Yulara and Uluru

Uluru
All the way from Agnes Creek, we were dodging between the showers of rain. Mostly we missed them. We saw lots of wedge-tail eagles along the way – especially around Mt Ebenezer Road house. There is also a great little gallery at the back of the Roadhouse and a studio for local artists from the aboriginal community. The artwork was beautiful, but we just bought a sticker.

We checked out the free rest area camp site about 50km before Uluru but decided it would not be worth all the extra driving, including driving to Kata Juta. So we ended up in the Yulara Resort Campground. Disappointingly, the forecast was for a few days of rain.
As soon as we had our camp set up, we headed up the dune behind our camp to wait for the much vaunted changing colours of Uluru as the sun set. We got no sun or sunset, but it was pleasantly communal being up their chatting with the other campers.

 

Overnight it started raining and was quite heavy while we ate breakfast. We decided to go and walk around Uluru anyway. It was windy and wet, but the water streaming down the crevasses of the rock was a rare sight well worth the discomfort.

Rainwater streaming off Uluru

 

From Uluru

 

From Uluru

So we splashed our way coldly around the base, shoes getting steadily soaked, but learning lots from the information board and enjoying the moving and spectacular presence of the rock.

It really deserves it status as our premier natural tourist attraction. Another benefit of the rain was that no-one was able to climb on the rock. It really was a special day, 13km walking plus an hour looking and learning about the local Anangu culture. That night , Broughton took to sleeping in the forward compartment of the trailer.

From Uluru

New Birds – spiney cheeked honeyeater, red backed kingfisher, pink cockatoo