Uluru and Kata Tjuta
I must preface the next statement with the fact that this might sounds
incredibly stupid.
The first stop was a lookout point a few kilometres from the rocks of
Kata Tjuta (where people stopped for a toilet break before we struck off on our
journeys). As I made my way back to the
coach after snapping a few pictures, someone called out my name. I turned around to see the Brissy couple from
dinner last night. We traded
pleasantries as we headed back to the coach with ‘how are you going’ and I
asked what they had gotten up to in the morning. It turned out that they had enjoyed a sleep
in while I was at Desert Awakenings, but that they would be at Desert Awakenings
tomorrow morning before our flights back to Sydney (they had to book through
Sydney to get to Brissy).
I’m in Australia. Really.
Let me explain a bit. Whenever I
go somewhere it takes some time for me to register, emotionally, that I am in
that place. Sometimes it only takes a
moment, sometimes it only happens once I have long been gone again and off to
the next place. There is no prescribed trigger, though I am beginning to see a
pattern emerge. I have been in Australia
going on four months, and I am well aware of that. I have toured the Opera House, climbed the
Harbour Bridge, snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef, and wandered into caves in
the Outback. Hell, I work for the City of Sydney. And all of the experiences
have been amazing – I don’t mean to belittle them in any way. But, to this point it has been life as usual
– pluging away, going through the paces, because everything here quickly became
my life.
This evening, after watching the sun set on Kata Tjuta, I was sitting
on the coach as it rocketed through the darkened Outback on the long trip out
of the National Park and back to the resort.
The coach was darkened inside and people chatted quietly under the music
which the tour guides were pumping through the speakers. Outside the sky was taking on a deep blue on
its way to the black of night. The stars
were quickly gaining the splendor of last night, and the only artificial light
came off of the running lights of the bus which illuminated the scrub at the
edges of the road. At some point ‘Land
Down Under’ by Men at Work came on.
Across the bush, silhoueted in against the sky, the black outline of
Kata Tjuta appeared from behind a dune. And it happened. I was in Australia.
Now that that is out of the way, on to a recap of the busy, busy day. I
was feeling a bit New Orleans so I made
a mug of café au lait as I know sitting down to attempt to recount the
day will take a while – so, here it goes.
Thank goodness that when you read this you won’t be able to pick up on
how many times I have to get up to make a new mug full of tea or café au lait.
The morning started early (as mornings seem to start here). I was up at
5:20 and out the door by 5:45 to sit out front of the hotel to wait for my
tour. It was quite cold this morning and
I rugged up with all of the layers I brought on the trip. After about ten minutes in the cold, a bright
orange 4WD rolled up and out of it emerged a perky guide. After introductions, I climbed aboard and
joined three women in the 4WD. After a
minute or two we were joined by an extended family group of eight from Seattle.
The door slammed shut and we were off into the darkness for the ‘Desert
Awakenings’ adventure – it was to be a posh morning.
We drove out of the main resort area and onto the Lasseter
Highway. As we drove out of ‘town’ past
the utilities and water treatment plants for the resort, we were informed by
our driver/guide about how Yulara, the name of the town that supports the
resort came to be. We turned off the
bitumen and headed off down a dirt track (the same one the coaches had used
last night). Once we had passed the turn
off for the Sounds of Silence dinner, the quality of the track deteriorated
pretty quickly (no coaches could make it on the track – only 4WDs). We wended our way through the bush and scrub
down narrow, rough dirt fire tracks which exist to access the remotes of the
bush in case of a bush fire.
Finally we pulled up to a small turnaround at the base of a large sand
dune. We trekked up the dune in the
darkness (with the help of a torch or two) and were introduced to the person
who would be preparing our breakfast (I told you it was posh). We were then
told that there was a lower observation area with a fire pit where they would
put out coffee, juice, and billy tea, as well as assorted pastries as we waited
for sunrise, and an upper viewing area further up the dune which provided 360
degree views for countless miles.
