Alice and Ayers

At the campsite there are hordes of shaggy-haired, mud spattered Aussie guys in shorts, with cowboy hats on talking engines or tactics. There are bikes and trucks everywhere. It is Monday 9th of June and it is the tail end of the gruelling 'Finke Desert Race'. These men have all taken part or watched. It involves one days dash across the old road and one days return, about 500kms in all. It is all dust and distance. That explained why the camp was so full! Dutiful wives were lined up in the laundry trying to clean the dust, grease and oil off their men's clothing. It was a friendly site and I fell asleep to the sound of a Didgeredoo Concert.

Alice town is rather dull, just a series of shopping malls with oddments of history to look at. We took some time to find 'The Flying Doctor Service' then went to see the museum of Pioneer Women in the old gaol. Aboriginal people wandered around the town. It was 28 degrees in the day but only about 10 degrees at night, which surprised me. We were hot and uncomfortable. We headed out the next day to Ayers Rock, not noticing that someone had pinched my half sized bucket that we had purchased in Estonia!

Ayers lay about 250kms from Alice, which surprised me. We passed several roadhouses, among them Aileron, with its giant, 'aboriginal man on the mountain', outside. A flat topped mountain caught my eye as we got closer. Like Ayers it stood out from its flat surroundings. Ayers loomed on the horizon when we got closer to the camp. I felt very excited and we went off to set up before we headed out to view Ayers at sunset.

The camp was at Yulara, 22kms away from the rock, which surprised me. It was not even situated in the national park! It was a whole community purpose built to service visitors to Ayers. It had shops, hotels and a campsite. There was even a bus to transport you. We booked a dusty site and set ourselves up. As expected, the dust was bright red and everywhere. We headed out in the dusk to view the rock. I felt like a pilgrim on the road with others. We parked up and waited. Some people had wine and cheese on their tables. We waiting in hopeful expectation but the cloud remained and the people moved away. We drove, in the deepening dark, around the base. It was huge and instilled a kind of awe. Each side seemed to look completely different. Back at camp we set the alarm for 6am.

We woke in total darkness. As we dressed I noticed a rip in the dark sky and began to get anxious that dawn would come and we would miss the sunrise. I was not to be disappointed. In the eerie pre-dawn light other vans were moving along the road. We followed. We pulled up in a vacant space and watched, with rising excitement as the sky gradually grew lighter. There was some cloud but,we were to be lucky this time, as the sun shone through a gap Ayers lit up and changed colour so many times, from yellow sandstone to bright fiery red. It was glorious, and well worth getting up early for.

Before we left, when the tour buses had gone, we circled the rock once more. It was amazing and humbling. As we drove away I noticed, the sister rocks, 'The Olgas', glowing quietly in the morning sun. I took my photographs and we headed out to repeat the long journey up to Three Ways again and on to Darwin.