

Little friend looking for food

Time for smoko

We had company

Sunset still 30 minutes away

15 minutes away

The full effect

The sunset behind us with sunrays

Kata Tjuta silouetted

The moon and venus

Back home for tea

Views of the resort

Imalong Lookout

Up this track

Towards Emu Walk Apartments

Towards the Police Station and Fire Station

Towards Sails in the Desert