Magical rock

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- FOOD: Free breakfast (although Vegemite); very good spread for lunch of meats, salad and cheese; champagne with Doritos and dip to watch Uluru at sunset; garlic bread and pasta with loads of fresh veg that WE made ourselves over a campfire; cereal breakfast and fire toasted toast; camp made damper (peach bread)

- AREA: Sunrise at Anzac Hill; first stop at place with unhappy, cramped animals; The Forgotten Rock (looks like Uluru); red sand outback with lots of trees, tiny flowers and wild animals; Kata Tjuta National Park Cultural Centre to learn about Aboriginal law, religion and Dreamtime stories; the absolute mind blowingly awesome Uluru with it's intense colours and caves, crevaces, textures and markings (crap with a clouded over sunset but magical at sunrise); posh campsite with hot showers; sleeping in swags under the stars.
Very orange, big, circular rocks that are The Olgas; another cool camp in the middle of nowhere

- PEOPLE: Nice but very quiet tour group; 'I'm a bit mad me' tour guide; another 'crazy' tour guide who woke us all up in the middle of the night; millions at Sunrise Spot and Sunset Spot all posed waiting for that perfect shot.

- WEATHER: BURNING hot


Tue 6th: Breakfast was free but vegemite and then our early start Uluru tour began. Quite a mixed nationalities group but strongly European (2 Germans, 1 French, 2 Londoners, 1 Italian, 1 Irish, 1 Dane and then one American).
We stopped by Anzac Hill to watch the sun rise and then the start of a long 4x4 truck ride began. I was slightly concerned when our tour guide Vicky announced in a very loud, speaking to kids type way that she was 'crazy' and that we'd all have lots of fun on this trip and that Red (her toy kangaroo who got flung into the back) would help us enjoy this crazy, fun packed adventure.
The response she got was pretty much silence but then the group were pretty much silent for lots of the trip until they finally loosened up on the last day. Maybe because all 9 of us were travelling alone, maybe because most of the group were under 25 and a bit shy, maybe because they didn't fluently understand English... I dunno. Anyway, I felt sorry for Vicky who was trying so hard so I formed verbal diarrhoea questioning to break the silence.

Our first stop was at an awful place that did camel rides. The animals were all in small pens and didn't look very happy. A dingo with a clammy eye was chained up looking sad, an emu was stuck in a tiny cage and the baby camel with the adults didn't have much room either.
The drive continued and suddenly Ayres Rock appeared in the distance. Ahh, it was so mesmorising with it's beautiful purple colour. At the next stop Vicky asked us what was different about the landscape here. We were baffled for ages and she finally caved and told us to look ahead - where Ayres Rock was in view. Oh, it's a different shape and colour! What?! Apparently the rock we'd all been manically snapping at earlier was not Ayres Rock at all but the 'Forgotten Rock' (more about that later). I actually thought the Forgotten Rock was more stunning from a distance than Uluru.

We continued to drive up to our first campsite through the red sand outback. The landscape the whole way had surprised me. Yet more trees (especially where 'underground' rivers are). There had been rain recently so there were lots of little flowers around (this greatly excited Vicky). We saw a few animals - wild horses, camels but no kangaroos. Our stop for lunch was needed as we were all so cramped in the back of the truck. Lunch was a good spread - salad of all sorts, meats and cheese.

When we arrived at Kata Tjuta National Park and got up close to Uluru my initial thoughts were soley WOW. IT'S SO BIG. I was quite shocked to hear some people saying they wanted to climb it. Firstly, I was surprised it's still possible to climb it and secondly, did they not READ the leaflet given to us that expresses the Aboriginal wish that it shouldn't be climbed? Do they not appreciate that it's disrespectful to go tramping all over this highly spiritual rock? Obviously not, even after I pointed this out to them again.
Luckily the wind was too strong so they weren't allowed to climb it anyway.

We first visited the cultural centre to learn more about the Tjukurpa (Aboriginal law and religion) surrounding this great rock. The traditional owners of it, the Anangu, are a mix of Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara people (believe it or not it's actually very easy to pronounce these). They have joint management of the National Park and are big on visitors being open minded to their beliefs. They say in more than one place that visitors should respect their culture, learn about it, not take pictures of the sacred sights and above all DON'T climb on the rock.

Kitted up with water and sunscreen (it was really bloody hot) we started the walk around the 10k circumference of this 350m high rock. The others rushed off but I kept to my usual snail pace to really take it all in. It's so magnificent and strange the way it appears in the middle of the outback. The many caves, crevaces, textures and markings on it are all attributed to an Aboriginal story and are all so very awesome (Aussie language has overtaken me). It totally blew me away and I could've spent hours gaping at all it's holes, weird and wonderful structure and above all intense colours. There is so much texture to it and it the whole spiritualness of it hit me.
The only time my attention was drawn away from it was to look at the spiky lizard Hitash had found in the middle of the road!

