Entry 9: ULURU

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Due to clear skies, we had a good view of both Ayers Rock and The Olgas as we flew in and banked round to land. Even from this distance, surrounded by nothing (meaning, we couldn’t easily identify all 500 varieties of plant, more than 70 species of reptile and over 20 different types of mammal) they looked impressive.
Our home for the next few nights would be Yulara, the Ayres Rock resort. It’s the only place that provides accommodation, and supplies for exploring the area and is therefore predictably expensive. For all you purists out there, don’t worry the resort is not built next to the rock itself. It’s located approximately 20km away, a low rise affair that attempts to hide amidst the dunes. We’d managed to secure a 4-bed dormitory, that was a tiny room with two sets of bunk-beds in it. We’d be sharing it with an Italian lad, while the last bed remained empty. Thankfully, the small room had a brilliant little air-conditioning unit that was so good, I reckon that if I’d have held a running showerhead in front of it, I could have produced a minor blizzard. The reason why the air-con felt so cold was due mainly to the fact that it was absolutely stifling outside. Now the west coast had been hot, and Broome’s humidity had been oppressive, but this was unbelievable. Whilst here, Sam has been troubled with an almost permanent headache, while I have had two sudden nosebleeds. I can only relate these symptoms to the extreme heat which has seen temperatures rise above 43 degrees Celsius. Either that or we’re suffering the DT’s from alcohol withdrawal, having not had a drop since arriving here; hard to tell with Sam being as typically uncoordinated as ever.
As we exit the arctic conditions of our tiny dorm, it feels like twenty invisible people are stood outside our room all armed with hairdryers that they turn on with maximum heat as soon as we open the door. Those hairdryer wielding ghosts then proceed to follow us wherever we go, waiting for us outside every building in the resort.

Being 20km away from the main attraction is good business for the Yulara as this means you’ll require transport to get to and from the national park where both Ayres Rock and The Olgas can be viewed more closely. Other than the local Aborigines, I don’t know anyone who would walk the 40km round trip in this heat; and to be perfectly honest with a lot of the Aborigines adopting western lifestyles I’m not sure they would anymore either. Rather than get the shuttle bus we calculated it to be cheaper and far more convenient to hire a car for a few days, that way we could try avoid (if that’s possible) the tour groups and not be governed by time schedules, other than that of the rising and setting sun.
So that evening we drove out to a surprisingly quiet viewpoint to watch my first sunset on Ayres Rock.

Australia’s most identifiable landmark truly is one of the wonders of the natural world and in our opinion serves as the beauty spot on the stunning albeit weather-beaten face of Australia.
Australia’s famous centerpiece has been sacred to Aborigines (the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara to be precise) for thousands of years, and originally went by the now more widely used name of Uluru, which incidentally and rather disappointingly has no particular meaning. Although immense, only a third of its entire mass can be seen, with the other two thirds buried beneath the surface. Contrary to popular belief it’s not the world’s largest monolith, that title belongs to Mt Augustas in Western Australia, but it does get the runner up medal. Ernest Giles was the first European to set eyes on it back in 1872, but William Gosse was the first European to record a climb to the top, and was also the man who renamed it Ayres Rock. Now I can’t claim to know much about William Gosse other than he originated from Hertfordshire in England but I don’t instantly warm to the man, and here’s why. Not only does he scramble all over the sacred Aboriginal site, he also sees fit to rename it. If that’s not enough to label him not only disrespectful but probably arrogant to boot, the kiss-arse then decides to name it after the then Chief Secretary of Southern Australia, Sir Henry Ayres. I could just about forgive him if after seeing it’s beauty he’d chosen to rename it after his wife, daughter or something equally sentimental; hell, he could’ve even named it Gosse Rock after himself if he wasn‘t a husband or father. But no, he named it Ayres Rock. Is it me or is that the most blatant attempt to ensure some kind of promotion or favouritism?
Anyway, when the dual naming policy came into effect, which saw geographical landmarks given both their native name and English name, Uluru was the first feature in the Northern Territory to be officially dual named to Ayres Rock/Uluru. That was in 1993, since then it’s moved on a step further and in 2002 those names were switched and now reads Uluru/Ayres Rock. One day I hope those in power will also see fit to cease the pointless act of climbing to the top. Needless to say, we won’t be climbing, instead we’ll satisfy our ourselves by simply admiring it rather than walking all over it. This disrespectful and unnecessary novelty is attempted by approximately 70% of all visitors. What people expect to see when at the top is beyond me. The reason Uluru is so striking is that it seems to rise up out of a virtually flat landscape, therefore making the very object these people are standing on the only thing in the immediate vicinity there is to see; what’s that about? Although it’s pretty amazing to get up close, the base walk of 5.8miles is more than enough legwork in which to do that. The real beauty comes from standing back and admiring it in its entirety from a distance. The climb is closed when high winds and high temperatures make the conditions for the ascent more risky, which I’m glad to say was the case during our visit. Attempting to ascend Uluru’s 348m summit has resulted in 35 people losing their lives, and while I have little sympathy, I’m yet to see a more impressive headstone.

