i had an aussie adventure (part ii: ayers rock/uluru)

im gonna come right out and say it. these posts are a bitch to write. there is so much to cover, my memory is shit and cant remember details, and sometimes when i think im being funny, im just being a sarcastic twit. haha. anyway....here goes

the second stop on our australian tour of wonder was ayers rock. for you silly-sallys who dont know it it is, click on the link above. the traditional aboriginal name for the rock is uluru. people call it both names, but i guess if you dont want to be a culturally insensitive dick, you'd call it uluru. its one of australias most famous landmarks and chances are youve seen it in posters or advertisements. however, most australians havent even visited because its so remote. 

we flew from perth, western australia directly into ayers rock, northern territory (ps. territory is hard to spell). it was a bit more expensive to fly directly into the resort, but it seemed more appealing than flying to alice springs and then driving another 6 hours by car to get there. as many of you know, id become quite familiar with australian deserts having spent the better part of my time in the pilbara for work. but this place was totally different. the trees were unusually leafy and tall, there was heaps of grass and it was FLAT as a pancake! seriously, its like god got rid of everything with any sort of topography. i guess if youre on the right side of the plane you can see the rock from the air, but i was high on motion sickness medicine and didnt notice a thing. 

the airport is super tiny. like super tiny. i could run from one end to the other in less than 2 minutes. we walked in, turned and headed directly for the restrooms (something about flying in a plane really makes you gotta go. if you know what i mean). we come out and i see this sign plastered to the wall:

im from utah. we dont have dingoes or wild dogs. i squealed with delight and demanded that shane take a photo. another side note: i got to see all sorts of wild animals out in the pilbara (goannas, kangaroos, snakes, spiders etc.) but the one thing that i was DYING to see and didnt were dingoes. so you can see why this sign made me happy :) sadly, i didnt see a single dingo while i was here. but! the lady who had her kid stolen by a dingo....you know "a dingo ate yo baybay"?....she got aquitted by the australian high courts while we where there. which was kinda cool, since uluru is the spot where, well, her baybay was eaten by a dingo....

my friend who'd been to uluru before recommended that we rent a car. i guess the resort offers shuttles that take you to the rock and to the surrounding attractions, but the bummer part is that you are restricted to the shuttle timetable and dont really have your own freedom. so we got ourselves a sweet ride (a holden of some sort...) and headed to the hotel. another side note: shane was terrified of my driving. if i recall correctly, he was gripping anything possible and shouting directions from the passenger seat. haha. i had to drive since i was the only one with an australian drivers license. but in my defense, im not used to driving on the wrong side of the road....or car. and yes, i did hit a curb (or two). 

let me explain a bit about how the ayers resort works. its like a mini town. there are like six hotel complexes all owned by the same company and they range from shithole to swanky (eg., campground to four-star hotel). we stayed at the outback pioneer, which was the step right above the campground lol. we were saving our money to splurge on hotels at really swanky places later in the trip. but since the hotels are all sort of connected, you can eat at whatever hotel restaurant you want, or can go swimming wherever. anyway these were our digs:

it wasnt bad at all. in fact i was pleasantly surprised at our budget accommodation. but first things first, we had to go to the mini iga (supermarket) to buy me cold medicine. i somehow contracted a sickness of death on the plane. leave it to me to get sick the first day of vacation (in case youre wondering, no, this isnt the first time ive done this). after getting good and drugged up, we grabbed a bite to eat at our hotel and then decided to take a nap before our dinner adventure at the sounds of silence. 

can i just tell you how hard it is waking up from a late afternoon nap? worst.idea.ever. but it was totally worth it. im recounting the event with the help from their brochure...  

Sunset canapés.

Your journey begins on a lone sand dune. A path takes you to an uninterrupted, three hundred and sixty degree view of this vast landscape. In front of you is the fabled Uluru; behind you are the domes of Kata Tjuta and, possibly the most spectacular sunset you have ever seen. Here you enjoy sparkling wine and a selection of delectable canapés. 

(it was a beautiful location and the perfect evening for a dinner under the stars. the free booze was delicious and complimented my cold medicine nicely. the canapes consisted of mini emu and crocodile tarts. did i eat them? when in rome......emu was really gamey and crocodile had the consistency of tuna but tasted like chicken)

Dining under the sparkling outback sky

As the sun sets, you feast on a BBQ buffet of authentic Australian delicacies examples include barramundi, kangaroo and crocodile, bush salads and classic desserts, complemented by Australian wines.

(we scored seats near some heat lamps which was a bonus since it was starting to get cold. our table was an international festivus. we were sitting with three folks from scotland, a gay canadian couple on their honeymoon, and a sweet old australian lady from adelaide. it was fun talking to people from different walks of life that i might never talk to ordinarily. the servers plied us with as much free booze as we could drink and by the time dinner was served i think everyone was a little drunk haha. i tried everything, but i have to say that the kangaroo steaks were DELISH! super tender and flavorful. we were also serenaded by a didgeridoo player. jealous yet?)

