Well we have arrived at Ayers Rock or Uluru as it is now known but let's start at the beginning.

Up earlier this morning, I won't tell you when and were still just about the last to leave the camp. I did have time for a walk but there was nothing special to see. So at 9am we headed south, the scenery was low scrub, I guess it would be desert scrub as we are now in the Simpson Desert, at least I think we are as the maps are not too clear made interesting by the ranges that populate the area. About 30 km South of the camp we turned onto the Lassiter Highway after fuelling up at the roadhouse that must be a magnificent business handling all the traffic to Australia's premier tourist attraction plus traffic between Adelaide and Darwin. They also have a caravan park, bar and restaurant along with an emu farm and yes we did check them out and take photos. Then 112 kms out from Yulara we got our first sight of the rock. We stopped along the road for various photo opportunities and at one, the Connor Lookout, were rewarded with a bonus in that we could photograph from the other side of the road Lake Armadeus (which is a salt lake currently dry) and shared the lookout with tourist buses and their passengers. We also noted that the rock does change colour as the sunlight moves across the sky.

Then we arrived at Yulara the gateway to the rock and I should add the Olgas only 30 kms further on and included in the park. I mention that because the park charges $25 per head for a 3 day pass. The town is pure commercialism of a standard that I am not comfortable with, there are cafes, bars, restaurants and of course a visitor centre. The visitor centre is set up like an airport with booths for hire cars and the various tours, all of which are fairly pricey. The whole place very upmarket using the rocks as centrepiece for getting lots of money out of tourists. An example is Tali Wiru which is 'open air dining set atop a remote desert sand dune with magical views of Uluru' and costs $325 per person sounds lovely and the menu looks good, but!