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Day
6
(September 15, 2015) Ayer's Rock: Arrival
Before
We leave Melbourne early to land in the small airport in
Ayer’s Rock around noon from a three hours flight.
Once having our room we will enjoy our first
sights of Uluru from the resort.
The spots marked at map are:
0- Outback Pioneer Lodge
1- Ayer's Rock airport
2- Uluru
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After
We pay 56$ for the taxi taking us to the airport
at 7 AM for our 10 AM flight. I’m shocked when I see how we’ve got the
plane just with the booking number used in the automatic check in. We
haven’t been requested for ID’s in any moment. In three hours, at 12:30
PM as scheduled, our plane reaches the small airport on this land which
is red since a while. It’s not I’m not good at maths, but time
difference with Melbourne is 30 minutes here.
Ayer’s Rock airport is a small track in the middle
of the desert, so the exit is simple: we just walk down the stairs from
the plane and get into the building for our baggage, then we take the
bus belonging to our allocation from the line outside. Ours is the one
labeled as “Outback Pioneer Lodge & Hotel”. Somehow, our room
is not ready yet so, as it is 1 PM now, we go to lunch. A kangaroo wrap
and a bacon with beef pizza by 41$.
 
We explore the resort, but we start with our
area, with a great kitchen where we can cook our food. Then we walk to
the Central area with all the business here. We need to check our
options for tomorrow. As the cheaper of these options is a single trip
in Uluru Express bus by 70$ each, we rent a car in Avis by 140$ + 33$
for the excess reduction.
This resort is organized all around a circled
road. Inside this circle there is just a sample of the red sand desert
surrounding us with a hill with a lookout at the top. Along this road
is where you find the different accommodation types: camping, lodge,
apartments, etc…; the common central area with the tours, shops, the
supermarket…; the police station, the gas station, the firemen, … There
is a lookout belonging to the Outback Pioneer Hotel & Lodge,
where we are, and another one in a place before reaching this circled
road I’m talking about, where is the camel farm for tours. It is
labeled as “Uluru lookout” at the map at left. All this is covered by a
free shuttle bus with specific times. One thing they explain to you is
all areas are common, regardless the place they belong to, this way,
you can use the swimming pool and restaurant of the other hotels.
Another thing we have here is the free indigenous
activities program and dances are Friday to Tuesday at 4 PM, so it is
now our last option of watching them.
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We take the shuttle bus to go to the Uluru lookout. It is
not an official stop, but if you tell to the driver he’ll stop you
there.
 
Where there is a hill here, there is a lookout to Uluru.
We go to this one and the one at our own lodge, close to our room.
The sun sets far from Uluru, but close to Kata Juta, the other rock formation here.
We close this day by eating the noodles we’ve brought as
dinner in our room as we don’t need the kitchen to get hot water
because of the coffee and tea machine.
 
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