The Olgas

The Olgas

Tracie and I really, really liked the Olgas. We went on two short hikes in them after lunch, but before the sunset at 6:00.
This panorama was Tracie's idea. She makes a great art director because she has a great eye for what would make a beautiful photo, unfortunately she hasn't spent the time to learn the technical aspects of using the camera and is sometime left unsatisfied with the results when she knows how good the photo could or should look.
The first walk was only about a kilometer long through the valley of the winds. One of the first things that I noticed was that unlike Ayer's rock, the Olgas are conglomerate rock, you can see cunks of what looks like field stone scatter throughout the formations.
Some other great bonuses to the Olgas are the fact that you can get much more immersed in them. You can walk on trails through the enormus valley and be completely surrounded by the domes. You can only really ever be on the edge of Ayer's rock, but never surrounded by it.
Lastly many fewer people go out to the Olgas and so you run in to fewer tourists. We did run into two groups being led by guides and one of the guides even took a photo for us. He is a much better guide than photographer.
At the most strenuous part of the walk, the group turned back, they wanted to make it back in time to go to the sunset lookout and take some photos. We asked the guide how long it would take to complete the circuit. He told us 1.5 to 2 hours. We figured that he was giving us the time it would take to take a group around the circuit and that we had plenty of time to walk all the way around.
It tured out that we were right and had the trail all to ourselves. It was really magificent to see the domes and be surrounded them as sunset neared. As far as I'm concerned, the Olgas are a must see if you go to the park to see Uluru because they are even nicer.

Here is an arial view of Ayer's Rock and The Olgas via google maps.