One of the challenges of being a housesitter is getting a holiday. We get to live in other people’s houses when they go on holiday but since that usually involves being responsible for their pets and property it’s very difficult to find a way for us to have a break.
Fortunately, we’re currently looking after a house which has no animals and so we grabbed our chance and last week spent 4 days at Uluru/Ayers Rock.
As an Australian, who’s never been there before, this was something of a pilgrimage for me – to travel to the heart of this amazing land. And what an amazing experience it was.
It was an intriguing mix of highs and lows.
We went from our home, in North Ryde, to the airport using public transport. That’s always a ‘wonderful’ experience – carting suitcases on and off buses and trains. We made it right on time, which meant that because of the length of the queues for booking in we were called to the express line – very pleased with that.
Also, being of a certain age does have advantages. Once you turn 60 you’re eligible for a Seniors Card, in NSW, which gets you discounted fares on public transport – $2.50 per day. That makes catching trains, buses and ferries a seriously viable way to travel. Also, young people are very helpful. So having my age start with 6 has its benefits. (Mind you, Danita does delight in pointing out that my age starts with 6 as opposed to being 6 and so she expects me to behave accordingly but that’s a different conversation.)
So, by the time we arrived at our hotel after about 6 hours of travel I was feeling very excited. That was to be short lived.
We were picked up by the shuttle bus at the airport and delivered to our hotel. The bus driver told us that the porters would look after our luggage and all we needed to do was make sure our bags came off the bus. This was very exciting and I was beginning to think I could get used to this 5 star hotel stuff. (My ideal holiday until then usually involved a vehicle of some sort – sailing, a campervan etc – and hotels were very low on my list of desired holiday destinations.)
As we walked in we were handed a cool face cloth and a very pleasant drink – as I said I was beginning to get a taste for this. That was until we discovered we’d arrived at a 5 star Fawlty Towers. The room wasn’t ready and so we had to hang around for some time waiting. That wasn’t too bad (well, yes it was) but our luggage had already gone to the room and we weren’t allowed access to it. Also, they informed us that the sunrise tour we were booked for the next morning had been cancelled and we’d been put on a substitute one, which we really had no interest in.
Anyway, the room eventually got sorted (as these things always do), we settled in and then went to town. Since the town is actually 4 shops, a post office, a tour office and 4 restaurants (one of which was closed until some unspecified date) that probably sounds more impressive than it really was. One of the main objectives, besides eating – very high on Danita’s priority list, was sorting out the tour issue.
Also, we wanted to add a camel ride to the Sounds of Silence dinner we had coming up in a couple of days. Again, bureaucracy rules and because the dinner had been booked through a travel agent we needed to contact the agent (in Sydney) to add the ride. This all became too complicated and so we decided camels really didn’t belong in Australia and so we’d skip that part.
However, just being in the area was exciting and it made us feel like we really were in Australia when we came across the daily paper – shown here. Where else in the world could you get that headline?
That evening we did the trip to watch the sunset at the rock. And yes, the cliches are all true – the rock does change colour with the shifting light. See the photos above taken within minutes of each other.
Since our morning trip had been cancelled the next day was very restful and we had nothing booked until the Sounds of Silence dinner that evening – highly recommended if you happen to be visiting the area. It’s a magnificent buffet meal in the bush overlooking the rock with a talk by an astronomer about the stars. Being a fairly cloudy night that was a bit uneventful but we still had a fantastic time.
As an Astrologer I have an on-going debate with astronomers and I did feel the presenter was a bit of a narrow minded twirp but that’s just my judgmental side coming out and so we won’t pursue that line of thought. (BTW I never said I was a nice person.) He did however, give me food for thought for my Cosmic Compass post: Knowledge + Understanding -> Wisdom so I’m grateful to him for that.
The next day was a guided tour around the base of the rock in the morning and the afternoon was a tour of Kata Tjuta/The Olgas. That was an awesome day with so much to learn and filled with wonderful experiences, not to mention more walking than we’ve done in years but it all fun and exciting!
Thursday was the trip home which was relatively uneventful. It was lovely to get back, have a quiet night to ourselves and pointedly refused to turn on computers. Friday Sancho was delivered from his stay at a kennel in Glenorie and our family was all back together again.
We spent 4 days and just focussed on Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We resisted the temptation to try and get to Alice Springs and the other tourist sites around the area. I believe this was a very good call. We had a wonderful time, were able to rest and relax and were able to really appreciate where we were without having to worry about rushing off to the next tour.
As an Australian I think it’s a trip everyone living here should take. Have you been yet?