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Published: February 2nd 2007
Uluru aka Ayers Rock aka Puli
looking very much like it would have 20,000 years B.T.W.F. Difficult to believe theres another 2km of it below the surface!A Brief History of the Rock
About 20,000 years ago, an Aboriginal tribe of people named the Anangu stumbled upon a huge 30 million year old fossilised mountain in the middle of nowhere. They named this 'puli' (literally meaning 'the rock') and set about living off the land around Puli and practising their customs and simple ways of life.
About 19,850 years later a strange pale creature turned up on the back of a camel and the Anangus named him and all his friends 'the white fellas'. The white fella decided to name the huge rock he found after the white fella who had funded his expedition, and so 'Ayers Rock' was born. White fella then decided to
give the Anangu lollipops, booze, diabates and a major alcohol problem - and
take most of their land, livelihoods and customs - until in 1985, in a televised PR stunt the Australian Government decided to 'hand back' ownership of the Ayers Rock to its rightful owners. The conditions of this 'handback' were a name change and an immediate 99 year lease straight back to the white fellas who would then take 75%!o(MISSING)f all income generated from any tourists, like us,
Sunrise behind the rock
Breathtaking, even at 6am and 40km away who decided to take a trip of the newly named 'Uluru' and its surrounding national park.
Day 1 Uluru
The travelling gods were smiling on us when our flight from Perth to Alice Springs was delayed, firstly to remove fuel and then random items of baggage so the plane was light enough to take off in the extreme heat. Half the plane got off in Alice Springs and as we all stood in hope by the baggage claim only 6 bags and a baby chair came past before the conveyor belt stopped, leaving 90%!o(MISSING)f the passengers without luggage.
I actually whooped and punched the air when I saw our two bags, although my guitar hadn't survived the cull but I was assured it would be waiting for me when we returned in 4 days to fly to Cairns.
Another nice hostel with a pool, free internet and two lesbian managers was booked into before hitting the sack in preparation for our 6am pick up the following morning. We had chosen our tour mainly beacuse it was the cheapest and had a decent website (check out the
link and click on gallery for details of our
Graham and Matt
Matts the unshaven one. tour group and pictures) and with only a small group of 12 it turned out to be a good choice. We had Mick and Lynda (Glasgow), Bernadette and Colm (Dublin), 3 Germans (Stefan, Madeline and Isabelle), Wombe (a tank driver from South Korea), Peter (from Switzerland) and Amy (from Canada). During our 500km journey from Alice we saw approximately 10 kangaroos (only 1 of which wasn't roadkill), about 4 other cars and nothing else except tarmac and red sand. Our driver and guide, Kate, actually nodded off at one point giving me the responsibility of making small talk to keep her awake for the remainder of the journey "so erm.....is it true that Aboriginals can't drink alcohol??.... etc etc"
Our first supposed sighting of the rock was actually a false alarm and was called Mt Connor and when we finally got our first glimpse about 30 minutes later we all realised how wrong we had been. The fact that it sits on such a flat landscape makes it all the more awe inspiring and the view from about 10km from its base is the most dramatic as up close its just too big to fully appreciate. The 9km
Meep, Meep
Matts on top of the world at Kings canyon base walk in 40 degree heat was torture but a good way to get to know everyone in our group, but the cold beer and bowl of chilli from the viewpoint at sunset was the highlight of day 1, although better was to come.
That night we all slept in swags (basically canvas sleeping bags with a thin mattress inside) underneath the stars, that was until Peter (who was now starting to sound like Borat) started snoring. I decided to flick water over him and when this didn't work attempted to pour a small amount over his head. I actually ended up pouring about a cup full directly onto his face and quickly dived onto my swag before he had realised what had happened.
The first few hours of day 2 were my personal highlight of the trip. I awoke at 4am to the breathtaking sight of a million stars and what I think was the Milky Way above my head. We then all got up and left the campsite by 5am to drive to a special viewpoint about 50km away to see the sunrise from behind Uluru, silhouetting it on the horizon and slowly lighting up the
Sunset at Uluru
The only problem with the 'Must see sights' is how many other people 'Must see' them. destination for our next walk 'the Olgas', turning them from black to red and then brown in a matter of minutes. It was breathtaking and the shooting star that appeared directly over Uluru was the icing on the cake - if we had headed back to Alice right then I would have left contented.
