It was time to move on to Uluru. We checked out of the Crowne Plaza bright and early to board the buses for the long drive to the Rock. And it was raining! That’s a rare occurrence in this part of the world and although showers were inconvenient I wasn’t the only one hoping we might get to see it Raining on the Rock!
We set off on our red bus watching the landscape through the drizzle. After a while Roger told us that the outside temperature had dropped from a comfortable 19° to 12°, which probably explained why we felt a bit cool. When we stopped for a comfort break/morning tea quite a few of us asked to get our coats out of our luggage. The sausage roll and the cup of coffee were very welcome. Erldunda roadhouse might be remote, but business was booming.
Back on the coach we were disappointed to learn that it wasn’t raining on the rock.
A few kilometres along, Roger pulled into a layby so we could take pictures of Mt Conner. The story goes that tourists would hire a car in Alice Springs and drive out this way until they saw Mt Conner, take a few pictures, and drive back to the Alice, feeling sure they’d seen Uluru. I suppose someone who hadn’t seen pictures of Uluru might be fooled. But Mt Conner is a mesa, not an isolated monolith.
By the time we stopped for lunch the rain had passed although the weather was quite cool and windy. Lunch was a pre-arranged barbecue at Curtin Springs station, which covers over a million acres.
We arrived at the Sails in the Desert at Yulara, just outside the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park a little after three. Which was when we discovered Peter had lost his wallet. We searched his bags to no avail. Roger checked the coach and rang the two places where we’d stopped in case someone had handed it in. Nope. It wasn’t so much the money, more the credit cards and his driver’s licence which provided everything needed for identity theft. Peter cancelled his credit cards. Just as well I had mine.
We reckoned we deserved a drink after that, so we went to the bar. One glass of house wine and one 300ml beer cost $27.50. Wow. Dinner would be at our own expense that evening and after looking at the menu, we decided to see if there were options around that might be a tad cheaper. We caught the shuttle bus that takes passengers around the circuit of resorts and the town centre and got off at the Outback Hotel, which is definitely a more down-market pub setting. But the drinks cost us $25.50 and the steaks were about the same price – and what’s more, you had to cook your own.
We went back to Sails and reminded ourselves we were on holiday. Instead of sitting indoors, we sat outside at the Pool Bar next to the swimming pool to eat our meal. At least the food was good.
We had an early night. Tomorrow we would be up before the birds to watch the sunrise light up the slopes of Uluru.
This is the fifth post for this trip. If you missed anything, pick up the whole journey here.
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