As the sun begins to descend the spectacle just continues to get better and better with every passing minute. I’ve heard people question the appeal of this marvel, stating ‘it’s just a rock‘. Well that maybe true, but it’s just a rock, like St. Peter’s Basilica is just a church, like the Grand Canyon is just a gap, like World War II was just a boundary dispute. Anyway, you get my point, and if not, it’s probably time you stopped straining your only brain cell reading this and watched that episode of Eastenders you recorded the other night.
Aborigines aside, I know it’s not only Sam and I that find this ’rock’ mesmorising as it continues to be (albeit far away from all the major cities) one of Australia’s most visited sites. I can fully appreciate how the natives saw this place with a spiritual reverence, there’s just something strangely hypnotic about it. I’m not about to describe an outer body experience, or suggest I wanted to paint my skin and inhale a potent hallucinogenic, but it does possess some sort of calming influence. I imagine this probably comes from that warm burnt orange glow that is equivalent to being effectively sandwiched between two sunsets, and if you’re a lover of a good sunset like we are, you’ll understand what I mean. There’s also the power of peace and quiet, that cannot be underestimated, and for us was the big difference between this time of the day and sunrise. Sunrise at Uluru was completely different with coaches and tourists everywhere. This unfortunately is the down side to visiting world famous landmarks and I’m sure it won’t be the last time a captivating moment is somewhat spoiled by the ignorance or vocally over dramatic individuals. That said, Uluru still delivered that wow factor that I was hoping for, when we were deciding on our destination itinerary.

Approximately 30km from Uluru is Kata Tjuta/The Olgas, it’s fair to say the lesser known of two main features within the national park. Just like Uluru, Kata Tjuta rises up seemingly from nowhere, but instead of just a single monolith is a series of huge rounded domes. There are 36 in all and the name Kata Tjuta actually means ’many heads’. The tallest, Mt Olga is almost 200m higher than Uluru. These massive boulders are also of great spiritual significance to the local Aborigines and are no less of a spectacle to look upon, but often miss out on the headlines due to their infinitely more famous neighbour.
The brutal heat meant just as with Uluru we walked one of the shorter trails that take you through and in between Kata Tjuta in order to get a closer look.

If you cast your mind back to the beginning of these blogs you may remember me talking about my dislike of spiders. Well it was whilst at the Yulara resort, I came face to face with my first decent specimen. I just happened to catch it out of the corner of my eye one morning on the outside (thank God) of our dorm window. It would wait there to pounce on any insects drawn in by the light of the room during the night. It seemed an aggressive creature that would rear up and sway from side to side if you ventured near it.
We did little else than drive the short distance, gaze and take photographs at either end of the days during our time at Yulara. But that’s what we came to do and both attractions surpassed all my expectations, and we leave with some good shots. However, with early alarm clocks set for sunrise, headaches, nosebleeds and high temperatures what we need now is to cool down with a swim, and where better than The Great Barrier Reef; onto Cairns.............

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Photos

Ayers Rock
The Headstone for 35 and counting.....

Ayer Head
It's all about me...................

Sunrise on the other side.
Away from the tourist circus that turns up each morning.

Uluru at Sunset.
Have you seen enough yet 'cause I got hundreds more!!

Kata Tjuta
Sacred to the Aborigines.

Comments

[bob]

lots of pics
wow you have loads of pics of uluru can you send me some to my email address?