August 10, 2016
We took advantage of no hard schedule, and slept in until about ten. Apparently we were the weird ones because when we got out to the car park our vehicle was all by its lonesome.
After a quick lunch of Margherita Pizza and Chicken Parmesan we went to the camel farm. Originally we thought about riding camels across the outback, but after some discussion we decided it wouldn't add much to our outback experience. Jen and Kayleigh found our first Kangaroo and Emu…. In a pen at the camel farm. Since we didn't see any others, we're counting it... Gosh darn-it!
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| Is this Camel Snarling at us? Yulara, Australia |
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| As close as we've gotten to Kangaroos Yulara, Australia |
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| Emu Yulara, Australia |
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| Camels! Yulara, Australia |
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| Uluru, Australia |
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| Uluru, Australia |
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| Uluru Hike, Australia |
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| Flowers Yulara, Australia |
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| Uluru, Australia |
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| Jenny Uluru, Australia |
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| Uluru, Australia |
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| Australian Outback Uluru, Australia |
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| Dusk Uluru, Australia |
Our hike was flat, the day was cool and we completed it in about 2.5 hours. The trail was relatively easy however it took us through a variety of scenery. There weren't many people on the trail, it was peaceful. We took some parting sunset shots of the monolith and headed back to our lodging.
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| Sunset Uluru, Australia |
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| Sunset over Kata Tjuta Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia Photo by Kayleigh Madjar |
The Outback Pioneer Lodge features a "cook your own barbeque" restaurant, where you buy the meat, cook it on a grill or hot plate then enjoy it with a salad/hot bar of accompanying items. We had steak, chicken, kangaroo steak, crocodile tail and emu sausage. Mark managed to cook it all without making anyone sick (quite a feat for 3 new meats!) and we enjoyed corn-on-the-cob, a wonderful peach-apricot cobbler and local beer. For the record, kangaroo is close to beef or venison. Crocodile is similar to chicken, and emu…. is unique.
We blogged for a bit, then went to bed about 9pm.
I'd like to take a minute to reflect on the Ayers Rock Resort. It was expensive. Most meals were ~$30AUD/per person, the hotel was about $300AUD per night for basic but clean accommodations in a concrete block motel room and the rental car was about $150AUD/day. Many people on TripAdvisor complained about the cost, but they didn't stop to think about the logistics of making it all happen. The resort is a self-contained city in the middle of the outback solely in place for our enjoyment. Electricity is generated by diesel and solar, water is from a local source, and everything consumed has to be imported. It is expensive, but that's what it takes when you're over 1000 miles from a sizeable city.