Remember to click on the photos to get a larger view.
Early start from Kulgera leaving at 7 am, easy drive on bitumen all the way, everything sounds so quiet. You pass Central Mt Connor on the way near Curtain Springs, many unfamiliar with Uluru think that this is Uluru.
When you see Uluru it is just as amazing as the first time, such a massive interesting rock. Once I had set up I had to visit and took my first panorama with my new camera.
I took one of the other side but I forgot that you have to move in the direction set in the camera or change the direction, so I couldn’t stitch it together. I may try again today. As you travel around the rock you just keep taking photos but I won’t post them all.
As you approach the rock this is what faces you. Toward the top right you may see a couple of white flashes, evidence that birds are nesting in hollows in the rock.
The photo on the right shows a crevice in the rock and you can see a bush growing half way up and at the top, they must be very tough plants. There is a walk to Mutitjula waterhole which is a short walk through lovely small red gums and other small trees and grasses.
When Marg and I were here 25 odd years ago we were lucky to see water running down the rock from a rainstorm, it was a waterfall.There are rails around the water and a viewing platform so you can’t get back to include some vegetation. This is the only waterfall around the rock. It has a legend relating to the woman who later turned into the Rainbow Serpent, she was sad because her nephew had been speared in the leg, so she threw sand over her head in sadness, making the waterhole. Finally my first view of the rock.
A lot of the country around Yularu is covered with Desert Oaks (Casuarinas). The young ones have a very strange shape looking like a folded BBQ umbrella. The older trees then take on the appearance of a normal tree. You can see both in this photo.
Now off to the Olgas for a walk in the Valley of the Winds.