Outback SERIOUSLY ROCKS!! Part 3

Once in Alice Springs (a major stopping point for all travelers coming through the center, we stopped in for a few days to relax. One of the nights, we went to the Alice Springs Casino where we both feasted like royalty!!! I had my first bite of emu, kangaroo, camel and CROCODILE!!! It was one of the tastiest meals, I’ve had since being in OZ!!! My favorite was: Croc!! (the aboriginals tend to stay away from eating croc as they say it makes you more violent and temperamental ^_^ I need some of that—don’t you think???). That night, Laurie won 225% of his bets at the roulette-table (on the 7-red!)—and from hereon, I told him he could justify all his expenses as: the table is paying for it, so no worries!

Alice Springs Casino:

From Alice Springs we finally departed for Yulara—500+km south-west to see the infamous ROCK (ULURU)!!! I was incredibly psyched!! Laurie had mentioned several times to me already that this ULURU-KATA TJUTA areas as being very focal spiritual sites for the aboriginals. And it was with “great” anticipation that we approached this region…
We stayed in the only resort park in the area (Ayers Rock Resort) which included 3 hotels and a camping-site and serious red, red, red, red grounds!!

Our first morning, we woke up before the crack of dawn to witness the sun-rise against the ULURU (an event attended by the thousands every single day!!!

ULURU—at dawn:

ULURU glowing:

Laurie and I, inspired by the beauty (of course, I’m just hungry cuz we haven’t had any breakfast):


Here are all different sides of this magnificent ROCK:

Her front-side:

Her west-side:

Her east-side:

And of course, there are always kangaroo signs everywhere you go around here:



And here is ULURU at the end of my ride around her 3 hours later that morning (10am). I ended up riding around her 3 times…the 1st being a photo shoot as I took about 100+pictures of her, the 2nd time was just a ride…and then I had to return a 3rd time because I had lost my bike odometer somewhere along the way. Well, turns out that each lap was 10km…so by the time I was done riding around her completely mesmerized by her strength, her energy and her presence…I still had another 18Km back to the camp-site against really, really strong head-winds.
Needless-to-say, I was a wreck by the time I made it back to the van. I had just biked 50km without even knowing it!! Mid-way on my ride back to the resort, I had started talking to my legs to encourage their stamina as I hadn’t eaten nearly enough food to be doing such a distance that morning!! Luckily though, the day was overcast and I was only battling the winds (got major wind-burn on my eyeballs that day and couldn’t see for the rest of the days!! What a mess, I was!), and quite honestly, I had just been incredibly inspired by a tremendous sight!!! I WAS MADLY IN LOVE WITH ULURU!!!!

On my ride back, I did get a little preview for the following day’s hiking
Trip (one of Laurie’s favorites):

Kata Tjuta

If there is one thing I’d like to share about this area, is the tremendous spiritual value that it has brought to me over the course of 3 days. The aboriginals truly have an incredibly inspiring way of respecting the earth; they believe themselves to be the “caretakers” and with incredible insights and connections to the Oneness, they live their lives in the purest and most honorable ways. They ask that you do not climb ULURU as it is a sacred site for them, but as all things go, the majority of the tourists and the organized-tours disgracefully and disrespectfully disregard the BOLD WORDS that are CLEARLY PRINTED on the 2nd page of the park pamphlet: PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB ULURU. I was fuming about the situation for hours, maybe even days…but what can I do??? Teach people to read, perhaps???