I just called to say... I love you ...

Daryl's birthday came early this year.... I took him to Stevie Wonder!

The Red Centre.

Hello Family and Friends,

Tracy & Daryl here again after our long weekend turn around trip to Central Australia [also known as the RED CENTRE].

1564 km to go ...

We left Tracy’s work at approximately 15:15 ACST Friday 3rd October 2008 heading North to Uluru, NT; 1564 km away. Believing that we could get there by 15:00 the next afternoon [Google maps estimates that it should take 18 hrs 20 mins driving non-stop].

Passing through many country towns and losing phone reception for approximately 10 hours once we hit the desert and only getting limited service once we got to Coober Pedy [536 km from Port Augusta]. We drove straight through until 02:30 where we pulled into a rest stop off the side of the road to get some sleep in the car. We woke up at 06:15 just in time for a magnificent sunrise.

On the Stuart Highway:

At the border of SA and NT

After a brief stretch we started to drive again. After a few more hours we reached the South Australian / Northern Territory border. We took this opportunity to take some photos ...

Goofing around on the road:

Driving on the "right" side of the road

After turning left off of the Stuart Highway and onto the Lasseter Highway - the last leg of our journey..we were 237 km from our destination and a long way from the last rest stop. This sign was on the highway... if you made it this far....

Uluru or Mount Conner?

We had passed what we now call Mount Conner [as we drove by we said to ourselves that Uluru is quite big and odd shaped compared to photos that we had both seen, how would people climb it and why was it so grey when all the photos we have seen are of a red rock? And why are the road signs leading us further and further away from it?].

Uluru... we can see it

We made our last stop at Curtin Springs and then continued on to Uluru – a little disappointed that we were driving “away” from Uluru instead of towards it!! But we believed that the signs and our map would not lead us astray [Our map and the hotel had both indicated that Uluru was only 15 km from our hotel].

Our first glimpses of the “Rock” were absolutely AMAZING!! The colours, the size, the shape...it was spellbinding.

Uluru by helicopter

After checking into our hotel at 12:30 [took us 21 hours/including our 4.5 hour nap – NOT BAD!]

We booked a 30 min helicopter flight for that afternoon and a sunrise bus tour for the next morning. At 16:15 we were picked up by the Ayers Rock Helicopters company and we were transported to the airport.

Our pilot’s name was Emma. The flight was absolutely the coolest and most amazing part of the trip. It was the best and is the most recommended way to se Uluru. The flight took us past Uluru, the city of Uluru, and the Kata Tjuta [The Olgas]. Tracy was silent most of the flight as her microphone was not working properly. I did most of the talking while Tracy nodded and Emma asked if she was alright.

Sunset

After our helicopter flight we drove to Uluru again for sunset to capture the colour changes. This was an awe inspiring wonder of nature in itself. We highly recommend to everyone a visit to Uluru.

Sunrise Tour

Once we returned to the hotel we got ready for dinner and hopped on the free shuttle to the next resort. We were lucky enough to experience a brief down pour while we waited for the shuttle to take us back to the hotel [it only rains 12 inches a year].

When we got back to the hotel we started to get ready for bed and our 04:00 AM start. As we were sharing a four person dorm with 2 Japanese ladies – Daryl tried communicating to one of them that we had to get up early. But we don’t think that charades are as popular in Japan as they are in Australia or Canada! She was trying to talk to us , and we were trying to talk to her ... but there are not too many English words that match the Japanese language and vice versa.

We also contacted one of our friends Jake who is studying Japanese and he tried to explain to the lady ... we still could not get through. In another attempt to speak to her Daryl went off to find someone to translate ... there were a lot of Asian tour groups. Apparently there is a phone at the front desk that connects you to a translator. While Daryl was gone the Manager came to our room with the other lady and advised that she was moving us to another room for the night as the one lady that we spent all that time trying to communicate with was not well.

We felt quite bad after this – we spent all that time trying to communicate with her and all she wanted was to be left alone!!

The next morning we caught our tour bus with Eco Tours [on recommendation from the front desk that they were the “tour company to go with”]. Our tour guide Jackie was very knowledgeable but lacked simple social skills and even jipped Tracy and 10 others [out of 12] from a portion of the tour!

We took in sunrise and we stopped at the “climb” [some people attempt to climb Uluru – still not sure how they would do it as it looks really unsafe!] where Jackie pointed out where the bathroom was and where we were to meet afterwards. I went off to the toilet with everyone else. Daryl was waiting on the side along with another guy from the tour when Jackie signalled them to follow her.

Daryl asked if they weren’t going to wait for the others. Jackie replied: “Nah, nah. They go to the toilet they miss out.” Needless to say when I got back and found out what had happened I was not happy!! It isn’t like the tour was free!! AND she was 15 minutes late to pick us up that morning ...so she decided to sacrifice part of the tour to accommodate?!! [I have already started a letter to Eco Tours]