Anyone who knows me well will know that I love the heat, but today the sun kicked our ass! It was a scorching 38°C with blue skies and minimal wind. By 11:30am, we were feeling the full effects of the heat to the point where I’m pretty sure we stopped sweating (even after drinking about 2 litres of water each).
We had started our day at 6am and ate breakfast watching the sunrise with Uluru in the distance. We took our time and made our way closer to Ayer’s Rock and started the 10km Base Walk around 8am. We thought that this was plenty early however the walk was essentially a desert trek with no shade, and the sun was really beating down on us by this point.
Walking around the base of the rock really gave us an appreciation of how large, uneven, and multi-dimensional the rock is. We were surprised to see that there were two water holes in shaded areas around the rock. We finished the walk before noon and we were absolutely zonked out and in desperate need of some A/C. We weren’t feeling too well at this point, so we headed back to the campground for a swim in the pool to cool off. It worked, but the only problem was that as soon as you got out of the pool, your body immediately felt like it was on fire again. Our plan for the afternoon was to head to Kata-Tjuta for the highly recommended “Valley of the Winds” walk; however they closed down the walk at 11am due to extreme temperatures.
I really don’t think either of us could have pushed through another walk today in this heat anyways. Instead we had an extremely relaxing dinner on a platform with an incredible view of Uluru at sunset. These moments really define the trip that we’re on.