The Overseas Adventures of Annie and Steven Berger August 29th through December 18th, 2015: 9/11: The Outback: here we are!

We had a wonderful time in Sydney and environs but after a week or so here, we were ready to head off into the wild and see fabled Ayer's Rock that we had both been heard about for so long.

Nina, Natalie, Alexander & Zachary:
I just laughed when I saw this store on the way to the airport!

Got a 7am shuttle to the airport for our 3.5 hour Jetstar flight at 10:30 to what the airline industry refers to as Ayer’s Rock but what is now referred to by its Aboriginal name of Uluru. I was lucky having the window seat (Steven prefers aisle seats) so I had super views of Australia’s Red Centre long before Uluru came into view.

As soon as we landed, we noticed lots and lots of flies but luckily only a few them

were biting ones. A free shuttle meets each of the 5 planes arriving daily and takes

newcomers not renting cars to their chosen accommodation. The shuttle also runs a

free service around the resort from early to late daily.

Our 'Welcome' sign at the airport; guess dingoes are not to be trifled with. I remember reading years ago that dingoes actually dragged off a family (or was it a woman and her children?) killing them. Notice how the second language is French? I remain flabbergasted at the number of people we've heard speaking French all over Australia; it seems far more than those speaking German that you encounter in huge numbers all over the world and of course the ever increasing number of Chinese tourists. Wonder why Australia in particular is such a lure for the French.

EVERYONE arriving to see Uluru stays at Yulara, a company town owned by Voyages. Yulara, aka the Ayer’s Rock Resort, has accommodation choices ranging from a campground, dorms (where we stayed!) to far more expensive choices. Coming here is not for those pinching pennies in any way; for example our 2 bunks in a 4 bed mixed room cost us over US $200 for 3 nights. Unlike so many marvelous hostels we’ve stayed at the last 2 years, this room had no lockers, no bathroom let alone sink, no individual lights by each bunk, no wifi, etc.

You can see why this area is called the Red Centre! How wonderful feeling the hot sun again after the chilly weather we encountered through so much of our stay in Sydney.

Afer checking into the dorm and dumping our bags, we strolled into the 'town square' walking across the rich red dirt path from the Outback Pioneer Lodge (which had ‘real rooms’ as well as dorm rooms!) to the ‘town.’ That meant one grocery store for hundreds of miles, the combined P.O./general store, 4 or 5 souvenir shops, a combined newsagent/stationery store and one large room containing the Voyages Desk, car rental places and several tour operators. All the restaurants, save one ‘take away’, are attached to each lodging/hotel. Nothing like having a total monopoly and knowing you need to provide absolutely no customer service because people have no other place to dine, sleep, drink if they want to visit one of the most famous places on God's green earth.

Our dorm: Poor Steven hit his head on the upper black shelf/ledge so many times. I heard him mutter more than a few choice four letter words and his saying a few times his noggin was sure to be bruised each time come morning. Guess he must have a very hard head as he never ended with any bruises!

Please don’t get me started on the condition of the 2 fridges in the communal kitchen where the stench of rotting and expired food from months ago (with no exaggeration) made us seriously think whether to put our newly purchased items from the ‘town’s’ IGA there. We began tossing food in the ‘rubbish bin’ post haste …(P.S. It took 3.5 days for any staff member to put in an appearance in the kitchen and start cleaning it after being alerted to the problems by you know who!) Ah, but we didn’t come to the spectacular vista to stay in the room or go to the kitchen more than we absolutely needed to.

Natalie & Alexander: Figure we had both your states covered
here with the Northern Territory Outback license plate.

To reach Uluru, located 25kms from Yulara, costs AUD$ 60 per person per entry which is why most people rent cars to get to either Uluru or Kata Tjuta, the only places within 250 kms. We had planned to rent a car for our 2^nd day only but quickly added an additional day as it was much cheaper to rent a car than to pay the exorbitant shuttle fees. After getting that straightened out and getting info on the best hikes at Uluru, we quickly wandered through the stores before they all shuttered their doors promptly by 5.