Had a recent 4 day trip to Uluru & as some members are keen on seeing pics, thought I'd put these up.
Just a bit of background, Uluru is serviced by the tourist village of Yalara - managed by Voyages
Ayers Rock Resorts Resorts, so is basically a closed shop. Very little competition between businesses. The accom options range from your basic campground to the ultra OTT
Longitude 131 - ($2,500K night!!!)
Taken shortly after take off coming home, Uluru on right, Yulara on left & little white specs in middle are the L131 tents.
We stayed @ Desert Sands Resort 4* & mid range $500/n. Anywhere else room would hve been $250?/n.
Yulara town shuttle bus
A bit of history of Yalara hereIn the middle of the town is a sand dune with views out to Uluru.
Walk back down into resorts & landscape gardens
The town is supplied by 2/3 road trains a week from Adelaide 1.650km to the south. Mon we felt like something light to eat, very limited choices from resort menus so we called into the IGA & bought some bikkies & dip to take back to resort. It was obvious by the number of empty shelves that a truck was due in shortly.
Also in & around the Town Square are regular indegenous activities, spear & boomerang history, garden walks & a didgereedoo performance (with volunteers), apparently the one that the performer had was worth $4,500 (for a hollowed out log!!!)
Water is treated bore water & power is subsidised by numerous solar farms & panels on top of most buildings. Town also has police, medical centre, Fire & Rescue,servo & primary school for the 1,200 residents & families.
Also set up is the National Indigenous Training Academy to train the local indegenous youth in hospitality & have 2 cafes that they work in, 1 @ Town Square & another @ Airport.
Travel in Au is very expensive & for 4 days/3nights & tours - probably around $3.5K. In comparison we are looking at a Tripadeal 10 day Vietnam package next year for $3200 inc int flights.
A lot of tourists who plan to go to Uluru initially intended to base themselves @ Alice Springs & do day trips to the rock, not an option as Alice is 450km/5 hours drive.
Another issue we found was that most Uluru activities are based around sunrises & sunsets, so after a Sounds of Silence dinner you have a 5am p/up for a sunrise Camel ride (& brekkie @ resorts don't start until 7am) So back to resort mid-morning for brunch & a laze around until evening Field of Light sunset tour.
So we arrived mid arvo Sun, checked into hotel & went for a walk to the Town Square - the town's tourist services are all here. Bank, PO, Newsagent, 2 cafes, tourist centre & IGA supermarket. Also available is a shuttle which does a 20 min circuit of the resorts & on req, a detour to the resident accom. On the wall outside the PO was a job vacancy board, prob about 100? hospitality listed, so there is work if people want it.
That evening we were booked in for the Field of Light StarpassTransport to a private viewing area on top of a sand dune to watch sunset over Uluru whilst enjoying a glass or 2 of bubbly & canapes. (Flavours of kangaroo, crocodile & other indigenous tastes - normally with 100+ guests there I'd have expected these nibblies to go quickly, they didn't - guess the rest were like me & I wasn't in a hurry to try them all)
The FoL is an artwork by Bruce Munro comprisng of 50,000 solar powered fibre optic balls on stick that light up as darkness falls. After dark we were free to go down into the field & wander through them.
As we found out, most tours have a "private viewing area" (PVA) on top of a sand dune that they take their tour guests to for sunrise/sunset.
Next day we enjoyed an express camel ride, they have 4 rides a day, Sunrise, Sunset & mid morning & arvo.
In the evening we had an enjoyable Sounds of Silence dinner Started off with a sunset on another PVA with bubbly & canapes - same selection as night before & I didn't find them any more enjoyable. After sunset we ere escorted to our dinning area in the desert to the sounds of a didgereedo. After main course all the lights were turned off & we were given a talk by the resident astronimer, then desert, coffee & port.
& were returned to hotel by 10pm.
Back up @ 4am for a 5am pick up for the Desert Awakenings tour. Taken to another PVA (This PVA also used for the Tali Wiru $360/h dinner) for sunrise brekkie of bacon & egg roll, coffee, damper, pastries & assorted fruit.
If you can zoom in on this pic, will show you layout of this lookout/dining area we flew over when landing.
Then back to bus & out to Uluru for a tour around the rock & stopped off at a few places, inc vistors centre, to learn about the local indegenous history & stories. It was interesting that there are numerous places around Uluru (inc visitors centre) that are of culturol significance & no photos permitted. Our guide on the day was Serena, who had a degree in marine science & remedial massage but has ended up an AAT Uluru tour guide???
The young chap on left in T Shirt must have been freezing (but was from UK so maybe used to it?)
There is a path circling Uluru which you can travel on by foot, bike or sedgway.
The climb is still permitted (but discouraged), but closed when inclement weather - winds, heat or in the rare case, rain. Che climb is at your own risk, & 36 have died doing it.
The area has had 30mm this year so is very dry. Climb will be permanently closed Oct 2019.
That arvo we had hired a car & went out to Kata Tjuta (the Olgas).
Originally planned to do the short Walpa Gorge walk, but Noelene's recent new knees weren't happy so only got halfway.
There is another Valley of the Winds walk, but 2 hours for round trip, out of the question.As usual before returning car, we filled it up - unleaded $2.15/ltr!!!
Wed was our final day & pack back up for our flight back to Sydney. Had a bit of an issue with our flights being delayed and the AYQ terminal got very crowded, as usual JQ & VA schedule flights very close together & both delayed back to SYD.
Landed home over 1 hour late to traffic gridlock in the area as our M5 major south west arterial was closed due to a truck fire
If interested, full trip pics here:
2018 Uluru - Google Photos
