Australia Day 6 - Travel to Uluru

Today was bus travel all morning / afternoon.  The ride to Uluru was about 5 hours but that included several stops, one at a camel farm where we could ride a camel for about $6.  Sounds great except – it was raining.  Pouring actually.  I didn’t care to ride a camel in the downpour and then spend the rest of the day smelling like wet camel.  I am sure Frank appreciated that! 
Our lunch stop was at a roadside stop which, like many along the Stuart Highway, are run by the cattle ranchers in the area as a side business.  The meat pies there were awesome even though they came out of a bag.  When we arrived at Yalara, the town next to the national park, we got to the hotel and Frank went out in search of some more aloe vera (I was in bad shape!).  Later we rode out to see Kata-Tjuta (the Olgas) which are several sandstone domes veering out over the outback.  The Olgas are many layers of sandstone different from Uluru (Ayers Rock) which is one giant sandstone monolith. 

After viewing Kata-Tjuta (which we think would make an awesome name for our next girl, middle name at least!) we went to Uluru to watch the sunset there as the hues are supposed to be awesome as the sun sets near the rock.  There was champagne and snacks waiting for us which was a tasty surprise but the sun didn’t make an appearance which wasn’t surprising given the deluge we’d experienced all morning and afternoon.  We took some nice pictures and went on a walk but seeing the sunset at Uluru just wasn’t going to happen that night, oh well, it was gorgeous anyway.