Frosty's Family Adventures: Uluru to Kings Canyon

After four days in Alice it is time to hit the road, bound for Yulara, the township that is closest to Uluru. It took us about 4 hours to arrive at the Ayes Rock Resort Camp ground.

We drove along the Lasseter Higgway and in the distance could see a massive mountain, but we have already been told this is one of three large mountains in the area, Mt Conner, Uluru and Kata-Tjuta.

Mt Conner was first discovered in 1873 by William Gosses and named after a Souh Australia politician as he made his way across the desert in search of the inland sea. As you can see by the photographs, it is very square in shape and magnificent.

We continue on a few hours or so and arrive at the Camp Ground, we were surprised how quiet is was. There were a few school groups in and they continued to arrive as the other departed. We set up camp and walked up to the nearest lookout to look at Uluru and what a sight.

We later caught the town shuttle bus up to the Outback Bar & Grill. It was a typical bar and grill, outdoors, with plenty of beer on tap, with a large cook your own steaks BBQ. There was also a pizza bar nearby, which we ended up having for dinner that night.

We headed back to camp and it was early to bed, as we planned to see the sun rise over Uluru the following morning and the boys were going to climb the rock.

The alarms were set for 5.00am, a quick cuppa and we were all off to the viewing plat form, about 20 km’s away. First stop was at the entrance of the National Park to purchase our 3 day passes - $25 for over 16 yrs old. So $50 for our family.

We continued on, stopping at the viewing platform. Grabbed our cameras and tripods, walking the short distance to the platform to witness the sun rise over the horizon and change the colours of Uluru. In the distance, to the left of Uluru, was Kata Tjuta. Both changed colours as the sun rose.

After about 90minutes, we drove around to the base of Uluru, where we all stood there in amazement as the height and steepness of the climb. We were watching others climb the rock, which looked like ants, climbing an ant hill.

Deb and Melissa backed out. Nat started with me, but quickly thought better of it. So, Paul, his two boys, Ethan and Bailey, with Dazza, Lachy and Brayden and myself walking the rock. The first section, including the chain link, was quite steep, with a strong cross wind. We arrived at the first plateau and a rest and the continued on. It took us all about 1hr 40 mins to make the summit. The view on the way up was spectacular, with 360 degrees views around to Kata Tjuta and Mt Conner. We took a few photographs at the summit and started our decent, which took about 45 minutes.

It was surprising how many people were climbing rock from very different back grounds.

Talking to one of the Aboriginal Ranger, he indicated there is a current plan to possibly close the climb if the climb rate drops below 20 % of park entrants. This will be assessed in the 2020 plan.

After the climb, we headed into Yulara Town Centre, where we found a lot of free activities for the kids and adults, including Boomerang and Spear throwing, dot painting workshops, Aboriginal weapon talks, Aboriginal dance classes and presentations.

The kids really enjoyed the Aboriginal Culture and got involved.

These guys got all the girls up and taught them to do the Emu Dance. Below you will see a video of the girls, being trained by Davinda.

We booked a Sunset Camel ride for the girls and I. That afternoon, we arrived at the Camel farm and were shown there new acquisition, being an 8 week old camel called Milk Shake. Milk Shake was a wild Camel, relocated from a nearby desert to the farm.

Melissa and Deb were allocated Pete as their camel; he was the tallest of all camels, which scared Melissa in some way. Nat and I were right behind Pete, being allocated Tanami. We climbed on board, whilst he sat on the ground. Then, he was instructed to stand up, which cause Nat a bit of displeasure, the way he got up.

The camel ride took in a 4 kilometre loop, with plenty of photographs taken of us by the resident photographer. We stopped on a high sand dune and watched the sun fall, changing the colours of Uluru, before returning to the farm, where we were offered beer & wine, as well as soft drink for the children. This was also followed up with salt bush duka damper, local bush chutneys, nuts and other fruits. It was a great afternoon and the kids loved it.

The following day, we all planned to travel out to Kat Tjuta to watch the sun set. Firstly we did the, Valley Of the Winds walk, which was a 5.4 round walk up to a look out, through sheer cliffs, following old water ways. This was a fantastic walk, watching birds fly past, as well as the changing colour of the rock formations.

We returned from the walk and drove out to the sunset viewing platform. Armed with out nibbles, beer and wine, as well as our cameras, we set up to watch the sun go down over Kata Tjuta. It was a great day had by the Smith's, Hull’s and Frost families, as we drove back to our camp.