Pick up time on our tour voucher is 5:15 a.m. It is still dark when we leave the cabin and make
our way to the shuttle stop on the road in front of the campground. Before long our coach pulls
up and our guide gets out. Before we enter the bus we purchase our National Park passes from
her, $25 cash only. We will need them to enter the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park this morning.
We are going to see the sunrise over Ayer's Rock.
Driving through the early morning along the deserted desert road
we can see the hulking outline of Uluru growing closer in the faint darkness.
It is still dark when our coach reaches the parking lot.
We disembark and follow the faint lights
that line the pathway toward the viewing platform.
Like the aisle of an airplane during an
emergency, the green lights lead toward the platform,
while the red lights lead back toward the
parking lot, or toward the restrooms.
We position ourselves on the platform and wait with
the other hearty souls there for the sun to rise and for the show to begin.
finally the horizon behind us begins to glow...
and as the sun breaks over the curve of the earth the photographers are ready
the light and the shadows play across Uluru's
sandstone surface making it glow an amazing warm red
unenhanced photo - one of the most amazing sunrises
I have seen since I hiked Sinai at 3 a.m. and watched
the sun come up over and illuminate the peaks there
our reviews are "positively glowing"
sleeping giant
Uluru sunrise
The other main rock formation in the area (and the reason the National Park is called
the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park) is this more deflated looking formation of sandstone
known as Kata Tjuta. (We cheekily kept referring to it as "Cody Judy") It
supposedly has some amazing hiking options through it as well, but we only see it from
afar during our time here, as a visit there is not on our itinerary.
After the beauty of the sunrise and the many photo ops
we head back to our coach for a base tour of Uluru,
and a chance to get up close and personal
with the area's main event,
and learn a bit more about this amazing place.
Here is some historical information about Uluru that I copied off an Internet site:
Australia's native people believe themselves to be direct descendants of these ancestral beings, and continue to carry on the rituals and responsibilities associated with their ancestral land.
The aboriginals of western and central Australia call themselves Anangu, a word that originally meant simply "human being" but has come to refer to aboriginals (especially in western and central Australia) as opposed to Australia's European descendants. The Uluru-area Anangu include two different language groups, the Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara.
The beginning of human settlement in the Uluru region has not been determined, but archaeological findings to the east and west indicate a date more than 10,000 years ago. In October 1872, the explorer Ernest Giles was the first non-native person to see the rock formation. He saw it only from a distance, prevented by a lake from approaching closer.
On July 19, 1873, the surveyor William Gosse visited the rock and named it Ayers Rock in honor of the Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers.
The Aboriginal name was first recorded by the Wills expedition in 1903. Since 1903, both names for the site have been used, although Ayers Rock was the most common name used by outsiders until recently.
In December 1993, the site was officially renamed “Ayers Rock/Uluru.” The order of the names was officially reversed to “Uluru/Ayers Rock” in November 2002, following a request from the Regional Tourism Association in Alice Springs.
On October 26, 1985, the Australian government returned ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines, with one of the conditions being that the Anangu would lease it back to the National Parks and Wildlife for 99 years and that it would be jointly managed. The rock and the surrounding park were designated a World Heritage Site in 1987.
First stop is at the lush base of Uluru where the popular base walking tour begins.
It is about 9 km around the base, and takes approximately 4 hours to walk.
We are sticking with the coach tour, no base walk in our plans.
This is also where the Uluru climbing trail head is.
The desire to climb Uluru can literally put tourists
between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
Uluru is sacred to the Aboriginals of the area,
and they don't particularly want
people walking up and down the rock,
doing damage to it and putting themselves
in harm's way.
Nonetheless that hasn't prevented climbers over the years from making the trek.
Years back there was a chain railing installed
on the climbing face, and it is still in use today.
Well, not today, today.
The local tribe has stewardship over the monolith,
including the power to close the rock climb, usually due to factors
such as weather, which is the case today.
making their case against climbing
The next stop on our base tour is at the Mutitjulu Watering Hole
Here we have a chance to follow a trail in towards Uluru,
and see some of it's unique facades
and fascinating shapes and slopes up close
again very reminiscent of the red rocks of southern Utah
we encounter these cave drawings - we are told they are around
150 years old and painted with natural material such as ochre and charcoal
We kept hearing about the rains that fell the week or so preceding our arrival.
We were told that things are lusher and greener than normal out here in this
arid desert. The recent rains were also apparent when we make it to the
Mutitjulu Watering Hole in Uluru. There is still a small stream trickling down
through the sloping rock canyon, spilling into the impressive pool of water at the base.
we "love" this heart-shaped cave etched high in the rock
Uluru also has a brain as well as a heart -
this formation resembling a brain
is another famous feature on the face of Uluru
The last stop of the coach this morning is at the
Aboriginal Cultural Center located in the shadow of Uluru.
This center has displays featuring the history, legends, culture and traditions
of the region's original inhabitants. Due to the belief of the aboriginals,
no photos were allowed to be taken anywhere on sight of the center.
Photographing the aboriginals is also discouraged/prohibited.
Also on site at the center is a gift shop and a gallery featuring the
works of the local people. The aboriginal art is very distinctive in that
it is done in a dot style of painting, and often abstractly depicts scenes from
every day life such as sitting around the watering hole or traveling from
one village to the next. Nature is often represented as well. Colors
and patterns are often earthen in tone and somewhat symmetrical. On the back of
our National Park entrance ticket is an example of aboriginal art.
