Vins Blog: Day 5, 6 and 7- (Uluru, The Olgas and Kings Canyon)

Day 5 – Sunday 7^th July – Yulara (Uluru)

Woke to a beautiful sunny but fresh morning, temperature expected to reach 22 today. What a perfect day to explore Uluru. This was an exciting moment for our family as we all stated that going to Ayers Rock was one of the highlights of our trip. As we were driving closer to Uluru our excitement grew as we now realised how spectacular this amazing rock is. On arriving at Uluru we drove around the rock, before stopping at the Kuniya carpark to commence our trek around the base of the rock, which is a 10.6km walk. Having walked about a quarter of the way around we saw where you are able to start the climb of the rock. Unfortunately it was closed due to the strong winds, however as we were discussing the challenges of the climb and observing the chains they decided to open the rock for climbing.

We decided it was a little too steep for the chn. So just Vin took on the challenge of climbing the rock. The rest of us sat there for an hour and a half whilst he went and did his thing. After his return we were going to complete the 10km walk around the rock, however Vin and the kids were a little over it by then.

Later that evening we ventured back to take photos of the rock at sunset (wow- unbelievable!!!). After some funny moments with the tripod (good one Vin), we took some memorable photos.

A most remarkable day- I don’t think many will neat this one!!!

Day 6- Monday – The OLgas

Woke to a fresh, sunny, but windy morning. Probably not the best day to be venturing to ‘Valley of the Winds’ at the Olgas. However we ventured on and experienced some amazingly tough climbs, and along with it some remarkably picturesque scenery. A different landscape to ‘the rock,’ however amazing all the same. Team Snell managed to complete the 7-5km walk, followed by another 2-5k m walk to the Gorge. Fair to say we had some tired animals by the end of the day.

Upon returning to the campsite we eventually went and saw some Indigenous dancing at the resort.

A close second behind the rock at this stage!

Day 7- Tuesday- Yulara to Kings Canyon

A little bit of rain overnight, very minimal but it made our set up all wet just the same. So after taking our time in the morning we set off for Kings Canyon. Initially we were going to stay at Yulara and do return travel to Kings Canyon but we rec’d some wise advice to leave Yulara and spend a night at K/Canyon instead. The Schools cook said we should stay at Kings Creek Station, but upon arriving (a huge mudpit as they rec’d heaps of rain the night before), there we made a very quick decision to proceed to Kings Canyon Caravan Park. A very wise choice indeed with a beautiful park, luckily we also got the last powered site (cancellation), so we quickly set up, with just a few drops of rain annoying us. We were very fortunate that the skies cleared for the afternoon so we headed off for K/Canyon.

After Vin had a little play driving through some flood water across the roads we arrived there at 3pm. We spoke to some people there who told us it was worth doing the main walk, however it did take them 3 hours (a bit dubious considering sunset was 6-05pm). However we headed off to the most spectacular thing I’ve ever encountered. Very fortunate that there was rain (day before), so the waterfall was flowing nicely, it also meant Vin got wet feet at the end as he piggy backed us across the creek at the end (what a DAD/Husband).

This was Breathtaking and certainly for Vin was NO 1.

After this we went back and had some leftover dinners before heading to the Outback BBQ pub where we had a most entertaining night (kids up on stage- Riley singing , Mum and Dad dancing, and much more). Abbey met a nice friend from Taralgon-Ericka who she spent quite a bit of time with in Alice). A really fun night had by all.