Uluru, November 4: arrival

We arrived at the airport too early for the gate to be announced so I found an outlet and blogged about our days in Sydney. I shared the outlet with an Asian man because my charger had extra ports. The magic of the trip continued and it turned in a large airport with at least a couple of dozen gates, I chose to sit where our plane would take off. I took that as a good sign the trip was still charmed.

The Qantas flight from Sydney to Ayers Rock is three and a half hours long. We were lucky to be in an exit aisle. Of all the airlines we flew, Qantas was my favorite. No surprise since they often rate high on lists of worlds' best airlines. 

We entered and exited the plane via a staircase, there was one at the front of the plane and another in the back making boarding and exiting so much faster. We always associate with long ago trips to Long Beach Airport when visiting Disneyland. 

Uluru is located in one of those rare half hour off time zones. This had the effect of making me feel not quite here nor there. I was in an in-between world. The red rock seen outside the window was so different from anything I had ever seen before adding to the feeling we were someplace new. We could have been on Mars for all I knew.

It felt like a long wait for our luggage, probably because we walked 100 feet from the plane to baggage claim. There was no way the airport could keep up. "No worries," as the Aussies say, since we still had to wait for the bus to the resort area.

Just about everyone visiting Uluru flies into Ayers Rock and stays at the resort. There just are not other options. The resort has a few different hotels, camping options, an art gallery, an IGA, a café, a couple of restaurants, a camel farm, gas station, spa, parking lots, ATM, a post office, a police station, a fire station, and a medical center with a doctor. 

In this self-contained area they can take care of just about all of your needs. The nearest city is Alice Springs: a four-hour trip away.

We chose to stay at the Sails in the Desert.

After eating lunch at the sole non-sit down restaurant where the choices dwindled close to closing, and at 1:30 pm, it was almost closing, we went to our room to regroup.

If this was a movie about our trip, the violent storm that took place would be seen as forced foreshadowing. The storm was so violent, later that day a guide said it was the worst one he had seen in the three years he lived here. He had to pull over in his bus and wait it out. Even through dinner, we could see the lightning off in the distance. The weather at the resort in Ayers Rock differs enough from the weather at Uluru, even though it was only 13 miles away.

We were grateful our dinner was still on schedule as the ones back at the resort were cancelled. At that point, the back up options are mighty limited.

I'll stop here. The next post will be very photo heavy because "the rock" changes colors as the sun hits it and I can't decide which pictures are my favorite.