Monday November 2
We were up really early to have our fruit salad brekkie, pack up and drive to Longitude 131 (at Uluru) - the grand hurrah of our getaway. We only booked this when we received a half-price offer from Baillie’s lodges (on June 18) - so we booked it hoping of course that the NT border would re-open by late October - and as it came to pass it just opened in time.
We arrived at Thrifty in the town of Uluru before our ETA at 11am but Longitude was able to pick us up right away. So we arrived at the resort around 11:30am - it looked amazing - we downed a chilled glass of sparkler while we checked in and were briefed on our program. Then it was time to go to our tent and settle in to a very nice lunch.
We had the rest of the afternoon free - resting in the 38℃ heat then met in the lounge for our 6pm “tour” - sundowners at the rock, the field of lights walk through then dinner under stars. When we got back to out tent the turndown service had set a swag on our terrace with fire burning and decanters of after dinner drinks.
Our tent was named Severin (after Peter Severin, the owner of the Curtis Springs station - 1 million acres, famous for developing tourism in this area). All tents were named after explorers of the region.
Tuesday November 3
Another early morning - we set off on the first activity of the day at 6:30am (scheduled) but we actually left at 6:45am - even though breakfast is served from 5:45am we skipped brekkie. This morning’s tour was of Walpa Gorge, Kata Tjuta (fka The Olgas) - an easy walk. On the way back to the hotel we had a whistle stop at a camel farm.
After a break we had an excellent lunch at the resort - we then had the rest of the afternoon free until our next tour at 5pm. It was hard to do much but relax in our tent with the outside temp approaching 40℃.
At 5pm we left for the next tour - Mala Walk at Uluru. We finished off with sundowners at a very scenic waterhole. Then back to the resort for another excellent dinner.
Wednesday November 4
Ugh - yet another early morning - we set off for the Uluru base walk (10+ k’s) at 6:40am (should have been 6:30 but one family was running late - so we gave them the stink eye which did not go down well). We had decided the day before we would take the early exit from the walk (after only 4k’s) due to the projected heat and it allowed us to return to the lodge for a late brekkie. As it turned out, cloud cover keep the day in the low 30’s.
After a lovely late brekkie we took it easy then did a pool tour for an hour - very relaxing before have another excellent lunch - diet starts Friday.
Thursday November 6
Last day - after a sleep in and a leisurely breakfast we left for the airport at 10:45am for our mid-day JetStar flight. Flight was fine - in fact better catering-wise that our QF flight to Alice. We were back home at 5pm - Dieter took the bus to Wynyard to do a quick shop and we had sambos for dinner. After 38℃ days - is was freezing and raining in Sydney (13℃ when we landed).