The Olgas - Kata Tjuta

We had an early lunch and then headed out to Kata Tjuta early in the afternoon, taking our dinner, so we could watch the sunset. I am so glad we did it this way, as it was truly magnificent. I loved the Olgas from the minute I saw their silhouette in the distance on the road out to Uluru. There is something so spellbinding about their shape, and their hazy purple silhouette in the distance, they are almost more beautiful in the distance than up close. Uluru is formed of sandstone, whereas the Olgas are a conglomerate rock. The differences are so apparent and so interesting, being so close in distance, and being the only 2 rocky monoliths sticking up in the middle of a vast,  flat area. I think they are every bit as beautiful and stunning as Uluru.

This is the view I absolutely love (hazy pic and all)

Walpa Gorge
There are two easy walks you can do, one is the Walpa Gorge and the other is Valley of the Winds. Walpa Gorge is an interesting walk through two tall rock walls. Rory discovered that the walls make a very nice echo. On the ranger guided walk at Uluru the day before, the ranger had told us how the Anangu people would approach a waterhole with calm, quiet and a reverence. Rory completely ruined all chances of people doing that once he discovered the echoes!

We had a funny experience at The Olgas. We had done the Uluru ranger guided walk the day before and Rory, being Rory (aka Captain Crash), had fallen over in front of the group on two occasions. Once he quite spectacularly laid himself out flat in front of an older gentleman who very kindly helped him to his feet. As we were walking up the Gorge an older couple was walking back towards us and the lady said to me "I remember this little boy, he's the one that kept falling over yesterday." If you've spent any time with Rory, you would realise how common it is, so it was kind of funny that complete strangers recognised him for this particular skill!

Valley of the Winds
We tried to do the Valley of the Winds walk... tried, because by this time Rory was over tired and over everything, so it wasn't a particularly pleasant walk, with the crying and tantrums and carrying a screaming toddler who didn't want to be carried but didn't want to walk either. We did the short walk to the Karu Lookout, and it was worth it, whinging and all, as you get a completely different perspective of The Olgas.

 Karu Lookout

After that walk we headed back to the cars and cooked steak sandwiches while we waited for sunset. We had to battle the flies for our steak, but hey, it's all part of  the experience. Sunset at the Olgas is completely, utterly worth it on a sunny day. I have no idea what it is like on a cloudy day, although our experience at Uluru makes me think it would be worthwhile even on a cloudy day. The colour changes are absolutely awesome.

As we were leaving, the moon came up behind the Olgas and it is indescribable how amazing a site this was. Our cameras just couldn't capture it well enough.