Sunday 24.04.11 Rainbow Valley - Yulara

We awoke to the temperature inside the camper being slightly colder than the fridge! 4.8 degrees compared to the fridge temperature of 5. Once up just after dawn, the temperature slowly came up. Bacon, eggs and baked beans was the way to refuel, and we did another walk towards Mushroom Rock and more photo opportunities. We packed up and were away at 11am and stopped about 1pm for a quick lunch at Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse after the turnoff to Yulara at Erldunda.

We also did a quick stop further on at the viewing area to get some photos of Mt Connor, which is an impressive monolith in its own right. The expected desert ochre colours are actually hard to find right now - we were surprised that this stretch of road has many trees looking a bit like pines - tallish skinny ones (desert oaks, I think) and then shorter squat trees as well, and plenty of pale green/cream grass.

We continued on to Yulara, arriving after 4pm, quite amazed at the size of the resort and campgrounds and the number of people already here so early in the season. We did a slight choke on the camping fees - $72 for two people for two nights! And the advertised "Sounds of Silence" dinner excursion prompted an even bigger sound of choking at $165 per person.

We went to the viewing area at the campground to see the sun go down over Uluru - unfortunately it is impossible to get photos of it without resort buildings in the foreground. Some judicious cropping will be required. Once back to our camp, we were met with a sense of foreboding of the raucous sound of our immediate neighbours with no volume control. Rachel had a quiet but friendly word with them to tone it down a bit, however their half volume was still intrusive, and became even more so with the addition of further alcohol.

With no letup to the noise at 11pm, an hour after the campground's 10pm noise curfew, another more sterner visit was required in preference to Paul going over there with his axe. That option is still available to us, and may well still be required. We shall claim justifiable homicide.

Dinner was very tender vacuum packed scotch fillet and salad, washed down with a De Bortoli shiraz or three to keep the chill away.