Smack in the middle of the Red Centre of Australia

 

We left our airport hotel on Monday early morning, walked over to a nearby bus station and had a short ride over to the Domestic Terminal. Could have walked, too, but that would have taken a bit longer with our luggage.

Sydney Airport is airy and convenient, we had to have coffee first, because strangely, though Australia is known for a great coffee culture, in accommodations you only get instant coffee. 

Our Jetair plane, a A-320, started on time - Sydney on the left photo - and we even had the center seat empty for this short 2.5 hour-flight. Approaching the Red Centre of Australia (below), with Kata Tjouta in the background, briefly before touchdown.

 

"PALYA" is an universal word and means everything from Welcome, Hello to Thank you or Okay.  We arrived 1/2 hour earlier at Ayres Rock Airport, a very relaxed, very laid-back, very pleasant little airport. Busses were waiting for the transport of guests to the Ayres Rock Resort, a complex founded in the 1970s on the land and under the ownership of the Indigenous People of the region, the Anangu. The complex consists of five hotels, a hostel and a campground, several restaurants/cafés, shops and the GOCA (Gallery of Central Australia, further below). 

 

We had booked one of the more affordable hotels, the Lost Camel, and were fortunate to be able to check in at 1 pm already, plus, we got an upgrade, meaning, a larger room with three windows (the other rooms just have indirect lighting through the bathrooms) and an extra sofa. Pool is great,  too and we went for a swim almost immediately.

It was a bit cloudy and not too hot, windy and rather pleasant. Different from what we had expected! After unpacking (3 nights at the same place!!!), we studied the lay of the land and did our research on tours and other offerings on the resort grounds. Got us some dinner items at the rather small (and expensive) IGA supermarket and took part at two lectures/presentations: one in the fantastic art gallery (below) about weapons and boomerangs (which were also often used as hunting weapons by the Aboriginal People)  , the second was a more general short film about the land and the people in the theatre.

For sunset (above) we walked over to a nearby observation point, and, though the sunset itself wasn't too spectacular because of clouds, the landscape and the two rock formations nearby - the better known Uluru (above) and the Kata Tjuta (further below) - began to glow magically! Great contrast between red sand and lush green patches, too, flourishing because of the recent rain. Some flowers are still in bloom, too.

Overwhelming views! Lots of empty land, the outback of Australia. We called it a day after that and enjoyed - for a change - to have many TV channels, among them "SBS Food", which we love!