Back to Yulara

Ever since I left Yulara, the suburb next to Uluru (Ayers Rock) at the beginning of 2002 I have dreamed of coming back. There is something about the red earth, the wide open spaces and the silence and whispering from the winds that gets into your soul. Now my dream has come true and I have returned as a Tour Guide. I am fortunate enough to get ‘on the job’ training. Hopefully I have escaped the chains of office work for good as I embark on a new career.

I have been in training since I arrived here on Wednesday and I have learnt more about this area in the past couple of days than I did in 7 months when I was previously here. I feel honored to be back at such a sacred area.

My training consists of taking tours with other companies and learning about the culture, the history, bush food, medicine, utensil making, Tukapar which is the law, moral code & everything from birth to death for the Aboriginal people. I have had the opportunity to learn about stories from the creation time (previously called dreamtime by white fellas, but to the Aboriginal people it was no dream, just like our history is no dream), to learn about how the Anangu (local Aboriginal people) believe this area was created, about the local plants and wildlife, stories about termites, honey ants and Desert Oaks, the Mulga tree, whistling kytes and emus.

I have also found out that I will be doing a night talk on the starry heavens. I’m looking forward to learning about the night sky and enjoy my time stargazing.

Near Mt Connor, about 65kms from Uluru I walked to where there is evidence of life from 800 million years ago. This area was an inland sea and we walked out into the bush and found fossils of the algae that was growing at the bottom of the sea at that time. There is so much to learn out here and I am excited by the stories.

The Aboriginal people believe that everything is connected, that they are related to that tree which is related to that ant which is related to that rock which is related to their uncle and in learning this I feel more connected to everything that surrounds me.

I was in China learning about the Chinese culture and language when it dawned on me that I didn’t know anything about the culture and language of my own country. So here I am to learn about it and the next year I will be learning. People who have been out here for 3-4 years say they are still learning about this place everyday.

From my cute apartment and from those of you who have lived here you will know it as a share/share and know it’s not quite an apartment, but it’s my home now and I can see Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) from my balcony. I have a great view from my kitchen window of red earth, desert oaks, grevilleas and deep blue skies. I sleep with my bed facing a big window so during dawn I wake up every now and then to see the amazing colours of the sky as the sun is rising over this arid desert region.

There is a spare bed in my apartment for some reason so if you want to relax, have some peace and quiet and to feel reconnected to the land you are welcome to come for a visit. I really recommend it especially if you can take some time out to do a few tours and really learn about this area.

As you can probably tell from the enthusiasm of this blog it's great to be out here. And i am especially stoked to be able to say the great outdoors will be my office!

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