Ayers Rock

Thurs 26 Mar……We are going to Ayers Rock today and it’s some way away, 330Ks so we get an early start, it’s a relief to get away from the flies too! As we crack on it is noticeable how the terrain is changing. It’s rocky but with more green scrub and the earth has turned red which is probably why they call it the red centre. This is cattle country but being so vast you don’t see many cows, just the odd few by the side of the road. We did see a cat ( ?wild?)that had just caught a lizard in fact we nearly ran it over. Our first stop is a road house at Mount Ebenezer on the Ayres Rock Highway having turned off the main road, the Stuart Highway. The road house has an Aboriginal Art Gallery attached so we take a look. We are not impressed with Aboriginal art, very samey and just a lot of dots. It may have a statement to make but doesn’t do anything for us. It’s quite busy at the roadhouse with bus loads of American Tourists and gap year students all going to Ularoo. One more stop at Curtin Springs before Ayers Rock Resort and campsite. It’s a lot bigger than we expected, it even has a shuttle bus to ferry you around the complex. There are organised tours to do and think we may do the sunset tour, but after reading the brochures we picked up at reception we decide it’s a no go. We have already paid $36 to camp here for the night, the norm is between $23 and $28, then we find it’s $44 each for the tour, plus another $25 each to get into the National Park ie The Rock . In English money a grand total of £88 just to photograph a big stone!………they have wifi here that works very slowly and it is £5 for half an hour. We think Ayers Rock is a monumental rip off. We will photo the stone from outside the park and then bugger off! Tomorrow we would like to visit Kings Canyon but have a sneaky suspicion that it will be a similar rip off. We did spend a pleasant hour in the swimming pool here, cooling off, so we got something for our 36 bucks!