Thanksgiving At 30,000 Feet And Black Friday Up Early Looking At A Big Red Rock

The monkey is now reporting from deep in the center of the Australian Outback. Certainly a different way to spend Thanksgiving.

November 27th

Thanksgiving morning is often spent traveling by many. Of course many of them are trying to get closer to each other, and I guess for my dad and myself, it was close, as we spent a decent portion of it sitting in the airport, sitting on an airplane, or sitting in a car together. The journey to the Outback began early-ish in the morning and we checked into the Qantas domestic terminal well before out flight. It gave us plenty of time to grab a bite and sit around.

The flight itself was good as I secured the emergency row with the much needed extra leg room. In Australia the airlines still believe in feeding you on flights, so ham and brie cheese sandwiches were passed out before the movie started. It was the newer X-Files movie, which I had already watched on my big flight, but I thought it was an odd choice of a movie to watch while eating. After the meals were eaten it was coffee and tea service. I always love how the Aussies push the coffee and tea after every meal. Ahhhhhh, Thanksgiving on an airplane.

We arrived at the Ayers Rock airport and waited for our bags to be unloaded. I retrieved my dads first bag and mine, and then used the restroom while he waited for his final bag. When I returned he had this dejected look on his face. Yep, despite the fact we checked in three hours before our flight and had zero connections on our flight, they lost his bag. Not a fun situation.

After talking to the Qantas staff, we went to pick up our rental car. The last time I was here I had limited driving experience mainly because I couldn't fit in the car and be able to drive. So, this time I was hoping for better luck. Now, being deep into the Outback, I was thinking we should get a vehicle like this:

Nope, instead we hired this car for the Outback:

The good news was that I could fit behind the wheel and drive it. The bad news is that we were going to be doing any serious off-road driving. Not a big deal really.

We drove the short distance to Ayers Rock Resort and checked into the Desert Palms Hotel. Ayers Rock and the resort can best be described as Disney Land in a sense. You have very limited options on where to stay and where to eat, so they make you pay for it. The idea was to have the Ayers Rock experience without blowing too much of the travel budget on just this place. At least with the US dollar being very strong against the Aussie dollar, we fared well.

After a LOOOOOOOOONG walk to our room, we unloaded our gear (my dad had much less than myself to unload) and headed into the shopping & dining complex for another LOOOOOOOOOONG walk to acquire some food. Keeping true to the Australian Outback experience, I opted for a bacon cheeseburger. Not bad and seriously on my quest to check out bacon cheeseburgers around the globe, I can now check off Ayers Rock. Match that BOR!

With tummies full we got back into the car and cruised into Ayers Rock park and paid the admission fees. We didn't head to the rock, instead going to the other rocks, known as The Olgas. Very fascinating, indeed:

We drove closer and walked in on the valley walk path. Very scenic and colorful. Now, as cliched as it sounds, we experienced the red soil and baked in the heat. It's only Spring here, but 39 degrees Celsius is still rather warm.

The valley of the winds walk was closed due to high winds. Huh? Well, I hiked it in to the first lookout point and was nearly blown off my feet. As the weather folks like to say here, it was indeed a bit "blowy".

After exploring the Olgas to our content, we headed towards Ayers Rock for some sunset viewing. There was a decent sized crowd, but thankfully the tour buses had a separate area, so it wasn't nearly as crowded as it could have been. I established a good position and shot the hell out of that great big red rock.

After taking more photos of Ayers Rock than I'll know what to do with, we headed back to the resort for a late dinner (or is it supper?......hmmmm). Sort of forgetting that I was away from the coast, I still stuck with fish & chips. Not bad, but could have been better. I guess they have to fly that damn fish in a long way. Well, it was food and certainly another long day.

November 28th

Typically the day after Thanksgiving is the day you get up super early and shop for bargains. Well, I embraced the getting up early aspect for the sake of photography, but not for shopping. Take that retailers of the world. So, we got up around 5:00am and headed out the door before the sun had risen, despite the fact that the birds were chirping like mad. I have a nice guide pamphlet that might help me narrow down which of the buggers is to blame.

Arriving at the official sunrise viewing area, there were plenty of people as expected. Now, instead of giving you the typical photo of the rock in it's splendid glory, all isolated from the world, here's what you really get from the experience:

A little different that what you expect as many non-English speaking tourists jumping around ad making silly poses in front of the rock. Of course, we had to join in as well (see the next photo). I guess getting up so early makes you fill a little silly, so why not have some fun. After getting my fill of photos, it was time to head back and properly prepare for our base walk around Ayers Rock.

Back at the resort, we found our brekkie dining options limited to a $30 buffet. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to do before a hike, so we made some instant coffee and had coffee and Tim Tams for brekkie: the breakfast of champions. Now we were ready for our base walk.

Ayers Rock (or Uluru in native speak) is an interesting site. During the walk around you find signs for sacred sites where you are not allowed to take photos and climbing the rock is seriously frowned upon. However, there is signage stating if the climb is open for the day, and there is an official path up Ayers Rock, and people are climbing it. Very odd.

The base walk was certainly an experience. It lasted for about two and half hours and the photos never do justice to the heat and the flies. Yep, those darned Outback flies. I wasn't sure how well I would fare, but I didn't wimp out, no fly net for me baby! Trust me, once you do it, you understand that it's no typical walk in the park.

After visiting the cultural center, we grabbed lunch. Ahhhhh, it had been a while, but I was ready for a meat pie once again. I really liked these on my previous visit, and I skipped the touristy kangaroo, emu, and camel varieties and went for beef. We also chatted up a friendly couple from Queensland and gathered some good trip advice for our upcoming portion around Brisbane and our drive north.

My time here at Ayers Rock is winding down. Next up we hop on over to Alice Springs, and then get right back on the plane and head to Brisbane. Qantas just called and my dads bag is going to be delivered shortly. Sounds like we are all ready for more. Onward.