Here I am at Yulara which is where you stay when you go to Ayers Rock. I've been here 2 nights and leave tomorrow.
After I left Ti -Tree I went to Alice Springs. I had no intention on staying there but ended up being there for 3 nights!! I stayed in a Non powered site at one of the caravan parks which was $15. A powered sit was $36 so $16 is a lot for less than 24hrs of power. Anyway, my site was next to the camp kitchen and I could plug my power cord in and have power without paying!!
I visited the old Telegraph Station whilst in Alice and that was extremely interesting. I also went to the Desert Park which had most living creatures that live in the desert plus plants. I also listened to an Aboriginal lass talk about what the women do in their culture but she said she couldn't talk about what the men did because 'that is men's business' and she didn't know. I was there for over 5 hours and had a great day. I do prefer something like that than going to museums.
Once again the grog shops don't open till 2pm and you have to have photo ID so that they can check that you are not on the 'black list'. Obviously I'm not on it yet but I do have a week or 2 left in the Northern Territory, so you never know.
After leaving Alice, I drove to a free park at Finke River which was quite picturesque. There was a toilet there and I cannot get over how clean and non smelly it was. There was no flush system so it is obviously emptied frequently. There was even a basin, with a tap, outside.
Then it was Yulara. It is a great caravan park and only costs $20.50 for a powered site - unpowered is $18. I went to Ayers Rock to watch the sunset, the day I arrived. You have to pay $25 entry but that lasts for 3 days. The next day I went to see it again and did a little free, walking tour with a ranger. There were quite a few people there as well. No I did not climb the rock as I really didn't want to and it is quite steep. There is a chain you can hold onto but that is fairly low and is slippery because of all the use. The ranger said that the climb will definitely be closed by 2019 if not before. The aboribines don't like you climbing it and there have been 40 deaths, but I'm not sure over what period. Apparently, when people get to the top and they're busting to go to the loo, they do it on top of the rock, ( number 1's and 2's! how disgusting) When it rains the urine and faeces gets washed into the water holes and contaminates them which means the animals don't get any fresh water.
There are lots of aboriginal stories about different sections of Ayers Rock. Theses stories explain how the holes got in the rock, what a lot of the caves were used for etc. It's all very interesting and I wish I could remember al of them.
Today I scootered to The Olgas which are 48kms away. They were fabulous and I did a 2.5km walk which was quite strenuous as you had to climb some steep areas to get to the lookouts. It took nearly 2 hours but when I got to the last lookout the view was fantastic. I think the Olgas are more spectacular than the Rock.
Tomorrow I head for Kings Canyon which is about 300kms from here. I'll stay there for a couple of nights and then back to Alice. I can't believe I've done 18,000kms so far. I thought it was only 15,00 but I didn't work it out properly.
The dogs are behaving. I think Kaiser is at last getting used to me going to the toilet as he hasn't been barking as much. He still gets pain in his back occasionally, but not bad enough for a visit to the Vet. Chardy has been a perfect lady since I told her off for flirting with the dog at Ti-Tree!
One thing about being here is that the nights are cool and I can snuggle into the doona. The days are beautiful.
Well that's it. Now for some photos. There are a couple of Ayers Rock as I tried a new setting on my camera which gives the appearance of looking through a pin hole.
Well best go. Hope everyone is well
Lots of love
Jo, Kaiser, Chardy and Shiraz
xx woof woof woof
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