Camping in the Australian Outback

Our travels are well planned out long before we take any trips, especially one this long. Barb had told friends that we were even going to camp (glamping) in the Outback. This is why we are here at Uluru or as the English naming is called Ayers Rock. If you have seen any advertising about traveling to Australia, you would have seen the Sydney Opera House and possibly this large red rock / mountain in the Northern Territories of this country.

We arrived the day before our tour which we like to do, just so we are not rushed. The hotel was nice and we even got to visit the local camel farm.  Shuttle bus runs continuously to take hotel guests around from hotel to hotel and this camel farm. 

We started out on this tour when the bus came to pick us up in front of our hotel. We checked our larger bags in to storage with the hotel, because there would not be room for two large 50 pound bags. Our carry-on bags would be enough, after all we were only staying for one night. We felt this would be enough for us.

Well!! The first thing we did was to go to our campground. All 19 of our fellow travelers started out at 5:30 am driving down from Alice Springs in a small bus able to hold 21 people. They arrived here at Ayers Rock Resort at 1:10 pm, picked us up and off we went, for about 3 kilometers from our hotel.

Everyone was to pitch in to empty the bus and trailer we were towing full of coolers and food supplies, bedding, sleeping bags and small tents.  Barb and I would be sleeping in one of the permanent tents with two regular beds inside. That was the glamping part and that was the only glamping part.

Once things were unpacked, we had lunch and then off to Kata-Tjuta, known as Mount Olga in English. This is another rock formation about 40 minutes from Uluru and it's also an amazing structure. This formation is conglomerate rock while Uluru is mostly sandstone. 

Now the problems and reasons that we maybe didn't have this completely thought out. The temperature exceeded 40 degrees Celsius yesterday. The first hike would be an easy walk to the Walpa Gorge. This is a 2.6 Km walk.  Barb and especially Dave have been walking a lot in preparation for this part of our trip. Okay we are ready....NOT. The walk was slightly up hill, and the path was very rocky. One of our group fell early, tripping over a rock and Barb also fell, although not a bad fall, but the searing heat and the sun beating down directly on us caused both Barb and I to drop out of this walk. We had probably only gone 1 km but we had to carry 3 litres of water EACH, a mandatory requirement here in the Outback to enter the National Aboriginal Park.

It took us quite a while to get back to our bus, but we did manage and we were very, very overheated. After the group returned we then headed to Uluru to watch the sunset over this rock. It was a bit cloudy and overcast so I'm not sure we got the best viewing. Back at camp, everyone was exhausted, we all prepared dinner and most everyone was in bed by 9 pm. It was hot, even this late at night.

This morning we were up at 4 am to get back on the bus to watch the sunrise. Barb and I were already tired by the time we go there around 5:15 and the next walk was about to begin. 10Km around the base of the rock. Barb could not even attempt to do this, Dave stayed in the bus for the first hour then connected with the group to walk for about 90 minutes with them, Temperature at this time was about 32 Celsius. Once this section was completed there was about another hour to go. We didn't do this and stayed by the bus, trying to find shade and some relief from the extreme heat, which by this time was about 38 degrees!

We did survive but we both felt that for people our age, or at least us, is dangerous for your health. Back at camp we had some lunch, packed up an we were dropped off back to our hotel. Only one other couple ended their tour here, the rest were moving on to visit Kings Canyon, about 3 1/2 hour drive away. They would be camping there tonight and up early again tomorrow for the 6 km walk. 

As we packed we had a local visitor supervising us.

We are so glad we are not continuing on, the heat today was again over 40. We checked back in to our hotel at 2 pm and went right into the shower and then bed for a couple of hours. Feeling a bit better now as we right this blog. There is currently a large thunder storm passing through with heavy rain and the temperatures are finally coming down. Only the mid 30s by the time we went to dinner.

We are travelling to Perth tomorrow so it will be a full day on the plane.