Another take on the Rock

Today so far, we have been dragged from our beds before dawn for a sunrise walk through a gorge in the Olgas, a rather extraordinary group of hills 45 minutes from the hotel.  It's still dark as we have breakfast and set off,  but it's a fabulous walk and at that time of day there are no other tourists.  We are the only group mad enough to be out.  

After a short rest back at base camp, we're whisked off into Yulara, the local town or rather the local small group of hotels clustered around two or three shops and restaurants, whose only reason to exist is to provide somewhere for Uluru visitors to sleep and eat. 

Now having walked from one end to the other - a process that has kept us out of trouble for 15 minutes we are both delighted not to be staying in any of them. Suddenly, 131 might be looking up!

Lunch is a vast improvement on dinner - a really excellent King Prawn salad with a lime and chilli dressing, followed by a trio of sorbets, though service could be a lot better and a touch less surly and what was advertised as raspberry sorbet proved to be blackcurrant.

After lunch, we go over to check out our new room. In all practical repects, it is identical to our first room. The big difference, however, is that the air conditioning is no longer a threat to our hearing.  So we'll have to call that an improvement. It would have been nice if they'd remembered that we wanted skimmed milk for the Muse's early morning tea and even better if they'd also remembered my bath robe. The bath robes in the rooms are one size fits all - the all being a limbless 4ft midget with a 12ins waist line.  They do have Sumo wrestler size, but you have to request it, which I did for our first room. I'd have been thrilled if they'd remembered to move it over with our luggage. 

And that really sums up the problem with Longitude 131. It could be fantastic. There is no better positioned hotel nor one with better views. They're just sloppy with poor attention to detail, which at the price they charge is just not acceptable.

Nevertheless we are here to see the rock and to explore more of Australia's red centre and there are plenty of excursions lined up for us. We're up for all of them of course. Later this afternoon when the heat of the sun has started to go, we will be going right into the gorges and crevices of Uluru for what promises to be another amazing walk. The weather is really interesting, though.  There is a lot of cloud about with strong winds and although there is some sun, it may well rain as the day progresses. Currently the rock is pink, partly in sun and partly in the shadow of the passing clouds. It's a wonderful sight. 

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