Sunday, 10/28 Ayer's Rock Resort to Curtain Springs Roadhouse – Uluru

We walk around “The Rock”

     There are three names for the large sandstone formation that is one of the most iconic symbols of Australia; Ayer's rock, named after an early governor of the territories by the white 'discoverer' eager to curry favor, Uluru, the name used by the native people for the sacred site, and “The Rock” by some Aussies. It is said to be the largest single rock in the world, and after close inspection it's seems ungenerous to argue differently.

     One of the useful byproducts of travel is how reality stacks up to your prior image of a place. In my mind Ayer's Rock stood alone on a vast treeless plain. I imagined it to be red, fairly featureless, and with a nearly vertical interface between rock and landscape, allowing you to go up to it from almost any side and put your palm against its fine-grained red stony surface.
     I mostly wanted to go see it because 'it is there', and in fact was ready to skip it altogether during our early planning stages of the trip when I thought we were going to do a complete loop around Oz, because a detour to the center of the country just to see a big red rock seemed a little bit silly. But as I studied the map and did more research into the Alice Springs environs I decided it would save time and miles to go up through the center of the country, and might actually be more interesting than going all the way out to the west coast. West Australians would probably disagree, but it's the route we settled on.

     So, after our three hour walk around the base, how well did my prior picture of Ayer's Rock compare with Uluru? Vast treeless plane?;

Desert oaks, although not actually a member of genus Quercus

Lots of trees

Red?;

You could call that red...

.... depends on the lighting

Featureless?

For a single rock, it's got a lot of stuff on it

 Vertical surface?;

In some places it is...

... but it's quite a jumble elsewhere

     It was much more than I expected.  I kept 80 photos of the place after some active editing. 'The rock' is quite photogenic.

     We didn't climb Uluru.  The route is closed if it's too hot or too windy, which it was the day we were there.  But we wouldn't have anyways, the local people who own the park request that you not climb this very sacred place, although on some days 1000 people do (a park ranger told Diana that occasionally he has to take used toilet paper down from the route).  Besides, it's a lot nicer to sit and look at it.

    It is one of the most amazing places we've been to, and as we drove away I was sad realizing we'd probably never see it again. We didn't stay for sunset, that was overrated at Kata Tjata and would have resulted in us either having to stay another night at the highly overrated campground at Ayer's Rock resort, or drive two hours in the dark to our next overnight spot, never a good idea in kangaroo land.

Last view or Uluru

     So we headed east about an hour before sunset and saw some nice sights along the way, no big rocks, but still...

Our first live feral camel

     We pulled into the free campground at the Curtain Springs Roadhouse having dodged or braked for several 'roos, and had cheesecake and wine before going to bed.