Day 17

 Leaving Alice Springs.  The mountains are almost

right into the town.

 McDonnell Ranges as you are leaving Alice Springs 

 Connor Mountain.  A lot of people think this is Uluru

(Ayers Rock) when they first see it.

 Our first view of Uluru

 The car park where most people go at sunset to see the

changing colours. 

 The Olgas.  About 50 kms from Uluru

 Some of the crevices in the Olgas

 A walking track into one of the crevices

Part of The Olgas taken from a different angle
.

We left Alice Springs at about 8.00am this morning.  The journey to Ayers Rock was pretty uneventful.  There is not much in the way of towns between Alice Springs and Ayers Rock.  Just mainly roadhouses, some with camping grounds.  The closer we got to Ayers Rock the higher the petrol prices.  One place was $2.20 a litre.  We finally got to the Ayers Rock Resort.  What a surprise that was!  It is an oasis in the desert.  There is everything a person needs here.  They have a small shopping centre, all different types of accommodation ranging from the expensive to the budget minded, a campground, a police station, emergency services and a medical centre.  It is about 15 Kms from Ayers Rock itself.  Once we got here we put up our tent and went straight to the Rock. The climbing track was open but it looked pretty steep so we gave that a miss.  Charlie went for a short walk around the base and said it was great.  From there we went for a drive to the Olgas.  They were just as spectacular.  From there we went back to the Rock to watch it change colour at sunset but it decided to get cloudy so there was no sunset.  A bit of a disappointment but all told the trip down here was well worth it considering we were not coming down this way in the first place.