Travelling Post 40 - One big, great, rusty, rock

On Friday I left Alice Springs for an amazing 3 day, 2 night trip to Uluru and back with The Rock Tour. In terms of tours it was my best yet and sat in front of Uluru, eating dinner as the sun sat behind me is, most definitely a highlight of the trip. But I'm jumping ahead of myself.

On our first day I arose at a ridiculously early 5.20am to get ready and picked up for 6.15am. Once on the bus it was sleep time before a 3 hour walk around Kings Canyon, which was a good hard walk to get us all worn out before heading to our nights camping. The advantage of this walk, unlike the others undertaken on the trip was The Garden of Eden, a billabong half way into the walk filled with freezing cold water to cool us down in the 30+ degree heat. As advised by Nick the tour guide, I went in fully clothed.

Kings Canyon

Our first, and second, nights camping was in a swag bag, under the stars. The best way to describe a swag bag is a canvas sleeping bag with a mattress in it, but a sleeping bag goes inside the swag bag. It was an interesting experience, but a surprisingly comfortable one to. On the second night we had to place our shoes off the ground so as to stop dingoes taking them, that worried me slightly, what if they found no shoes and decided to take me in their stead!

Our second day began at an even more ridiculously early 5am and it was off for another 3hour walk, this time to The Olgas, or to give them their Aboriginal name Kata Tjuta. The Aboriginal story behind these amazing rock formations is related to Uluru. Uluru was built by two boys who started off building a mud pile, when they had finished they slid down Uluru and threw away the stones that were in their way, which ended up in a big pile; Kata Tjuta. There is obviously a scientific story behind their creation but i cannot remember it, and will not be half as interesting as the Aboriginal tale.

After Kata Tjuta it was off to the cultural centre before sunset at Uluru. I was expecting to see the sun setting behind Uluru, but instead the sun set behind us as we watched Uluru changed colour, or rather we saw it change shades of the same colour. The sunset was watched by many people who all had arrived at a viewing area, luckily we were there quite early so I sat down near the front with some friends I'd made. Some people there had paid hundreds more dollars than I to be there and be waiter served with glasses of champagne, but if you ask me the best way is the way we did it. Sat in the dirt, chatting, having a laugh and trying to take a picture every 5 minutes to get the changes. Then, just after sunset, but when it was still light, our tour guide had finished making dinner so we got up, grabbed our dinner and sat back down where we were and ate it there, no table needed. It was a really nice evening, and I took lots and lots of photos, all of the same thing.

















Sunset

The final day was. yet again, a really ridiculously early 5am start so as to get to Uluru for sunrise. Again the sun was behind us as we watched Uluru come out of darkness. It wasn't as impressive as sun set, I think it was because the viewing area was smaller, and it had lost the novelty value.
















Sunrise


After sunset we walked the majority of the reddish monolith, so coloured because of the oxidisation of the surface iron content, then it was off home via a quick 5 minute camel ride.

When I made the decision to come to Australia, I made the decision to visit Uluru at the same time, its synonymous with the country and not only a great natural site but also one of huge cultural significance to the indigenous population. As you walk around Uluru, there are sections that you are forbidden to take pictures because they are sacred places, being respectful no one of me or my friends took pictures. The original inhabitants of the area, known as Anangu, request that no one climbs the rock but because it is leased out to the Australian Government it isn't forbidden. At the cultural centre it explains why this is so, yet there were still people on the tour who wanted to climb it which was disappointing. What wasn't was when we arrived the climb was closed due to strong winds, so they didn't get their wish. Ha.

I didn't know whether to expect a spiritual experience or whether it would be just a big rock. Well I never got a spiritual experience, anyone who knows me could have told me that I'm not that sort of person, but neither was it just a big rock. I think I recognised it for what it is, both an impressive feat of nature which is historically and culturally significant and neither facade of the rock should not to be dismissed as trivial.