Stargazing
Attention then turns to some of the world's best stargazing, as our startalker takes you on a tour of the spectacular southern night sky. As you wind down after dinner, you are offered a choice of tea, coffee or port.

(the startalker did an amazing job at telling traditional stories about the sky and stars, showed us the southern cross and how to navigate with it, and then let us manhandle her telescopes to look at the moon and saturn. we finished off with tasty desserts and i tried port, because well, i'd never tried it before and it was free. yeah, it was nasty. wont be trying that one again. aside from being brutally cold, the evening was a smashing success. i highly recommend this experience if you ever make it to uluru)

i think being outside for the dinner made me more sick. but i wouldnt have traded it for anything and am one lucky girl since shane was there to take care of me. the next day i stocked up on cold medicine and we set out for the actual uluru rock. man, nothing prepares you for how fantastic it is when you see it. its flat flat flat, and then out of nowhere is this amazing red rock monolith rising out of the earth. i can totally see why it was a sacred place. 

we did the base walk around the entire rock, which took about half a day. totally worth it. at several places around the rock are sacred sites where you cant take any videos or photos. there are some rock art sites that have been deemed okay for visitors and its mind bottling how many images are superimposed and painted in one spot. i guess if folks have been in australia for the last 50,000+ ish years its no wonder....

everyone asks me if it felt spiritual to walk around the rock and be there. honestly? i think its been visited so much by so many people that whatever sacred spiritual element that was there is probably gone. but that doesnt meant it wasnt amazing to be there or experience it. you cant help but be amazed at its size and the beauty of it. i was sort of bummed the base walk didnt take us closer to the rock in some places, but the archaeologist in me realizes that it was probably on purpose (i.e., there are likely a lot of sites near the base of the rock and by putting the path far away they are preserving the sites).

climbing the rock. its a big deal. below is a photo of the path hammered into the rock for visitors to get to the top.

we did not climb. part of me wanted to. how cool would it have been to be on top of the giant rock and look out across the outback? i didnt climb for a variety of reasons...1) the traditional owners of the area strongly discourage it. they only climb the rock for very special sacred reasons and its not something they do freely, 2) people die climbing up. since the path was built in the 60s something like 35 folks have died climbing, and 3) people get to the top of the rock and have to go to the bathroom. there arent any facilities, so they one and two all over the place. which wouldnt be a big deal except when it rains and everyones feces are washed off the top and deposited below, contaminating several of the sacred sites along the base. anyway, for all those reasons it seemed like dick move to climb. so we admired uluru from below. and i felt good about it. 

after our hike, we went to another one of the hotels and grabbed lunch. i gotta say, (outside of our sounds of silence tour) this resort had some of the shittiest food ive ever eaten. just super generic, no flavor, tasted like rubber. you know what i mean. at least i had something handsome to look at while i ate (lol, yes im talking about shane)

we went back to the pioneer and saddled up in the sunshine for afternoon beers. i have to say that there isnt much in life better than basking with your sweetie on vacation in the sun. we sat outside for hours hanging out, laughing and talking. 

the next day we wanted to hike the olgas. the olgas are another rock formation located a bit further into the desert. just like uluru, the olgas have a traditional name and are often referred to as kata tjuta. i know that we came to this spot on our vacation to see uluru, but i have to say that i was more taken with kata tjuta. it didnt feel as commercial as uluru, and still had some spiritual vibes left.

we chose to hike the valley of the winds. it was absolutely amazing. we were next to the rocks, in the middle of crazy canyons, the vegetation was beautiful, and i shit you not, birds were singing us songs :)

this place was absolutely magical. i could have spent all day lurking around and basking in the scenery, but my stomach got the better of me and we eventually went back to the resort so i could stuff my face with sub-par food lol. the resort offered camel rides around uluru and at the time we were like "oh thats so touristy and cheesy" and didnt do it. but looking back im super bummed that we didnt. how many chances am i going to get to be with my sweetie in the middle of nowhere riding camels? not many. some advice from me to you: ride the damn camels! (and then let me know how fantastic it was so i can live vicariously through you)

aside from the camels, we did manage to get touristy and cheesy. pray tell you say? well, we joined all the old folks and went to watch a sunset and a sunrise with the rock. it sounds lame, but it was really beautiful and im glad we did it. 

sunset:

yes we enhanced this pic. but it looks so dang cooool!

sunrise:

after our sunrise, we went back and had some expensive ass breakfast at the pioneer. im talking like $35 dollars for a shitty breakfast buffet. sad to leave the resort? hell no. that place has a mafia-like monopoly on everything. they could use a little competition (any millionaires wanna go invest in a competing resort? i'll come visit if you do). we packed our suitcases and said goodbye to uluru. it was an amazing one-in-a-lifetime opportunity and im so glad we went.

next stop? darwin!!!