A day of contrasts. We said our goodbyes to the Spirit of Freedom crew and fellow passengers and went to increasing small airports as we flew Cairns, Alice Springs, Ayers Rocks. The coast gave way to open spaces that became redder and less green. It was reminiscent of West Texas except there is eucalyptus and other vegetation rather than mesquite and the hard packed earth covered with a layer of sand is the red soil such as you find in Hawaii. The iconic Uluru (Ayers Rock, Red Rock, Red Centre) and the sister Kuta Tijuta came into view and it is quite a sight.
In the best spirit of capitalism, they have built a small resort town a few miles from “the RocK” and within the national park area. There are three hotels and a campground to accommodate different budgets, although like we have found so far in Australia, food and beverage are expensive. There is a bank, post office, small grocery store, cafes, and the handful of shops you would expect to see. There are a huge number of tours you can then take – driving, walking, sunrise, sunset, stargazing, dinner under the stars, camel tours (yes, really), or self-drive. A series of free events take place each day in the Town Center, all highlighting Aboriginal culture.
The heat is significant and from the time you get on the bus that carries you from the airport, the driver emphasizes hydration. In this type of climate, you have to constantly hydrate because once you begin to feel thirsty, you’re already at a point where you should have appropriate liquids. (Water and non-carbonated/non-alcoholic are best.) We checked the room quickly, then went down to the bar for a beer and snack and looked among the different tour options. We determined that the sunset tour the next afternoon that included a 1.5 hour walk prior to sunset would give us what we were looking for. We booked that and returned to the room to rearrange things that had been swapped from bag to bag in our different configurations. (I will do a separate post about that at the end of the trip because there have been some interesting aspects to that process.)
A leisurely stroll to the town center to get oriented, and catch part of the sunset there and part back at the hotel. The sky didn’t have a full array of colors due to the cloud cover, although there were some lovely bands of red. Sunset is quite late – a little after 7:30, so by the time we did that it was coming up on dinner. Despite other dining options, we were too tired to leave again and decided on burgers with fries and beer in the lounge bar. Of course, it is a resort and they were gourmet burgers so that was $27 per burger. (Just wanted to give an idea of what I mean by expensive). Tomorrow will be a busy, busy day!
