Uluru

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With a blow on my Digeridoo - here we are at Ayres' rock - or Uluru in the local tongue.
Apparently they don't use the Digeridoo in the North - but the rock is pretty amazing!

It's a very weird (and a very Red) place. They got orgainised with tourism in 1984 - flattened the old hotels and built a new airport and resort outside the national park. As a result - it's nice, but expensive. They've got 4 or 5 different hotels catering to different bugets - but I think probably all run by the same central company - it's well laid out and there's a supermarket and a free shuttle bus around the resort...

Any number of people will sell you a tour around either Uluru or Kata Juta which are both about 20/30 kms from the resort - we chose the Uluru express which just drops you off and lets you do your own thing.

We really enjoyed our couple of days, getting up for sunrise and seeing the sunset twice!
The highlight is definately the colours on Uluru as the sun goes down - as you might be able to see when I add the pictures !

The land is now owned by the Aborigines - and we tried to find out a bit about them, and their attachment to the rock. It was pecuilar though - we went to cultural center, and we read what we could, but nowhere could we find any depth to the Aboriginal people or their faith. We realised after some time that part of their belief is that all the details have to be kept secret to those who haven't been initiated; which rules out the average Joe completely ! We had to content ourselves with the simple stories that the Aborigines would convey to their toddlers, rather than the real adult story.

There's a real controversy here too - there is a climb up the rock. The aborigines don't want you to climb it though... and the park rangers don't want you to climb it either as they're the guys that collect the bodies when things go wrong. However, there is a sort of inviting chain that's well maintained running up the rock ... which tempts you to try it. So you stand at the bottom toying with your conseince deciding whether to do it. And more than that - if it gets windy they close the climb. Apparently they can't close the climb altogether as it's too much of a money spinner - and it's advertised in Japan as "Come climb the rock". 60% of people climb it - after some soul searching, we'd like to think we'd in the elite crowd that didn't.

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Photos

Uluru
Uluru at sunset

Uluru
Us walking round the base