I didn't have enough to fully complete the circuit before we had to get back to the truck where we had to vote if we wished to view sun setting over it at 'Sunset point' where the masses go or if we wanted to go back to the campsight where we'd be on our own with the view of The Olgas also in the distance. No surprises which one I voted for (along with Caiti who was the only other one on my wavelength) and which one won!
Off we went to Sunset Point to join about a million others to drink our champagne and have our dorito's with dip while attempting to find the best viewpoint (or in fact the only space available) to get the perfect shot of Uluru by sunset.
Nobody told us if it was cloudy that Uluru by sunset is actually crap!

Our disappointment vanished when we saw our camp - so posh! Not what I was expecting at all. There was a row of smart toilets and showers in a big block (hot showers too at that). We got to take advantage of those but also got to camp far away from others on our own little patch as the 4x4 can go off the track more than a big bus.
We'd stopped to collect firewood on our way here so started up the fire and prepared the dinner - garlic bread and pasta with loads of fresh veg. It was the best meal I've had in ages - made better that we cooked it all. We'd bought beers but were too tired to drink them so got out the swags, inserted the sleeping bags and set up our beds by the campfire, staring up at the bright stars and trying to find constellations we knew.
I was worried it would be cold and was prepared for the Bolivian Salt Lake tour experience all over again but it was boiling in the swags! I even put my arms outside - fear of creepy crawlies vanished. We were just drifting off when Phil, the leader of another tour group nearby started up this contraption thing that made a really loud noise - scared the shit out of us!


Wed 7th: Despite Phil, I slept well and woke at 5am. The first thing I saw was Orion looking down on me. I had a cereal breakfast and toast toasted on the fire. We made it to 'Sunrise Point' to see lots of Japanese on their little chairs eating their breakfast waiting for sun rise over Uluru. This coach driver told me where to go to get a good view and was confused that I continued to stand where I was taking a picture. He understood when I told him it was of the Japanese.

I went to the spot he mentioned and thanked him as got a clear view with no trees or tourists in the way and watched the magical change of bright orange colours as the sun rose over it (with no clouds in the way this time!).
My solitary position didn't last long before the crowds arrived in their hords but just enough time to get 'that shot'.
Vicky then walked us up to various parts of the rock to tell us the dreamtime stories behind some of the markings and caves and to show us the cave paintings. I found them intriguing so here are 4:

1) Kuniya, a red and black woma python grew up at Uluru. One day she ventured further afield where she lay her eggs. Not wanting the eggs to hatch outside of Uluru, she strung them together in a necklace and travelled back. On her way back she encountered a bird who informed her that her nephew was being attacked by the poisonous Liru warrior snake who came from afar to attack. She danced her way to them to free herself of negative thoughts and then knelt, stuck her stick in the sand and threw sand over her shoulder for luck. He laughed at her dancing and so she hit him with her stick. The strike wasn't hard enough so she hit again - Liru was killed and the shield he was holding came tumbling down.

2) The Mala men decided to perform a ceremony to intitiate the boys. After this decision was made they got invited to a ceremony by the Mulga men, however once a ceremony has begun, they cannot stop it so they had to write and refuse the invitation. The Mulga men got angry and sent the dingo spirit Kurpany to attack them. The women were warned of the attack and they in turn warned the Mala men but it was too late and most were killed with the rest fleeing to South Australia, helped by the emu man. The boys still today await their initiation.

3) Lungkata, the blue tongued lizard from the West travelled to Uluru in search of friends. He didn't find any and so set up camp high up the rock to keep looking. He spotted some freshly killed and prepared emu further down and so went searching for the hunter to make friends. On arrival, the hunter was not there so Lungkata stole the food and returned to his camp. The hunter passed him and asked if he'd seen who had stolen his food. Lungkata said he hadn't and carried on up to his camp to eat it. The hunter traced the tracks and discovered the culprit was the lizard and so started a fire that soon reached Lungkata and killed him.

The Creation of Uluru: 2 boys were playing in the sand waiting for their hunter fathers to return. They built the sand up so high that it turned into a big mud pie (Uluru). They realised they couldn't get down from the top and so slid down with their hands outstretched (making the grooves in the rock).


In the afternoon we went to Kata Tjuta (Valley of the Winds, The Olgas) which I found even more amazing. We went on a walk around and through these many circular rocks which are so very orange! I was on my own again at the back but didn't care as I wanted to take in the full beauty.
We had another huge lunch and then headed onto King's Canyon. On the way we stopped to see views of the 'Forgotten Rock' (Atila - Mount Connor). This came into existence when a giant ice man was tired of walking so far (it was so hot he was melting - forming the salt lakes in the area) and so stopped to rest on this mountain. He sat on top, thus making it flat and then walked away, trampling down the remains of it (giving it that toothbrush shape). We spent some time finding animal tracks and footprints in the sand before reaching our camp.

Our camp was much more basic but I was still surprised at the 'bush toilet' and 'bush shower'. I was expecting to pee behind the natural bush and pour water over me for the shower. But there was a proper flushing loo and a HOT shower (even though neither had a door). In the middle of nowhere!!
The sunset was gorgeous and we drunk beer while cooking chicken, veg and rice and watching Nicole make the damper (peach bread). More stunning star gazing before sleep and this time it was the wild horses that stopped by to see how we were doing that woke us up!

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Comments

[mandajk]

perv
You are so full of innuendo Miss Harris! x