Uluru You

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It was easy to wake up today. Automatic. 7am felt like I was sleeping in. I made my way to the airport, with another friendly taxi driver to take me there, and before I knew it, I had gone from the great barrier reef to the red center of Australia. From the plan, I got my first glimpse of uluru- ayers rock. Pretty impressive, but reminded me a lot of Sedona, at least the color of the red rocks.
I ran over to the thrifty car rental booth and grabbed the keys to my right hand drive, manual transmission Toyota…awesome!!! I had almost forgot how much I was looking forward to driving on the wrong side of the road, with the wheel on the wrong side, AND the stick on my left.
Got the keys, and rolled my bags through the red dirt parking lot out to the car. Tossed it all in the back seat and took off! It was a bit awkward at first, that’s really the only way to put it. But it wasn’t impossible and after I got rolling it was no problem getting to the hotel. The hotel, by the way, is my first true backpacker experience. I thought that instead of giving the Voyages company all of my money on a sub standard 5 star room, which after I had a look at them I believe this to be true, I opted for 30 bucks a night to sleep in a dorm style room with showers and the pisser a 30 second walk across the Australian bush.
So far, so good. It’s really just my place to stay. I have just met my roommates, another brit and a Japanese, and it seems that they are game for joining me at the Sails restaurant tonight, supposedly the best food within a 500 mile radius- not saying much when you’re really out in the middle of nowhere.
Anyhow, we’ll see if they still talk to me after dinner’s over.
Back to my arrival.
I walked around the resort area for a bit, but I had some negative vibes there, partly born from looking at their scam over in the states. So, I got in the car and drove over to uluru.
As I arrived, I was placed at the bottom of the walking path. One way would take me around a sacred walk that explains the local aboriginies and what they do with their sacred mountain, the other and seemingly more traveled path, was “the climb,” a two hour walk up uluru. I really thought I might give it a try, even though I kept thinking how upset I’d be if a group of Japanese tourists decided to climb the wailing wall. I walked up to the trailhead that pointed left for the sacred walk and up for the aborigine’s forbidden walk up the mountain. In that moment, my instincts took me left. And so I walked around a part of the mountain that was truly an incredible experience. Each contour of uluru has been made into a story that tells about something that is important to the culture. And each contour represents a type of animal that has created that marking. For example, two streaks created from waterfalls appear to be two different type of snakes that are fighting with each other. Another place takes a large rock and turns it into an animal that digs holes into the mountain, and next to that rock, there are caves and holes in the mountain. Very cool.
The sunset was a bit disappointing though, since the clouds blocked the sun from hitting uluru just right. And tomorrow it’s supposed to rain- the first time in 4 months. But, apparently this is good luck out here, and that may also mean that the waterfalls will gain water so that we can see them in action!! May be cool. Everything’s in nature’s hands, again, and so far that’s allowed me to see some things that very few people have every seen. Will it happen again tomorrow?

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Photos

Uluru
I finally made it to the rock

Walk to the Car
Mission Mars