The weather is good , not much wind , yet !! The 20 klm drive doesn't take long , and we get glimpses of the rock . Last night we weren't too sure about it , but there was a lot more anticipation today , first glimpses showed that it is indeed a very impressive piece of rock .
Admission paid , $25 each for a 3 day pass , and away we go . The roads seem to take you away from the rock , before you swing back around towards it , next minute you are dwarfed by it - 348m high and 3.6klms long .
We parked and got the bikes off , loaded drinks , camera , hats & fly nets - glad we got the bikes off , the toilet block was 250m away - couple of visits and you've racked up 1 klm without seeing too much . We did see something though , there are shelters with some of the best seats we've seen - here's a couple .
And surprisingly , they are comfortable as well !! These 2 had views to the rock .
We start the ride anticlockwise as the breeze had started to pick up a bit . We started from the point where you can climb the rock if you want - the aboriginals would prefer that you didn't , but many people were doing it . It is a very well worn track !!
We did see some people coming down later - sliding down on their backsides !!
The next sign we saw will upset some photographers , but I'm not one of them .
They would be annoying here , we had some in the Bungles last year - you could hear them everywhere !!
The ride started and stopped within the first 100m , photo's were to be taken . The textures and colours are amazing , the surface of the rock appears to be flaking off just like rusting . We stopped and started many times today !!
Wildflowers will feature as well - there are thousands of them !!
There are a few areas that have some rock art as well .
Another one of the chairs .
After many stops we had arrived at the corner furthest from where we had started . Totally in awe of this majestic sight , we refilled the water bottles at the water station and continued on . For the first time on the ride we were further from the rock - about 1klm from the side - the rest of the ride we have been within 1m to 30m from it .
The wind had picked up again , and was starting to blow quite hard . We were out in mulga trees and wildflowers - that's if you can take your eyes off the rock !!!
This section had some interesting features - some looked like they'd been cut away with a knife or ground away with a grinder .
The next part shows some eroded sections - one that looks like a skull & brain .
Continuing on , we found the busy section , where everybody can reach from the carpark . There's a gorge , caves , rock art , a kitchen cave , a mans cave ( no power tools here though ) , and an elders cave where they teach the young boys how to , where to find , what to do , and everything they need to know to survive .
This is the kitchen cave .
We had done the lap of the rock - 10.6 klms of loose granite gravel - just in time , as the wind had picked up to 40klms/hr , gusting to 60 !!! People were still coming and going up & down the rock - crazy people - it was 33 degrees and bloody windy !!!
We loaded up and went for a drive around the rock via the bitumen road , stopping to take some photos of the wildflowers again .
We checked out the sunrise viewing area on the southwest side of the rock , having lunch in one of the shelters , sitting on one the comfortable chairs . The viewing area is huge , the carpark for it is also massive with enough parking for 40 buses and a lot more cars !! Views from there are pretty good - you get to see The Olga's / Kata Tjuta in the distance as well !!
The tall hairy trees are juvenile Desert Oaks , the more mature Desert Oaks have the dark trunk and no foliage down low . Many trees are in flower - the cream coloured one above and these other grevilleas .
We left the esky and drinks under the shelter to go up to the viewing area , when we came back there was a visitor - a Desert Monitor - such beautiful colours & camouflage !!
Back to the ute and another Desert Monitor went scooting across from the ute to some scrub in the carpark - they can move pretty quick when they need to .
Back around to the cultural centre - this is where you should go before you go to the rock - if we'd have done that , we would have been blown off the bikes , so we were happy to be doing it after .
There's the cultural centre and a parks office , cafe & gift store , as well as an indigenous art centre . Today there were about 8 artists painting away , the gift store had paintings as well as carvings , but the artworks in the painting studio were awesome - some of them moved while you were looking at them - we were mesmerised by them . There aren't any photo's from here unfortunately as they don't permit photo's or video's here - disappointing !!!!
We headed back to the park and jumped into the pool to cool down - didn't take long , the water temp wasn't overly high !!
Well that's our day , we enjoyed it thoroughly , let's see what tomorrow brings !!
No comments:
Post a Comment