Great Central Road to Kata Juta and Yulara

Friday 4th August
Yulara Resort (Ayers Rock)

Departing our campo site in good time, we found the Great Central Road east was in very poor condition and heavily corrugated. One of the benefits of reduced speed was that we were able to spot a very fat and contented Thorny Devil. He was duly photographed and returned to his plot to feast on more ants. We made good time though and the Olgas (Kata Juta) came into view after few couple of hours. We had morning tea in the car park at the Valley of the Winds and then headed off on the 5 km round walk. There was certainly a lot more water around than on my last visit in 2005 and the track had been improved somewhat. More CDJEP work for the dole money no doubt. We made good time round the circuit and again, many more photos were taken. On return we headed straight in to Yulara and booked in at the camp ground.


After setting up we did the sunset viewing with the throngs before doing the smorgasbord at the Pioneer Motel. After dinner it was back to camp to sit around the fire for an hour before bed. As an interesting aside, there ara a large number of French Citroën owners and their antiquated (and bloody noisy) jalopies participating in some round Australia or the world type jaunt. The park is full of loud French exclamations and engine noise as they work on the vehicles and then insist at test driving them around the camp ground at all hours.