So, Uluru.
Or Oooo Loo Roo, as Harn so endearingly calls it...
We had our first glimpse of the world's most recognisable rock on Sunday late afternoon as we drove into Yulara, the tourist village established to service the rock. The first thing to grab you is the size – its 346 metres tall (put another 35 stories on top of the 60 stories of Governor Philip Tower where I worked at Mallies and that's about the height apparently) and the walk around the base is 10.2km (albeit it deviates some way from the edge of the rock in parts). On route to Uluru you first see Mount Conner, which is pretty impressive as far as mountainous flat topped rocks go, and we wondered why its not much of a tourist attraction itself. All becomes clear when you see Uluru. Its difficult to say what's so impressive about it. First is just the sheer size, but when you get closer (we walked all the way around the base) you appreciate the different textures and shapes – its not just a huge oblong shaped red mass rising out of the ground, it has different faces on all sides, the colour changes with the light and the contrast of the red with the deep blue sky above and the greenery of the trees and bush below is spellbinding.
To the Anangu traditional owners, Uluru is a sacred site, and they ask you not to climb it. We had met a number of Australians on our travels (normally greying nomads!) who told us we must climb it. I would have liked to have climbed it, but I wanted to respect the request not to and, well, lets face it, Jen would never have let me scramble up there anyway! The climb really is a climb as well – they've put a handrail up, but its incredibly steep (we saw people shimmying down on their bottoms).
On Monday we drove around the base, watched a very random cross-section of society climbing the rock (various nationalities, old people, young people, children, even a lady with a baby....) then headed over to Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), where we walked into the gorge.
On the way back we experienced a very localised rain storm.
That evening we headed back to the rock with some wine, bread and cheap brie from the Yulara IGA (you get what you pay for, it was inedible) to watch the sunset over Uluru. We were concerned it would be packed with tourists, but actually it wasn't too busy, and it was a lovely night. Jen took a million photos and I sipped my white wine and enjoyed the view.
And so you too can experience sunset at Uluru, we recorded this time lapse video (see if you can make out our special moves at the end.....answers in the comments section please).
On Tuesday morning we got up early to watch sunrise (not quite early enough as it turned out - surprise surprise, we were 10 minutes late!) and then did the walk around the base. We started off with a free ranger tour (the Mala Walk) which was excellent. The young Australian guide was passionate about his role and gave us a great insight into the significance of the site to the aboriginal people and their way of life. We'd highly recommend this to anyone going to Uluru. He made the most compelling arguments I've heard for not climbing, the key to which was that the Anangu people ask you not to - its their land, we should respect that request. To put this in some context, aboriginal paintings here date back 40,000 years, and the rights of the Anangu people whose ancestors painted them were finally recognised in 1985 when the title deeds to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park were presented to the Anangu people, in return for a 99 year lease back to Parks Australia.
Following the ranger tour we continued on the long walk around the base which is well worth the effort (Jen enjoyed it even though she had a blister almost the size of Uluru by the end!) After the walk we pretty much collapsed in a heap at the camp ground and didn't do anything else for the day except feel tired and a little proud of our efforts...
On Wednesday we got up for sunrise again (and made it this time!)
We watched the sunrise from the sunset viewing area because we wanted to see the sun rising next to Uluru rather than the light rising on it, and also because we thought there may be more people at the proper sunrise viewing area. And perhaps because it was further away and we wouldn't have made it to the sunrise viewing area on time! What a great decision though. We hadn't really felt the pressure of crowds in the few days we spent at Uluru, we wondered at times where everyone was. At the sunrise viewing point we found them – swarms of tourists big enough to outnumber the flies. Nice view though, once they'd all got into the coaches and camper-vans and left us to it... That day we also saw our first camels.
Very cute.
Before leaving Uluru we went to the cultural centre, which was very good, then said our final farewells to the rock and set off for Kings Canyon, arriving at the resort there late afternoon to set up camp, eat and collapse. The camp ground here had a lovely view of the George Gill Range in which the canyon sits.
