Today we are at Uluru. We left about 9:30 (it was 0.5 degrees at 8am, the bike had ice on the seat). It seemed appropriate that today was the first day I thought the thermal undergarments were optional and went without them. It heats up quite quickly and was 10 degrees by 10am so it was probably a good decision. Its nice to be able to, lets say, drain fluid without having to undress almost totally.
It was only about 240km to Yullara and was quite an easy ride, even though the road condition is getting worse all the time. In SA, the roads were very good. nice shoulders, nice line marking and when repairs are made, they are made in large sections which makes it smoother to ride on. In the NT, they are really narrow, no sholders at all, and youre lucky to get line markings. They do make up for it by allowing you to go 130kph (although you generally don’t want to)
We took ages to get into the room as the resort was having issues with cleaning. We decided, as soon as we finally got unpacked, to go and see the rock at sunset. we had a quick lap (well as quick as you can, its a hige rock) and setup in the sunset photo parking lot with about 50 other cars. Some were making dinner, sitting on roofs sitting on chairs, all the sorts of things you wish you had thought of.
After getting some photos as the light changes (its really quite inpressive how quickly it changes colours) I stayes to try to get some shots after the sun went down. I’ve put some here. Remember, its a D300 and has a max shutter time of 30 seconds. The tripod was on sand and I was a little cold. I haven’t worked on these yet but the look ok i think (at least on my small screen here)
Tomorrow we will probably go to the Olgas or the rock for some laps with the family on the bike (everyone wants a go, including the in-laws). Whatever we don’t do tomorrow, we will do the next day so its a prety easy few days.
After our third night here, we are going to Kings Canyon for 2 nights. My tyre is getting a little thin so that will be first on the list for Alice when I get there.
I probably won’t blog in the next few days (unless something interesting happens) as its kind of a holiday within the holiday :-)