Camel surfing at Uluru
April 30, 2015

Uluru

We couldn't quite make it to Uluru in one days drive from Coober Pedy so a quick overnighter was had in Marla, near the border of the Northern Territory. Up early and excited to get out to the iconic red rock - formerly known as Ayers Rock - we sped along. Stopping at Mt. Ebenezer's Roadhouse for fuel and a flat white, I noticed a donation jar for some rescue joey's - baby kangaroos. The super friendly girl behind the counter looked at me as I slipped my coins in the jar and said, "Do you want to hold one?" Ha! Do I want to hold one!! So yes, we spent the next hour cuddling our baby Kangaroo, Oppie, seven months old and just as sweet as can be! She was so soft, and was just so happy to nibble lettuce from our hands and take a short snooze. It truly was the best time ever for me :)
As we've noticed stopping at the various roadhouse stops, there are young - twenty something kids - working behind the counters, some from other parts of Australia, and some from other parts of the world ie: Germany, Estonia, etc...who just want to gain experience, earn some money, and see the world.
To visit Uluru, one either rides in for the day on a bus from Alice Springs - a long day at that - or stays at the resort in Yulara, as we did in the caravan park. It has a bit of a Disneyland feel - several hotels to choose from, the caravan park, a few restaurants, grocery store, tourist shops etc...and has a really good feel about it. With only a few hours before the infamous sunset we quickly decided to book a champagne camel ride. What fun we had, albeit a touristy thing to do, but a great overall experience with terrific views of the gigantic red rock as the sun went down.
You can walk around the base of the rock, or rent bikes, giving you a closer look at all the nooks and crannies and textures of this amazing marvel. The local aboriginal that control this territory, strongly suggest that you do not climb their rock, as it is sacred to them and can also be quite dangerous with people slipping and getting hurt or killed yearly - which deeply hurts them. But as we all know...there are always a few...
After thoroughly enjoying the cultural center in the national park for our next sunset we chose to drive out to the Olga's, another formation of red rocks, even taller than Uluru. Even though the sky was cloudy they did not disappoint when suddenly they literally turned bright orange for about thirty seconds as the sun slipped below the horizon.

Now one thing we haven't talked about yet are the flies. The tenacious, buzzing beasts - that like to swarm around you, land on you, hitch a ride on you, crawl in your eyes and nose and mouth! It really just becomes a mind over matter thing, learning to just go to your happy place and not keep swatting at them, because it does absolutely no good. There are apparently different times of the year when they are worse, and it really isn't too bad for us so we guess we've hit it lucky. You can be one of those nerdy looking tourists, who have bought the hat with the netting that goes all the way around - giving them a bee keepers appearance...but we are too vain and have just tried to find our inner peace :)
Uluru is probably Australia’s best-known natural landmark. The ancient monolith is pretty impressive close up and boasts intriguing statistics. Here are some facts on Uluru:
Uluru is better known as Ayers Rock; it named by William Gosse in 1873 after Sir Henry Ayers. Uluru is the Aboriginal and official name.
The rock was created over some 600 million years, and the Aborigines have been in the area for the last 10,000 years. It originally sat at the bottom of a sea, but today stands 348m above ground. One of the most startling Uluru facts however, is that some 2.5kms of its bulk is underground.
Uluru lies west of the Simpson Desert, not far from the ‘Red Centre’ of Australia, about 335kms southwest of Alice Springs (as the crow flies) and 463kms by road. Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t the biggest monolith in the world; Mount Augustus in Western Australia holds that title.

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