The next morning we headed to the canyon itself, and did the short walk into gorge. It was lovely, but not quite as lovely as we'd hoped – a lot of people had told us this was one of their favourite places, outranking Uluru. I think we suffered from the reverse hype of not expecting to be that impressed by Uluru and expecting too much from Kings Canyon. That said, sunset back at the camp ground was lovely again that evening.
We headed in to the resort bar for a drink that evening, which was suitably bizarre. A musical (if it can properly be called that) act called The Roadies were performing to crowds of families, embarrassing mothers and fathers alike by getting them up on stage. We escaped to the pool room and wound up being challenged to a few rounds of doubles by two guys based in Melbourne working at Kings Canyon for a few weeks (a pilot and a helicopter engineer). And we won! Thanks to Jen of course...
On Friday, our camp ground neighbours, Greg and Robyn, kindly offered to let me do the rim walk around Kings Canyon with them – Jen was scared off by the steep climb at the beginning and was still suffering with said Uluru blister. It wasn't as bad as we thought, and she would have made it fine, but stayed behind photographing lizards instead...
(Actually, I took the first one the day before - its much cuter than Jen's, don't you think?!)
The rim walk was really lovely, and made me appreciate why Beeler and Maz loved it here so much. There is a very steep climb to begin with, then a 6km walk around the top of the canyon. The odd thing is it takes you through some strange moonscapes, with numerous rocky cairns (looking a bit like mud huts made from small rock bricks) popping up all around you. From this you emerge onto a plateau over the sheer walls of the cliffs dropping into the canyon, which is wonderful. And then there's a drop down into the Garden of Eden – a rocky valley with a lovely rock pool for swimming and palm trees. All in all a great walk, and my companions were lovely as well.
In the afternoon we drove to Alice Springs, only about a 200km trip, but it took us around 3-4 hours. We took the Mereenie Loop track, which passes through Aboriginal land requiring a permit to enter ($5.50 from the Kings Canyon Resort, $3 if you come in from the other direction, not sure how that works!) Its a truly terrible road. It seems that whenever Jen takes the wheel, as she did to relieve me from further exertion after my walk on this day, we get the worst most corrugated roads. Anyway, the Mereenie Loop is not recommended by us to anyone!
In Alice, we headed to the MacDonell Ranges camp-site recommended by Keith and Pauline in William Creek. Its the most expensive camp-site we've been to so far ($38 a night), but the facilities are good and clean, and we were happy to relax there for a couple of days. Not at all influenced by the fact United were playing Chelsea on Saturday night, which we might be able to catch in a pub in Alice...
On Saturday afternoon, after a lazy morning, we headed into Alice and picked up some national park information at the very helpful Information Centre, together with a Fosicking Permit to enable Jen to find gold.... Then we went to the Reptile Centre, where we got to hold a Blue Tongue lizard:
and a Bearded Dragon:
There was a very large python too, but we gave that a miss! The funniest thing to see here up close is the Thorny Devil, the most bizarre little lizard to wander the earth:
After that, we headed (a little too early) to the pub. We met up with a local guy called Graham, who worked at one of the aboriginal communities and was in town for some beers over the Easter weekend. Graham joined us to watch the football in an Irish pub later on. We had a pretty good night, although as is de rigeur for me and United, they lost because I was watching.
Sunday morning and Jennie was in heaven. No, not because United lost the night before, but because on Sundays at this camp-site, they have free, all you can eat, pancakes for breakfast! We got there a little late and scoffed down two a bit too quickly, thereby precluding us from a more serious go at the 'all you can eat' challenge, but it set us up well for the day nonetheless. We set out for Trephina Gorge in the East MacDonnell Ranges, calling in at Emily and Jessie Gaps on route (the East and West MacDonnells are ruggedly picturesque ranges punctuated by deep gaps or gorges, often with a water hole supporting wildlife, and the odd tourist escaping the heat for a dip). Trephina Gorge seemed a good spot to stop for a few nights, and Jen promised to find gold the next day at nearby Arltunga, where a mini gold rush occurred in the late 19th century.
More of which is our next instalment...
Love to all,
Claire, of Jen and Claire Fame
[it must be time for Jen to write the next one!]
YMCA?
ReplyDelete