Up, up and away!

Friday 22^nd October

Had breakfast on the balcony this morning, gazing at Uluru in the distance. However many photographs you see of it, the actual place just blows you away. The rock changes colour constantly and against a foreground of green vegetation (unusual this time of year apparently ), wild flowers and red ochre sand it is literally awesome. If anyone says you don’t need very long here, they can’t  have been here. We wish we had at least another night.

We were picked up at a very civilised hour this morning and taken to the airport for a 30 min helicopter flight to get up close and personal with Uluru and Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas. Marg was a little bit nervous about her first time in a helicopter, but the young, good looking Aussie pilot, Adam, seemed to put her at her ease!

 

Seeing our resort with Uluru 20 km distant was amazing.  The resort can accommodate about 5000 people, but is so well designed that at ground level it just blends into the surroundings.

The rest of the flight was indescribable – a little bumpy at times, hence some VERY lop-sided photos. Apparently though flights go ahead in up to 40 knot winds! Today was a calm one! Biggles Billings enjoyed himself though and thought it was even better than flying over Oxwich!

After getting some amazing views of Uluru we headed off to the Olgas, which are actually a little higher than Uluru, but are a series of rocks rather than one single one.

After our flight this morning we wished we’d hired a car so that we could spend more time exploring the area. Sherpa Jenkins and son would love it here – they’d be climbing everything in sight! We’ll be content with a walk around the base of Uluru tomorrow.