So my flight to Ayers rock was scheduled for 6.30am from Melbourne airport. The last shuttle from the city to the airport was around midnight. Even then I managed to arrive at the airport at 11.30pm. I think that's my dad's advice of always being extra early to the airport rubbing off. The airport was pretty dead so I just found a comfortable(ish) bench and got some sleep. I was paranoid I would miss my flight if I didn't hear my alarm so I had to get a couple of people to text me a couple of hours later, just incase!
The flight was pretty uneventful. Flew to sydney which took around 1.5 hours and then changed plane for the trip to Ayers Rock. All in all the trip was around 4000km. The airport in ayers rock is tiny. Only enough room for one plane and theres no real terminal, you just get off the plane and onto a bus transfer to the accommodation.
There's only one choice for accommodation, Ayer's Rock resort. But there are a couple of hotels and a hostel so obviously I booked into the hostel. It's probably the most expensive one so far (but then they do kind of have a monopoly being the only ones). It costs $44 a night and I was there for two. The room was ok, small but comfortable. I was the first one in closely followed by a girl called Bridget from Hong Kong. There was the choice of a 20 bed dorm but I decided that for my first hostel travelling solo it would be nice to have the luxury of a 4 share.
I was at the hostel around 2pm so decided not to bother going to the rock straight away as you pay for each trip. I pretty much just chilled and explored the area. Had a walk in the desert. Found what I think was a scarab beetle like in the film the mummy but I'm not sure if they are real or not. There are also supposed to be loads of different snakes / spiders etc but didn't manage to spot a single one. Found some giant ant's but that's not quite as interesting. I confirmed my coach for the trip to Alice Springs and then went to book my bus to the rock for the morning.
When I got to the bookings area I booked the cheapest trip ($45), you get to see the sunrise from the lookout and then they drop you at the rock so you can do your own thing. I didnt fancy being guided around. As it turns out people who booked the more expensive tour, around $120 ended up doing the same as me so that was a bit of a result! The woman at the desk asked me for my room number and then wanted to confirm if I was Ziang Ming Xi (or similar...) or Adrian Nessmann. I thought she was having a laugh, turns out she wasn't.
The rock is amazing. The sunrise was a bit of a bust because it was quite cloudy. I walked around the base of whole thing which is around 10km. The weather was cool which made for good walking conditions. There are huge areas of the rock which are supposed to be extra sacred to the Aborigine people, so they ask you not to take photographs. I found this out after I had taken around 50 photos. Never mind. There are hundreds of flies which get pretty annoying. I took a look around the cultural centre. There are painting from Aboriginal artists, some of which were really nice. The small paintings were selling for around $3000. Which is crazy. In the evening I wrote some postcards and had dinner (peanut butter sandwiches).
The flight was pretty uneventful. Flew to sydney which took around 1.5 hours and then changed plane for the trip to Ayers Rock. All in all the trip was around 4000km. The airport in ayers rock is tiny. Only enough room for one plane and theres no real terminal, you just get off the plane and onto a bus transfer to the accommodation.
There's only one choice for accommodation, Ayer's Rock resort. But there are a couple of hotels and a hostel so obviously I booked into the hostel. It's probably the most expensive one so far (but then they do kind of have a monopoly being the only ones). It costs $44 a night and I was there for two. The room was ok, small but comfortable. I was the first one in closely followed by a girl called Bridget from Hong Kong. There was the choice of a 20 bed dorm but I decided that for my first hostel travelling solo it would be nice to have the luxury of a 4 share.
I was at the hostel around 2pm so decided not to bother going to the rock straight away as you pay for each trip. I pretty much just chilled and explored the area. Had a walk in the desert. Found what I think was a scarab beetle like in the film the mummy but I'm not sure if they are real or not. There are also supposed to be loads of different snakes / spiders etc but didn't manage to spot a single one. Found some giant ant's but that's not quite as interesting. I confirmed my coach for the trip to Alice Springs and then went to book my bus to the rock for the morning.
When I got to the bookings area I booked the cheapest trip ($45), you get to see the sunrise from the lookout and then they drop you at the rock so you can do your own thing. I didnt fancy being guided around. As it turns out people who booked the more expensive tour, around $120 ended up doing the same as me so that was a bit of a result! The woman at the desk asked me for my room number and then wanted to confirm if I was Ziang Ming Xi (or similar...) or Adrian Nessmann. I thought she was having a laugh, turns out she wasn't.
The rock is amazing. The sunrise was a bit of a bust because it was quite cloudy. I walked around the base of whole thing which is around 10km. The weather was cool which made for good walking conditions. There are huge areas of the rock which are supposed to be extra sacred to the Aborigine people, so they ask you not to take photographs. I found this out after I had taken around 50 photos. Never mind. There are hundreds of flies which get pretty annoying. I took a look around the cultural centre. There are painting from Aboriginal artists, some of which were really nice. The small paintings were selling for around $3000. Which is crazy. In the evening I wrote some postcards and had dinner (peanut butter sandwiches).
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