Day 51 Kata Tjuta

• Early start for Stuart to see the sunrise at Uluru. Unfortunately, the sunrise was by far not as spectacular as the sunset the night before, because it was very cloudy, so not much sun on Uluru, so no color changes.

• After sunrise it was still very cold and windy, so we were not sure whether to walk the Uluru base walk or Kata Tjuta. So after driving around the Uluru base by car to keep warm and a look at the weather forecast we decided to go for Kata Tjuta.

First we walked into the Walpa Gorge. It was very windy and cold, so Stuart decided to stay in the car after the cold sunrise. The Walpa Gorge has high walls on each side and narrows towards the gorge, so the strong wind made the walk more difficult than it actually would be, but the views on the walls are worth the effort.

The second walk of the day was the Valley of the Winds walk. The first part is pretty easy to walk and takes you to the Karu Lookout. At this point the walk would be closed if the weather forecast is over 36C, but with the cold temperatures of the day, the walk was open to the next lookout: Karingana Lookout. From this lookout one has a spectacular view over Kata Tjuta. Most people walk then back the same way to the car park, because it is about 2km shorter this way than to finish the loop Valley of the Winds walk. We rather walk loops than the same way back, so we we were almost on our one on the loop back to the Karu Lookout and the car park enjoying the views ans silence.

As the weather did not get any better in terms of clouds, there was no point driving to the sunset areas, but instead call it a day and get some rest for the walk on the next day.