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August 19th 2006

Published: August 23rd 2006

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Ayers Rock I

Flying in over Ayers Rock (Uluru) was breathtaking - nothing prepares you for the sight, after 2hours of flying over flat expanses of outback, of an enourmous monolith rising out of the desert. It's verging on the ridiculous that this rock should exist there at all - Thomas is of the theory that aliens dropped the rock from the sky.

Checking-in to our accomodation soon wiped the smiles off our faces - the Ayers Rock Resort has a fixed number of hotels with a fixed range of prices, not exactly in line with our expectations! - but at least we got a swimming pool and a decent barbeque at night (although the 3rd yowling rendition of Hey Jude by the in-house one-man-band did grate a little on the nerves!).

With only 2nights/1full day here in Ayers Rock, a challenge-Annika atmosphere prevailed, with a 5am start for Uluru sunrise and a 10km base tour, followed by a trek out to the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) in the afternoon with an 8km clamber over the domes, finished off with sunset back by Uluru.

Probably the weirdest thing was the unbelievably blue sky all day... the contrast between the red sandstone and

Sunrise

the blue skies was fascinating, and all the photographs look like somebody had superimposed the rock on blue background. Uluru is about 346m high, and while the image in my head was of a regular-rectangular-shaped rock with a few crevices, it's only when you get right up to the base of the rock that you appreciate how oddly shaped it is, with gorges and caves, and chunks of sandstone simply eroded away like some giant had taken a few huge bites out of it. There is a lot of history attached, not simply the spiritual significance, with cave rock art (like what you imagine the stone-age cave paintings) and ceremonial areas.

Sunrise was freezing (yes you can freeze in the desert!) but a scalding cup of tea and ginger nut biscuits (I KNOW! GINGER NUT BISCUITS!) kept the hypothermia at bay, but there was a feeling of silliness at a crowd of about 100 people just staring at a big rock for an hour waiting for the sun to rise! The walk around the base took about 1.5 hours, with a quick stop at the base climb, shaking our heads as we watched another set of octagenarians attempting to

Dawn at the Rock

climb the rock. When I say "climb" I should clarify how serious this climb is - there are no steps, no convenient footholds, just bare rock, with a chain nailed into the side of the rock a little way up to ease the near-vertical climb. Because of the spiritual significance of the rock (the ancient Aboriginal Mala ancestors climbed the rock as part of a religious ceremony) and because of the number of recent deaths of foolish tourists who attempted to climb it, the local Aboriginals ask that you do not climb it.... as if that would stop anyone...and so you see them clambering up, in their chinos and hush puppies, only to realise 1/3up that it wasn't such a good idea, and then Park Rangers have to be called to rescue them..

The trip to the Olgas was more exciting than Uluru itself, being higher and with more variety of landscape around the 8km Valley of the Winds walk - we even came across a kangaroo which was hiding in a bush about 2feet from us, a kestrel flying overhead and hordes of wild birds. By the end of the day, my calves were killing me, and I