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Published: July 11th 2009
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Sunrise - 01
The sun was just starting to pop up. Thursday was the third day of our Rock Tour trip. With our first day focusing on Kings Canyon and the second on Kata Tjuta, this was our Uluru day. The day before, we tried to see the sunset on Uluru, but rain clouds prevented that. So we made sure to get up bright and early to see the sunrise on Uluru instead, which is supposed to yield similar results. Well, it didn’t last long, but it was definitely amazing! The giant rock goes from grayish one second, to bright red the next! The colour contrast compared to everything else was so crazy! Unfortunately, it just doesn’t last that long, so it was over before we knew it. However, we were really lucky because just as the rock began to glow red, a beautiful rainbow appeared, forming an arch over the entire rock. Amazing! Really something people should experience at least once in their life.
We then took a walk around Uluru so that we could see it up close and personal. This was the easiest of all the walks, since it was just a flat path around a big rock. Lol It’s amazing when you think about it, that this
Sunrise - 02
Is that a rainbow over Uluru?! giant monolithic structure is located in the middle of nothing. In terms of cultural significance, there are quite a few areas of the rock that are not supposed to be viewed by a specific gender. Men are not allowed to view certain areas, and the same goes to women. It feels strange to have to walk by without glancing over to it, but you try your best. The same goes for photography, in that certain areas can not be photographed. In my opinion, because it’s a natural structure (or phenomenon) I didn’t completely agree with this rule, but in the end I made sure to respect the wishes of the local Aboriginal people (also known as the Anangu). Another point of interest is the Uluru climb. This is a very popular tourist attraction, but dangerous as well. It’s also frowned upon by the traditional owners of Uluru. Basically, one of the slopes of the rock is just shallow enough for people to climb. But it’s still quite steep, and there are no safety features save a small chain link handrail (only one, not one on each side of you). In fact, in the people have died on this climb! It’s
bad enough that the Parks Australia closes off the climb whenever wind, rain or any other natural phenomenon is present to risk lives. So if it’s so dangerous, why keep it open? It’s a famous attraction. For the indigenous people though, the climb represents the transition of a boy into manhood. This boy would have to complete many tasks to be able to earn the right to climb the rock, and only then be known as a man. So tourists popping by and casually climbing the rock for the fun of it is usually seen as disrespectful by locals. Of course some people don’t agree with this reasoning, and do the climb anyways. In fact, approx 100,000 people climb it every year, which is about a third of the total tourists who visit Uluru. In the end, it’s their own decision. The day we went by, the climb was closed, so we didn’t even need to give it a second thought.
After Uluru, we started back to Alice Springs. On the way though we stopped for some camel riding! It was a lot of fun. Not exactly the smoothest ride, but I could how this was THE way to
Sunrise - 04
A bit of contrast between the rock and it's surroundings. travel when crossing dry terrain like a desert. Lol Just be careful of getting spit on.
Back in Alice Springs, the first thing everyone did was take a shower! All of our clothes were covered in red dirt. Not to mention our bodies probably had a layer of dried sweat all over. There may not have been any hot water at the time, but it felt good anyways! We then headed out to the pub with our Rock Tour group and had a great time drinking and dancing at a local place in town. Good times had by all, and a few exchanges of e-mail addresses and Facebook accounts. Lol Definitely a great way to make new friends.
Kevin (and Hillary)
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