Day 1
Driving in from the west of Uluru, off The Great Central Road I think was a much different experience than most get as they drive into Uluru from the east staying on the road. As we got closer, we were surprises by these odd shaped rocks that had us baffled for a good 5 minutes, contemplating whether they were what we had driven 2000km to see. But the shapes didn’t quit look like the iconic rock we had seen in all the pictures.
My whole life I always just thought of Uluru as a famous Australian rock in the middle of nowhere, almost the Heart of Australia. From the minute we seen Uluru we were captivated, Uluru truly stole all our hearts, it was something very special and no words nor pictures do it any justice compared to seeing it and being so close to it.
Day 2
Today we were going to explore this monument in more detail. We as a family choose not to climb the rock, you could go in to the whole politics about weather its right or wrong and that 1000’s are flocking every day to do the climb before it closes in October, but we just felt for us that we wanted to respect the culture. So me and the two older kids rode our bikes while Jayde walked while pushing the pram around the base. We felt that we most definitely got to capture and embrace every bit of it. It was hard to take your eyes off it.
Day 3
After the 10 km exercise we did the previous day we decided to go experience the culture around the village on Day 3. The kids wanted nothing more than to do some cultural painting that they got to do on the grass area of the resort. We then checked out the museum where there was some good bits of info about the animals around The Red Centre and later took a drive out to The Cultural Centre to learn about the history of the people and the meaning of the Rock to the Indigenous, which was awesome
Day 4
Day 4 We got up early and I took the kids to the reptile show held at the Uluru Camel Park are kept, this is something that they both loved, learning about and even getting to touch and hold lizards and snakes. Later that night we went out to see The Field of Lights, 50 hectares of colourful fibre optic lights that light in a beautiful display what a sight to see. With only being able to access these from a tour we where shuttled there and back it is an expensive outing, but it had to be done.
Day 5
We manage to plan our arrival into Uluru at the same time they have the biggest event on for the year, The Uluru Camel Cup. What a fan bloody-tastic weekend it was. Full of great events for young and old starting on the Friday night with the Calcutta, the full race day on Saturday with fields of the fashion, Poo Throwing competition and a sack race for all ages to compete in. they had there ball after the races, but as kids were not permitted we were left hearing people stumbling in at 3 am in the morning from the caravan park.
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Day 6
Hiking the Olgas (Kata Juta) was an exciting event, we left a little later in the day thinking we would only do the smaller walk, but halfway there we decided to carry on. Leading into sun set we did push our timing a bit too far, when it got to the stage where we had to use our phones to helps us find our way back to the car, Jayde was most definitely stressing…
We spent 6 days in Uluru, and as you can see there wasn’t a day we didn’t adventure out to explore. Realistically you could do it in 4 days and experience everything there is to see. The campgrounds where good but not being able to connect to water was a bit of a pain having to move the van to fill up regularly. At the moment you must book weeks in advance because they are so busy. There is all kinds of accommodation out there for any budget with a mountain of tours and what not to get you to and from the airport and to the rock.
The playground and pool certainly got a workout from us and the kids at the campgrounds. The whole experience is absolutely awesome, and I most definitely recommend you to go check it out for yourself. Did I mention the little fella was in his element from the minute we started driving in with the abundance of thorny devils we saw on the roads and he even saved a few from being hit by cars by relocating them to the bush.
What a fantastic blog guys, you have done such a great job showing off our beautiful country, keep up the good work. It looks like you are all having the best time ever.
Thanks Jenny, we will be trying to get them out quicker next time as this one is a little latte.