With the advantage of 2h time difference, I woke up easily at 0640 to train to Sydney’s domestic airport for my flight to Alice Springs, with a connection to Ayers Rock. It was meant to be a direct flight with Qantas but they had moved that route to subsidiary Jetstar which didn’t fly on a Wed. So it became two Qantas flights SYD-ASP-AYQ instead.
This is my first time flying domestically in Australia. Like in NZ, check-in and bag-drop is automated. As in NZ again, there are no ID checks (if one does everything the automated way). AirAsia’s tagline of “Now everyone can fly” can be modified to be “Now anyone can fly”.
Even though the flight from Sydney to Alice was about the same as the trans-Tasman flight yesterday, the lunch offering was just a quiche and a drink. I had to ask them for leftover quiches which they fortunately had. I had an hour’s layover in Alice before connecting on a Qantas Link Boeing 717 which was spacious and super-quiet with its rear-mounted engines (I had a front seat but I suspect it could be hellishly noisy sitting with the engines inches away from you).
Upon arrival at Uluru airport, there is a free coach service to Yulara where all the hotels are located. I had booked my accommodation at the Outback Pioneer, the cheapest place in town. Not only that, but I had booked the cheapest dorm room with 20 beds. I had overlooked the fact that the 4-bed dorms only cost fractionally more but it turned out to be the right choice. The 20-bed dorm was nearly deserted whereas I would imagine having to share a 4-bed ones with groups of 2-3 people.
I popped into the supermarket and saw that they had deli items discounted to clear. So I bought filled paninis and single-slice pizzas to heat up in a pan at the hostel kitchen.
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- Uluru as we come in to land.
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- Kata Tjuta as we come in to land.
