Australia Day 5 - Outback – Ayers Rock (Uluru)
Today was a 4.5 hour bus ride from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock, which the local Aboriginal people call Uluru. One of the things that really strikes me about the Outback, is the color of the dirt. It’s Sedona Red. Yes, right, just like the colors of the dirt and rock formations in Sedona Arizona. As a matter of fact, the Outback countryside looks allot like Sedona, except there’s no Saguaro Cactus. Otherwise, it would be almost identical.
One of the things they warned us about, was that the Outback this time of year was “Dry And Hot”. Of course I asked “How Hot”? Do you want to hear something funny? They think that 95F is hot! Hehehehehehe, in Arizona, in the summertime, we call that “A Cool Summer Day”. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, because since this morning when we headed out for Uluru, it’s been raining. Yup, that’s right, what was supposed to be the hottest part of the trip, instead is rain. Fortunately, it is only raining off and on, and it seems to stop raining every time we stop. Lucky huh?
Anyway, we made our first rest stop ~ 2 hours into the 4.5 hour bus trip, and it was at a Camel Farm. Yup, I said camel, you know, those desert animals with the hump? Guess what? For $5.00, they offered a 5 minute camel ride, and you know me, if there’s a new experience to be had, I’m going to do it. So, now instead of Tom, you can call me Camel Jockey. It was kind of fun, and I got a friend to take lots of pictures, so you’ll probably have the opportunity to have good laugh when I post them at the end of the trip.
Uluru was fantastic, even though we didn’t get to see the planned sunset over the rock. It’s hard to have a sunset, when there’s no sun. However, it stopped raining again, just when we got to the site, so the tour guide and bus driver went ahead and set up our Champagne and snack party that we had scheduled, and we all had a toast to the rock. It was still fun.
Afterwards we visited this restaurant for dinner, where you pick out what meat you want from a display, Beef, Chicken, prawns, Fish, and then you go over to where they have this long line of Grills et up, and you grill it yourself! The dinner included corn on the cob, and baked potato, so I threw the corn and potato on the grill and roasted them too! Along with the grilled onions, and salad bar, it was a great dinner, not to mention the musician who played guitar for dinner entertainment. I must admit, that along with the champagne, and the beer that I drank at dinner and afterwards, this was one of the times I was glad that there was a free shuttle bus transportation back to my room :-)
Tomorrow we go Hiking around Uluru. Weather permitting, of course.
One of the things they warned us about, was that the Outback this time of year was “Dry And Hot”. Of course I asked “How Hot”? Do you want to hear something funny? They think that 95F is hot! Hehehehehehe, in Arizona, in the summertime, we call that “A Cool Summer Day”. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, because since this morning when we headed out for Uluru, it’s been raining. Yup, that’s right, what was supposed to be the hottest part of the trip, instead is rain. Fortunately, it is only raining off and on, and it seems to stop raining every time we stop. Lucky huh?
Anyway, we made our first rest stop ~ 2 hours into the 4.5 hour bus trip, and it was at a Camel Farm. Yup, I said camel, you know, those desert animals with the hump? Guess what? For $5.00, they offered a 5 minute camel ride, and you know me, if there’s a new experience to be had, I’m going to do it. So, now instead of Tom, you can call me Camel Jockey. It was kind of fun, and I got a friend to take lots of pictures, so you’ll probably have the opportunity to have good laugh when I post them at the end of the trip.
Uluru was fantastic, even though we didn’t get to see the planned sunset over the rock. It’s hard to have a sunset, when there’s no sun. However, it stopped raining again, just when we got to the site, so the tour guide and bus driver went ahead and set up our Champagne and snack party that we had scheduled, and we all had a toast to the rock. It was still fun.
Afterwards we visited this restaurant for dinner, where you pick out what meat you want from a display, Beef, Chicken, prawns, Fish, and then you go over to where they have this long line of Grills et up, and you grill it yourself! The dinner included corn on the cob, and baked potato, so I threw the corn and potato on the grill and roasted them too! Along with the grilled onions, and salad bar, it was a great dinner, not to mention the musician who played guitar for dinner entertainment. I must admit, that along with the champagne, and the beer that I drank at dinner and afterwards, this was one of the times I was glad that there was a free shuttle bus transportation back to my room :-)
Tomorrow we go Hiking around Uluru. Weather permitting, of course.
posted by TomH | 9:43 PM
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