Day 106

Day 106 Ayers Rock

We got up at 4am today so we could go and watch the sun rise over the rock. We were armed with the

Unloading the Beast in the Dark

Sun waking up

latest information on sunrise – 5am and we knew it took about 30 minutes to get there. Last night Maureen had prepared everything we needed. Our plan was simple – we would drive out to the sunrise lookout. Maureen had scouted yesterday and had found the perfect location. It was below the normal tourist bus one but it had very few trees and you could see the Olgas as well in the distance. Once we had seen

Coffee whilst waiting in our new outdoor setting

Sun still coming

the sunrise we would stay a while and we would cook breakfast there. When that was done, we would go to the Rock and find the walk trail around the base. It was only 10km round so we thought we would give it a go. What could go wrong? Not much.

We got up at 4am, loaded up the Beast whilst Maureen loaded up the food. We headed off and

Still waiting

Olgas waiting for sun

commented that no one else seemed to be going but as we got to the road a tour bus pulled in. Well they were going to be late! We hit the park entrance at 4:30, no one else in line, perfect. Got to the window, lights were on but nobody was home. There was this sign saying park opens at 5am and behind it another saying sunup was at 5:58am. A lady appeared and pointed to the sign, we nodded and asked if it was okay to

Friends from Naples

Sun just hitting the Rock

wait here until time and she said yes. So we hunkered down and waited. A tour bus pulled up in the bus lane next to us and we were sure they were going to let them in and someone in the passenger seat (no names mentioned here) started to produce threats of retribution should this happen, talk about competitive – or just tired and cranky! But they waited with us. About 5 to 5, the lady let the tour bus through and checked our ids and let us through, we were off right behind the tour bus with another right behind us. It was

Sun hitting Olgas

Us at the Rock

possibly just as well as all I had to do was follow him through the twists and turns and we would get to the same place. They parked further away and would have to walk further than us and as we were going to the lower area we were pretty confident we could beat them.

There were no cars with us so we flogged into the car park, reversed into the ACROD bay and started   by ourselves. Whoever has designed the area has done a good job. We had a huge slab table and slab seat there under a huge shelter (see Pictures) with a drink fountain nearby. These slab seats and tables must have been bought in bulk as every time you see a shelter, there are at least one set if not 2 or more there. We cleaned up our breakfast stuff with Maureen using the drinking fountain to rinse our bowls. We had intended to get some water from it, but when you turned it on, it sprayed water about 4 foot out from the fountain, so we used it direct.

Full Sun

Fully Full Sun

to get the Beast out. It was cold and we had brought along our jumpers and beach towels as blankets and headed own to our perch. The bus people had indeed walked up to the high point and we had the low area to ourselves for quite some time. One or two started to trickle down as more buses arrived and the top area filled up. We met a lovely Italian couple who were out here from Naples and we chatted to them and

Fellow sunrise watchers

Cooking breakfast

got their e-mail address and an invitation to visit them in Naples should we get there. Needless to say the sunrise was spectacular. I know it is just light hitting a big lump of rusting rock, but it is pretty and the colours are dramatic. Watching the sun hit both the Rock and the Olgas was fascinating. Maureen described the Rock as glowing in the sunlight and it would change as the light shifted. Well at about 6:20, all the bus

Eating breakfast

Rinsing plates

tours were up and off and we had the place basically to ourselves. Maureen gathered her bits and pieces and we made scrambled eggs, mushrooms, tea and toast and had breakfast all

Phase 1 and 2 of the plan were done, we had seen the sun rise and we had eaten breakfast, it was time to move to phase 3, tour around the Rock. I had looked at the map of the walk trail and noticed that there was a section away from the main parking areas where the trail met the road. We could park

End of Phase 1&2 onto phase 3

Thorny Devil Welcome

there and do the circuit and if we could not make it all the way – depending on the battery, we would do some of it and then return tomorrow and do the rest. What could go wrong, you can see that as soon as I made a plan, it was starting to look dodgy. We went to our kick off spot and it was beautiful. Right next to the road, track right there, unloaded the Beat and got about 50m and there was this thorny Dragon right

On the track around

Some people can stay on the track

next to the track, posing away for pictures, perfect start. The track was good and pretty firm and away we went. We got about a third of the way around and I had used about 1 bar of power and we decided this was going to be a doodle to do the whole thing, after all we must be about half way. We, well I, decided we would press on. We hit the next sign post to find that we were in reality about 1/3 of the way round and I was down two bars, ever the optimist, still thought we could do it. Got to the half way mark and power

Caves

Wall painting

was dropping I had half left. But it dropped again quickly. We made it to the big carpark and decided I was going nowhere with only 2 bars left. So quick pow wow and Maureen said she would walk on and go back to the car and then drive back to me. So that was what we did. I waited at the place where you can climb the rock and Maureen continued on. I had allowed her 2 hours to do this so I settled in to wait.

Water pool

Patterns in the Rock

The Rock used to be climbed on a regular basis and there are metal poles and chains going to the top. The climb is quite steep and you can clearly see the worn rock where people have walked up. It was closed today due to the wind and they have signs saying they would prefer people not to climb it out of respect to the local people so I expect it will be dismantled soon. Anyway, after 2 hours, Maureen rocked up in

Next to Rock on rescue walk

Sails in the Desert Hotel

Trude and we loaded up the Beast and headed off to the local cultural centre for a bite to eat before heading home.

All in all, it was a good day. Maureen had circumnavigated the Rock, I had gotten a fair way, we had seen the sun rise and had breakfast as well so all items ticked off. Back in Yulara, Maureen went and bought herself a t-shirt with “Hard Rock with no Café” to celebrate her journey. We are cooking a chook at the moment and intend to go watch the sun set again. Tomorrow we intend to do the Olgas.

Sails in the Desrt Hotel