Another day, another journey

When I had booked my Greyhound ticket from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock on the internet I was told that I was to get the bus from a bus stop in Alice Springs at 7.30am. However, when I checked into my hostel on the Sunday night one of the guys who worked there said he'd tell them to pick me up at the hostel at 6.45am. I assumed that happened all the time and took him at his word that he'd make the arangements, although I always had some nagging doubts in the back of my mind.

It was no surprise then that by 7.00am on the morning of Monday 3rd July the bus hadn't turned up at the hostel. I asked the girl at reception if she knew what time the bus was due and she told me that she'd never heard of the Greyhound picking people up at the hostel before. She tried to phone Greyhound to confirm that they were indeed picking me up there but the offices weren't open at that time in the morning. She kindly gave me a lift to the bus stop and the bus turned up at around 7.10am, picked up the five of us who were waiting and promptly left. It seemed to me that I could quite easily been left behind that morning.

Anyway, after a short four and a half hour journey I was in Yulara, otherwise known as the Voyages Ayers Rock Resort. The whole resort was built pretty much all at once and includes accommodation from backpacker lodges at the Outback Pioneer all the way through to the five star hotel called the Sails in the Desert. The resort also includes shops, cafes, restaurants, accommodation for the employees, a fire station, police station and a medical centre among many other things.

My cousin Alan met me as I got off the bus. He works for Voyages, the company that owns the resort, and had kindly offered to put me up for the few days I was spending there. I'm not sure how many years it's been since we last saw each other so it was good to see him again. He gave me a brief tour of the place before dropping me off in the centre as he had to get back to his work. I spent most of that afternoon looking around the shops and reading pamphlets from the tourist information place, trying to give myself an idea of what I wanted to try and fit in to my brief stay.

In the early evening I walked up to the viewpoint in the centre of the resort to take in the view and then hung around to watch the sun setting upon the the rock. It certainly felt quite surreal seeing Ayers Rock with my own eyes for the first time.

After the sunset I met up with Alan and his girlfriend and they took me out to dinner at the Sails in the Desert. Obviously I haven't been dining in the restaurants of many five star hotels while I've been away and the fact that it was a buffet was just the icing on the cake. All you can eat! In a five star hotel! Man, it was better than Christmas!

The evening was topped off with a few nice glasses of wine in the hotel bar before we headed back to Alan's place where I promptly KO'd in my bed in preparation for an early start and a long day the following day.