Day 2 Kata Tjuta
For some reason the Olgas don't get the same press as Uluru but to me they are even better. Located in the same national park they were part of the same 'hand back' where their name (the name of the a white fellas German girlfriend) reverted back to the traditional Anangu name of Kata Tjuta (meaning many heads).
Instead of just being one rock they are a series of huge rocks with a total of 36 peaks (or heads) - the highest of which beats Uluru by 200m and the 8km 'Valley of the Winds' walk which snakes through them was fantastic, especially because our 7.30am start meant hardly any other people and a much more manageable temperature made the pretty strenuous walk even more unforgetable.
On the drive to that night's campsite Kate spotted the only type
Kata Tjuta at Sunrise
Bigger, better and quieter than its neighbour of tree whose roots can hold witchetty grubs and after all digging frantically at its base, Wombe (who was fast becoming the group's funniest character) found a swelled root containing a grub. When we finanlly got it out of the root it was about the size of my thumb and when no-one plucked up the courage to eat it, we named him Graham and decided to take him with us as a pet.
We arrived at Kings Creek station, stocked up on beer, had a swim and all had curry for dinner. When we tried to get Graham out of his root to play, we realised that the exposure to sunlight and 12 pissed up backpackers had actually killed him - so when Kate through him in a pan and I saw Wombe eat half without throwing up, I had a little taste deciding it was like cold roast dinner with a hint of peanut.
After drinking enough beer to get rid of the guilt of eating Graham we all played a card game called Spoons and a dice game called 3150 before hitting our swags at the racy hour of 10pm....another great day in the outback.
The Garden Of Eden, Kings Canyon
Arsing around L-R Colm, Matt, Mick & Wombe Day 3 Kings Canyon
The 5am start of our final day was less enjoyable than the previous - mainly because me, Carla and Amy had set our swags on top of an ants nest and all woke with bites, and when I went to the toilets I discovered a load of moths (I don't what a phobia of moths is called but I have it). A decent cuppa and 4 slices of toast later and I felt half alive again. We then drove to our final and most strenuous walk at Kings Canyon starting at 7.30am so it wasn't too hot that one of us might die. The walk starts vertically up 'Heart Attack Hill' (I'm guessing not an Aboriginal name) - a climb so tiring that when we reached the top, Carla was so knackered that she farted out loud in front of the whole group (although as this was something that Peter had been doing on a regular basis we think she got away with it).
Spectacular views, eerie red landscapes and the sort of cliff edges that hang over huge drops in Roadrunner cartoons dominated the 6km walk but the highlight was the well
The Gang
Back row L-R Wombe, Colm. Middle row L-R Isabelle, Amy, Bernadette. Front row L-R Carla, Matt, Madeline, Peter, Stefan, Linda and Mick needed dip at the watering hole named the 'Garden of Eden'. Sunken in between vertical red cliffs, the water has been dyed a red brown colour by the tree roots and rocks - me, Colm, Mick and Wombe spend 30 minutes just arsing around and cooling off before finishing the remainder of the walk and heading back to Alice.
We arrived back at 5pm and all agreed to meet up later to finish off what had been a fantastic 3 days. We boked back into Alice Lodge for the final night and got one of the 4 caravans at he rear of the hostel. The night finished at 2am (which after 3 pre-5am starts and 20km of walking in 3 days ain't bad!) only to wake up in a trailer park with a massive hangover and the runs (Graham's revenge?)
Next stop Cairns.
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Trev
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On The Subject Of Lookalikes
Brilliant blog with some great pictures.Looks like Oz was another great choice.Laughed out loud at the Carla "guff". Browsing through "therocktour"link ,check out the Brett lookalike on the 26 Jan tour middle row left hand photo. Your living it to the full-take care-Love Ya-Trev X