We are able to watch several of the artists at work in the gallery, just sitting down on old
blankets, using a single Naugahyde couch cushion as a flat easel. We really wished we were
able to take a picture of them at work, it was quite an interesting process. Both Carrie and Sue
purchase canvases at the gallery. One was a painting done by the sister of one of the artists
we were watching, but management still wouldn't allow us a picture of her. I didn't buy a
painting at the gallery, but came home and found the canvas that Peter bought for me on
his trip to Sydney with the twins two years ago.
Here is a (blurry) photo of Jack displaying our canvas.
Due to the nature of the paint and the canvas these works of art
cannot be displayed behind glass, something to do with ruining the paint or something.
So the they must be stretched out and mounted on wooden frames.
Dave is making us wooden frames, and Sue and I plan to have a framing party.
(my painting is a type of map - shows
five watering holes and the pathways traveled in between them)
There is also a simple snack bar at the center, and I enjoy an outback snack
of branded curry beef pie and orange soda
Taking a stroll around the cultural center is pleasant enough,
but our fly face nets are practically mandatory.
These outback flies have absolutely no boundaries
or respect for personal space!
From the Cultural Center we catch the last coach of the morning heading back
to the resort. We have lunch, then head back to our cabins for a relaxing
afternoon of showering, reading, and napping after our early start this morning.
(nightly BBQ menu at the neighboring hotel)
Late afternoon we begin preparing for our next activity - tonight we are participating
in one of the area's most highly recommended attractions - an outside dining/stargazing
experience known as The Sounds of Silence dinner. Described as "dining on a delicious
meal of Australian delicacies under a canopy of the amazing desert night sky, while your
very own storyteller shares tales as told in the stars". Having already spent one night in
this isolated place, where the stars literally stretch from horizon to horizon and the Milky
Way is just that, a giant white smear in the sky, we are very much looking forward to it.
long pants, sweater and scarf, it's chilly after the sun goes down in the desert
our voucher for the dinner tonight - the use of the word "distilled" is no accident-
the wine is flowing at this dinner, and for good reason as we will find out....
Upon arrival we are greeted with an open bar and waiters circulating with trays of
appetizers. There is also this fella in the corner playing a didgeridoo with some skill.
(we call him the didgeridude)
enjoying the music with my coke cocktail
after our Australian appetizers and non-alcoholic aperitifs we are lead down to our tables,
which are set for the evening buffet meal being prepared nearby
tour voucher photo of outdoor dining facilities
We three seated at our table - the views are amazing, we watch the sun go down over
Kata-Tjuta while shining on Uluru, and wait patiently for the flies to go to bed, as
was promised would happen at sunset. It is so serene and beautiful and peaceful,
no other structures or civilization in sight, we are truly in the middle of nowhere.
Before long our 8 or so table mates are seated,
an eclectic mix of Britain, Australia, Portugal and New Jersey.
Needless to say as the evening wore on and the wine flowed and flowed,
they become even more entertaining.
As the sun sets, food prep is complete and we are invited
to step over to the buffet carts and fill up our plates.
Here is a photo I took of the menu - it is our buffet exactly.
As we sit down, our plates overflowing with exotic new tastes,
we are relived to find that the flies have indeed disappeared with the sun.
However, we soon discover, that they are to be replaced by a far more
intrusive and insidious foe.
You know when you are camping and you go in your tent,
turn on your lantern, and things in the pitch dark are drawn to your one
light, and you can hear all sorts of creatures flying up against your tent
desperate to enter? Now, imagine there is no tent, and you have a plate
of food and a glass of water sitting in front of you next to your lantern,
which is the one light for miles in this endless desert.
While we had prepared ourselves to dine on crocodile Cesar salad
and wild kangaroo meat entree, we had not planned for it to have a
hearty seasoning of moth. Yet, that is what we get, as a frantic flying
desert brigade of bugs descends upon our lanterns, tables, dinners, drinks etc.
This, we determine, is at least one reason for the heavy push on
alcohol throughout the night. Every one of our tipsy dinner companions
seemed to take no notice of the moths and other flying creatures that
were liberally landing in our water glasses and in our food. We're pretty
sure we all ate at least one, and we were carefully picking through
each bite. Our friends were simply laughing, drinking and eating,
seemingly not to notice at all the plethora of bugs peppering their plates.
Once dinner is cleared away however, the lanterns are extinguished
and our storyteller comes out. He has a giant flashlight pointer and
proceeds to point out all of the highlights (no pun intended!) of
the beautiful dark outback sky. This is my first experience with the
Southern Hemisphere at night, and while it is a bit disconcerting to look
up and see things not quite where they are supposed to be, seeing the
Southern Cross for the first time was quite awesome, like
discovering there's a whole new parallel universe.
Southern Cross star formation as shown on the Australian Flag
After the star gazer's narrative, and for the final act of the evening,
we are invited to come and look through the several
high powered telescopes that have been set up and pointed at key points in the sky.
Seeing the rings of Saturn is a particular favorite of mine.
At the end of the evening our bus comes out of the darkness and
pulls right up next to our dining area in the sand. We board tired
and happy, thrilled at the amazing evening we have just experienced
We drive through the dark, back towards our ring of lodgings.
One by one our new found friends disembark, slipping out into the night.
We are among the last, and the only ones to exit at the campground,
stepping out into a darkness similar to the one we started our day with.
We are pleased to know that we have made the most of this day in
this magical place, from before sunrise to long after sundown,
one day that will stand out from all the others for years to come.
