Ayers rock
13th May Uluru - Ayers rock
I got a flight to Ayers rock today.
Flying for three hours over largely unpopulated and featureless country gives a bit of hint to the vastness of this country.
I landed at the airport near to Ayers rock or "oops I should have said Uluru or whatever they like to call it these days" as the airhostess put it not bothering to hide the resentment that this tourism cash cow is now ultimately controlled by the aboriginal people of the area.
So you get a free bus ride from the airport to "the resort" or Yulra.
This fake tourist town is a distastefull monopoly designed to extract the maximum revinue possible from the hoards of tourists drawn to the sight seeing meca of Uluru - Ayers rock.
The resort is strategicly located a 30 minuite drive from "the rock" and 50 minuites or so from the nearly as impresive Kata Tjuta - Olgas.
This allows them to charge crazy prices for the buses out to each.
I got the bus out to Uluru - Ayers rock.
It really is impresive, located on this vast largely featureless plane it and the Olgas stand out for hundreds of kms in all directions.
When you get there you realise that it is very big, as very steep.
After carefull consideration, rightly or wrongly, my love of climbing stuff outweighed me sense of respect of the aboriginal peoples request for people not to climb the rock so I headed up. The first part was really steep and has a chain to help people not fall off. Since part of part of the aboriginal peoples concerns was the number of people dying up there I took extra care not to fall off. I think the problem here is that to aford to get here you have to be middle aged and loads of people have heart atacks trying to climb up. Anyway I guiltily puffed my way to the top and marveled at the views for hundreds of kilometers in all directions, it is spectacular and not to climb would be to miss out on this.
The climb is closed over 200 days a year due to wind so I had good timing getting there just as it opened.
Down at the base again I walked around some of the base and it's spectacular from here too.
For some reason the flys really love your face, don't know why.
Then on the way back we stopped at a sunset viewing point with hundreds of others to marvel at the rocks colours change as the sun gets lower.
Then back to the most expensive, largest dorm with the worst snoring that I've stayed in yet.
Best tourist quote for the day "daddy why is it called airs rock when it's not in the air"
that kid has a thing or two to learn about gravity.
I got a flight to Ayers rock today.
Flying for three hours over largely unpopulated and featureless country gives a bit of hint to the vastness of this country.
I landed at the airport near to Ayers rock or "oops I should have said Uluru or whatever they like to call it these days" as the airhostess put it not bothering to hide the resentment that this tourism cash cow is now ultimately controlled by the aboriginal people of the area.
So you get a free bus ride from the airport to "the resort" or Yulra.
This fake tourist town is a distastefull monopoly designed to extract the maximum revinue possible from the hoards of tourists drawn to the sight seeing meca of Uluru - Ayers rock.
The resort is strategicly located a 30 minuite drive from "the rock" and 50 minuites or so from the nearly as impresive Kata Tjuta - Olgas.
This allows them to charge crazy prices for the buses out to each.
I got the bus out to Uluru - Ayers rock.
It really is impresive, located on this vast largely featureless plane it and the Olgas stand out for hundreds of kms in all directions.
When you get there you realise that it is very big, as very steep.
After carefull consideration, rightly or wrongly, my love of climbing stuff outweighed me sense of respect of the aboriginal peoples request for people not to climb the rock so I headed up. The first part was really steep and has a chain to help people not fall off. Since part of part of the aboriginal peoples concerns was the number of people dying up there I took extra care not to fall off. I think the problem here is that to aford to get here you have to be middle aged and loads of people have heart atacks trying to climb up. Anyway I guiltily puffed my way to the top and marveled at the views for hundreds of kilometers in all directions, it is spectacular and not to climb would be to miss out on this.
The climb is closed over 200 days a year due to wind so I had good timing getting there just as it opened.
Down at the base again I walked around some of the base and it's spectacular from here too.
For some reason the flys really love your face, don't know why.
Then on the way back we stopped at a sunset viewing point with hundreds of others to marvel at the rocks colours change as the sun gets lower.
Then back to the most expensive, largest dorm with the worst snoring that I've stayed in yet.
Best tourist quote for the day "daddy why is it called airs rock when it's not in the air"
that kid has a thing or two to learn about gravity.
posted by conor at 7:03 PM
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