Chris & Darryl's Trips: Kimberleys Trip 23 May 2019

Thursday 23 May 2019

Kimberleys Trip 23 May 2019

We were joined by several Spinifex pigeons around the campsite over breakfast.

We got going early to climb The Rock (Uluru), starting up at 8:30am along with lots and lots of other people.

There is a fairly steep bit before the chain starts and once on the chain Darryl took off faster than me (as he is a lot fitter). I got to a spot where a couple were resting. He, (Mick), decided not to go any further as he was suffering vertigo, so Diana and I decided to climb together as we wanted to travel at about the same pace. It was a good decision as we mentally assisted each other as well. It turned out they are from Rockhampton!

We got to the end of the chain and Darryl was waiting for us, but then took off again. Then we had to follow a white dotted line. I was really surprised by all the pools of water up there with greenery growing in and near.

We arrived at a part where one lady had spent 20 mins trying to get down, and we both thought that we wouldn't go any further. When we decided to go and have a look a young couple provided us moral support and we made it! We got to the cairn at the top around 11:15am.

It took less than an hour to get back down, and for some of the part on the chain I had to go backwards to protect my knees. In the really difficult steep sections, going up and down, I had to go on all fours, sometimes forwards and sometimes backwards.

At the bottom we sat and recovered in the shade area, (at one point I saw a baby Perenti), until around 1:30pm then started walking anti-clockwise around the rock (10.6km).

I really wasn't keen, but Darryl talked me into it, and I was pleased as part of the way around we saw a Thorny Devil on the track. He was magnificent..only around 12cm long. I have never seen one apart from on TV or in books, so was absolutely thrilled.