Picture this...

A 25 year old female, fitter than she's ever been in her life, strides easily up the slope which leads to the section of the climb with a chain rail... calm, confident, carefree...

Not 10 minutes later she is puffing and panting her way up the steep incline, praying for strength to see her through this painful ordeal! 

I admit, I was taken by surprise at how tough it was.  I can't remember how long it took now, but I read in a travel article that a sunrise climb, followed by a tour of the base and a visit to the Ranger Information Centre to see Aboriginal arts and crafts, still allowed time for tourists to have lunch at Yulara, the resort complex. Which illustrates my next point... tours are for mugs!  Who wants to drive all this way, and climb all this way, to stay for 5 minutes and then tear off to the next tourist spot??  Not this ozEkoala.  You may sometimes feel exasperated at my tendency to linger in certain places, but give me quality over quantity any time.

One thing I don't want to linger over, though, is this climb.  My muscles are screaming at this stage... the ascent is even steeper now, and it's unrelenting... nowhere to catch your breath... just keep on hauling on that chain rail... up, up, up.  Ooh, but it's going to be worth it!  Unrestricted views for miles and miles and miles... Fantastic!   Aren't you glad you didn't stay on the ground?  On second thoughts, I'll save that question until we get to the top!