Uluru, Kata Tjuta, and Kings Canyon

Today we traveled from Alice Springs to Uluru (Ayers Rock), or actually to the Ayers Rock Resort called Yulara. However, we had a lot of time and therefore decided to search for some geocaches on our way there. We quickly found 5 (in other words, all!) geocaches which were situated near the road. Some of them were on the other side of the highway, but as there are just few cars around it was easy to pass. Compare that to crossing the highway in Austria! :-) We arrived just in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset at Uluru and to admire the changing red color of the rock. In our opinion it is much more impressive if you see it in real than on pictures, as you can see the structure and the holes in the rock. We spent the night at Yulara campground. This little tourist village is situated 15km from the rock and is so big that it even features a bus route. In the evening we looked for our Italian friends, which should have arrived at that day as well. Although this was the first time we knew where they would go, we could not find them.

The weather on the next morning was quite extraordinary: It was fleece-jacket cold and very foggy. We were a little disappointed, as we expected the weather in the desert to be sunny and warm. When we filled up the gas at the Yulara gas station, a guy told Julia how lucky we are. We would probably see Uluru in rain, which happens just about 4 times a year. We still couldn't believe it, rain in the desert? We started our trip trough the National Park at the cultural center to get a first impression. Then we went on to the Mala walk (on one side of Uluru) and joined a free guided tour given by a ranger. Again, we learned a lot about Aboriginal culture and the desert. For instance, some trees turn off branches if they do not have enough water. Given this knowledge, you can tell when the last rain was and how regular it occurs. Julia was also very impressed by maths for Aborigines: They just used the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, and 'many'. The walk ended at a waterhole, which was empty. We finished visiting Uluru with a second short walk on the other side of the rock.

In the afternoon we drove to the second part of the National Park, called Kata Tjuta. This means 'many heads' if translated to English, and that's exactly how it looks like from the distance. We did a 8.6 km hike there, called the Valley of the Winds walk. The landscape was fascinating, especially a close up look at the rocks: Many little rock pieces in different colors stuck together to form the big ones. We had about 1km left when it really started to rain. As soon as we reached the car we went back to Uluru and hoped that it wouldn't stop before we reach it. It didn't – and we were able to see lots of waterfalls on the rock, and even the previously empty waterholes filled up quickly. It was an amazing picture and we were glad to see it, although we were completely wet all over. When it didn't stop raining in the evening, we decided to have dinner in a restaurant. I guess we don't have to mention that other people had that idea as well – it was crowded at every place with a roof in Yulara. While waiting for quite some time in front of a restaurant we met a nice couple from Germany, Caro and David. We shared a table with them and it turned out to be a funny and entertaining evening. When we returned to our camping site later that evening, we suddenly saw the Italians at a site just 20m away from ours. When we knocked at their window they were very surprised and happy to see us ('That's destiny!'), and they immediately invited us into their camper to have coffee, tea, and biscuits. We played cards and took a lot of pictures, as we forgot about that the previous time. Saying goodbye was sad this time, as they travel on south and we are going north again. However, we will keep them in our mind and maybe – if it is destiny – we'll meet again in Graz, Udine, or another part of the world!

In the morning of the next day, we filled up the gas again (it should always be pretty much full) and went on to Kings Canyon. We arrived early in Kings Creek Station, the place where we intended to stay for the night, and so we decided to wash our clothes before going on the walk. However, that was a bad decision: There was a power outage while we were using the washing machine and it didn't really like that. We had all the dirty, sandy water at the bottom and couldn't get it out. So we ended up washing most of our stuff by hand. Afterwards, quite late already, we started our hike at Kings Canyon (known as Australia's Grand Canyon). We did an amazing hike with lots of exhausting stone steps in the beginning. When we reached the top we had an excellent view of the entire area. We hiked on to Garden of Eden where it is possible to see a waterhole in between the rock walls of the canyon. The flies liked us a lot after walking for some time, Julia once counted at least 15 flies on Andis backpack. We saw a beautiful sunset as we arrived – just in time – at the carpark. Finally, we went back to Kings Creek Station very carefully as we didn't want to hurt a kangaroo! ;-)