The Red Centre - Day 1 - Kata Tjuta and Uluru by night

Uluru from the plane

I remember flying over the vast landscape of Australian outback, I was waiting to see whether what everyone has said about it is true. We sat next to our very clichéd Japanese tourist and his camera by the window seat and peered out as much as we good to get a glimpse of that 'red sand'. And finally the minute the plane began to turn we saw it out the corner of the window, the huge bid rock formation smack in the middle of - well nothing. It just stood there mighty high and wide in all its grandeur and that's when I knew this 4 day journey to the red centre was going to be something completely different.

We touched down at the Ayer Rock airport and stepped out to a small space with one baggage chain and a line of tourist buses outside. We found our own and hopped on to make our way to the Desert Gardens Hotel where we were meant to be picked up from. A quick lunch at the cafe and we were ready to hop onto our very own 'Adventure Tours - Safari in Style' bus equipped with our very own 'Aussie' tour guide. First pick up at our camp site and we were 7 all aboard heading out to the Olgas for the 7 km Valley of Winds walk. 2 Dutch, 1 German, 1 Australia and 3 Indians made for an interesting group of people for the next 3 days.

Kata Tjuta

First off, there was red sand but not as much as I expected, cause there seemed to be a lot of greenery for a desert. Later finding out that just last week it had rained in Uluru (rare occurrence) and the plants were a result of the 300 odd meters of rain this part of Australia rarely sees. Despite that, the Olgas were grand. They stood there huge, red and very circular, as their name suggests 'many heads', all clustered around in a huddle. This walk I have to say was bit rushed for my liking because we had to make it back to Uluru for sunset and would have been much more interesting if we had more time and leisure. Never the less, it was beautiful and one could be certain that the group of artists sketching and painting it during our walk, would certainly get some great impressions. The steep slopes and the valley formations all made for very interesting snap shots and a challenging walk. Finally, two hours later the walk ended with us taking a nice picture of the entity from a distance and then heading to the popular sunset spot for our champagne and cheese night.

Uluru at night

After visiting Kata Tjuta and seeing the Olgas up close and personal, Ayers Rock just seemed like a big - well rock - with not much character or shape to it. Yes the light was nice and some shots of sunset were good but overall was a bit disappointed at the time, possibly purely cause it has been so hyped by everyone whose been there. But I would like to say, it is not that spectacular at the time of sunset, I will however stand corrected later on when we get to sunrise. Anyhoo, it was cold and we were on the road all afternoon and well in the desert you drink a lot of water and you need to relive your self ever so often and that point the champagne was not looking half as appealing as heading back to our camp site. We did have a bit of a rest, stretch our legs, take our pictures, eat our crackers and then headed back for some nice hot dinner.

Back at the camp site, within minutes we had a fire running, had nice hot dinner ready on our plates for us and a good glass of red. The first day was a success, a tiring one but all in all a success. Too knackered to do anything else we talked, showered (in the freezing cold) and went off to our tents equipped with our beds and a lap. Covered in head to toe with 2 layers of clothes and a beanie we were asleep before we knew it to be fresh for a 5.30am wake up call to make sunrise.