7th February 1992 Day 202

The Diary

Up early for the umpteenth time and straight on to the coach for the early morning Rock climb. 

The Rock is 348m high but it seems a lot higher when you have to climb it. It was almost as steep as the road at the back of Stokes Street in Lane Cove that I climbed on the way to work every morning. Well, it was slightly steeper but the journey to work every day was good training.

I reached the top in 30-35 minutes passing lots of Japanese tourists that were dressed as if they were climbing Everest. Were the white gloves to keep their hands clean? I signed the book at the cairn at the summit with the - as usual - inappropriate comment. "Rock Lobster".

When Oz and Beth arrived a few minutes later we posed for photos just to prove we made it. One of the girls from our bus then burst into "whhoooowhhhooo-yeah yea-----h" and people all over the Rock responded with "you know you make me want to shout, woooh". She was such a good singer that we got her to do it again and we all had a good groove at the top. Crazy chick, man. 

On the way down we observed the life-cycle of the world-famous Uluru shrimp (well, Beth had heard of it) i.e. born, eat, shag, die. Oz and I pretended to rap jump down the ridges before I yomped to the bottom trying not to use the chain. Pumped up quads or what? Back at the bottom I read the plaques dedicated to 5 of the 25 people that had died climbing the Rock. And then there was Lindy Chamberlain's baby.....

After everyone was down we were taken on a base tour around the Rock to look at the Aboriginal Rock Art, (looked like graffitti), and strange rock formations (the big smile, whale head, dolphin, greyhound bus rock etc.) and rock pools. By this time Karen had attached herself to a group of Swedes, much to my relief.

Back to Yulara we went, picked up our gear, had lunch and waited for the bus. The bus dithered so much that we only had 5 minutes at Alice before jumping on the overnight bus to Katherine. The bus was so full it was a single seat all the way, the road-houses seemed to have run out of food and I couldn't see without my glasses. Great night.


2012

Yulara to Katherine via Alice Springs to Yulara - 1,627km

Total distance since Sydney - 7,552km

I think Karen just talked a lot hence my relief when she bent someone else's ear for a while. I could be wrong though - don't really recall why I was relieved.

6th February 1992 Day 201

The Diary

Up early for the 468km journey to Yulara. About the same as Billingham to London. The coach did it at a very leisurely pace stopping at just about every road house on the way including Virginia Camel Farm.

Mt Ebenezer was even smaller and less impressive than Thompson, Utah and Beth was warned not to take any photos as it was aboriginal owned. We finally arrived at Yulara and Beth and Karen dashed to the front of the queue to check us in while Oz and I rescued the bags. A good idea if ever there was one.

We had a couple of hours before catching the coach to The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) which was just as well since the girl at the food kiosk was on her first day. I dashed to get a newspaper for the journey and was delighted to discover we'd knocked Sheff Wed out of the FA Cup. How about winning away from home in the league lads?

Off to The Olgas we went and our coach driver Lloyd filled us in with all manner of snippets of information. He stopped for various photo opportunities and then we did a walk into Olga Gorge. Big.

Back towards Uluru, we stopped to look at a thorny lizard discovered by Frank the Pioneer driver. Then we all saw a rainbow over the Rock. Wow.

Lloyd took us to the base of the Rock to show us what we had to climb up. Cracking jokes all the time. Then we got ready for the sunset. It didn't quite work at the allotted time due to the clouds but it was pretty good just 10 minutes earlier.

Back at the hostel I went for an early night to rest my poor aching back and discovered my broken glasses.

2012

Alice Springs to Yulara - 468km

Yulara to Kata Tjuta to Uluru to Yulara round trip - 123km
Total distance since Sydney - 5,925km

Google maps reckons Billingham to London is 408km.


Having broken glasses and a pair of hard contact lenses only was going to be a bit of a problem. I couldn't wear the lenses all day and couldn't sleep in them so evenings and bus trips would be a problem until I could get a new pair of glasses. I wasn't counting on too many opticians in the outback.