Uluru

We arrived at the campground at around 1pm, set up in the overflow area and then went into town to find the visitor centre and get ourselves orientated. The forecast was for another windy day tomorrow and hopefully calming down after that. 

Tonight we went to see Uluru at sunset, along with an incredibly expensive locally purchased bottle of wine and some beers, and some cheese, crackers & chips to celebrate my birthday that was on Thursday. 

Despite the cold, it was great to see this monolith change colours as the sun disappeared behind us. 

Morning came and we were back at The Rock prepared for the base walk around it. To our surprise it was open for climbers. I am not sure we knew what we were getting ourselves for bro, but 5 minutes later we were 50m up. 

History tells me I should have stopped there, however we continued the climb. Never in our lifetime did we imagine how much more difficult this was than what it appeared to be. But we did it. The climb had its moments with Dylan losing his hat in the wind, and the car key that was in a strap around my neck broke off and started rolling down. Thankfully Tyler was behind me and fearlessly leapt sideways to grab it without a second thought. (Apparently he has a fear about being stuck at Uluru for the rest of his life with a car but no key.  ). We got to the top of the chain section after a few rests and admired the view. “We’ve done it” we muttered to ourselves. 

Apparently not. 

Apparently, the end of the chain marks about 1/3 of the way. But it is also the hardest part. So off we went, up and down the valleys on top of this not so flat topped rock. In fact, some of the valleys up here were almost as difficult as the first section, especially for this of us with bung knees and the agility of a rhinoceros. 

But the views were fantastic and worth every minute of the climb. 

We had found out from all the people that passed us that the rangers had closed Uluru for climbing. They didn’t tell us the reason, however once we were at the final point and noticed we were the last ones here, we also noticed the wind was gusty and strong enough to carry me into the next Galaxy.  (That is one hell of a strong wind by the way...)

I also noticed a huge dust storm in the East getting closer to us by the minute, so we hurried off to begin our descent. 

By now, I had a real appreciation for why the rangers close Uluru for climbing. At times, we actually had to hide in valleys to stop being blown off, and it was getting quite frightening for the kids. 

As we approached the chain, I decided to forge ahead with Tyler and Kayla and get down as quickly as my knees would allow. Dylan had waited back to five Tracy some moral support as she occasionally slid down on her backside, and hobbled down backwards for the other parts, showing off her backside to all the amused spectators below watching us. 

But we did it. Sore as hell and 3 very relieved kids who had actually thought we weren’t going to make it at some stages when the wind howled through us, but we did it. 

Back to the caravan we went, had lunch, warm showers and a few beers. Not much else happened this afternoon... just chatting about the amazing experience we had just completed.