I went up the hill to the upper area and began to photograph as the
first colors began to emerge on the far horizon. It was absolutely freezing (technically not,
it was 1C, but with the wind I think I can get away with saying freezing) and I
had to alternate between taking pictures and putting my camera down so I could
stick my hands in my pockets. Over the first fifteen minutes there the sky
began to take on more and more colors, and Uluru emerged out of the dark with
the scrub seemingly going on forever.
About a half hour in I went down to the campfire to grab billy tea and
a pastry before going back up to continue taking pictures. A few minutes later, as the sky was filling
with bright orange just before sunrise, our guide brought up our breakfast –
rasher bacon and fried egg on the most delicious ciabatta bun. As sunrise was
eminent, the rest of the group came up to the top of the dune to take in the
site. It was a beautiful sunrise, and we
all got to know each other a bit (the three women were travelling together from
Melbourne – they thought I was Australian for the first minute or two as I
hadn’t said but a few words – apparently my “no”, “yes”, and “how are you
going?” is Australian sounding).
After the sun had decidedly risen, we went down to the lower area where
I attempted to resuscitate my frozen phalanges by the fire. I enjoyed another cup of billy tea and some
bush damper before our guide rounded us up, we bid farewell to the cook, and he
headed back toward the vehicle. On the
way down the hill in the light we were given a lesson in the flora of the area. We got in the 4WD and bumped back down the
dirt tracks, stopping a few times to learn about a few more trees.
Once on the main road, we drove to the National Park while our guide
filled us in on a fairly exhaustive Aboriginal history of the region and the Anangu
people. In the park we headed to Uluru,
hearing about the sites we would be visiting along the way. The first stop was the climb site at Mala
Puta where we heard the stories
associated with that area. While I had
heard the stories yesterday morning, our guide this morning was mesmerizing as
she recounted the lore – no doubt she was very well trained and versed in a
wide array of information.
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| People, called 'minga' (meaning ants) by the Anagu, climbing Uluru at Mala Puta |
After forty-five minutes or so at the first site, we drove around the
Rock, getting more information about the history of the area (this woman was
practically an entertaining textbook of any and all interesting information you
could ever want to know about any perspective of the Uluru area). We stopped at Mutitjulu Waterhole and heard
the stories associated with that area, building off of what I had learned
yesterday. Along the way she and I
chatted quite a bit, filling up the morning with a diverse array of topics.
From the Rock, we headed to the Cultural Centre where we had the opportunity
to learn about the Anangu people and the heritage of Uluru, as well as browse a
lot of local art. Apparently the
building which houses the Cultural Centre won quite a bit of architectural
acclaim. It was nice with some excellent
detailing in areas, but I wasn’t completely blown away.
Finally, we wrapped up the morning outside of the Cultural Centre where
we were given a lesson in the geology of the region via an excellent
explanation accompanied with drawings in the sand which made the entire process
understandable. The chat was also
accompanied by a fancy fruit tray. From
the Cultural Centre, we reboarded the 4WD and headed back to the resort.
Upon return to my hotel, I dropped my stuff in my room and headed back
out across the central dunes that divide the resort toward the Town Centre. My aims were ultimately the grocery at Town
Centre, but my first stop was an art gallery in another part of the
resort. I popped in and got to see some
great art (thought way out of a reasonable price range). The lady behind the counter happened to ask
where I was from, and after the convoluted explanation she was quite excited to
hear that I lived in New Orleans. She
had been there a few times and asked about the music of the city. She then mentioned that her favourite
American city was by far Memphis. I
thought that was a funny place for her to have been to six times, considering
she was from the middle of the middle of nowhere in Central Australia. It turned out that her daughter now lives in
Germantown (what a small world!) and we chatted a bit more before I headed out
to the Visitor Centre. They had a great
display about the European history of the region and the fauna around the area;
the experience rounded out all of the perspectives of the area.
From the Visitor Centre I walked over to the Town Centre and grabbed lunch
of a potato and steak pie. After a bit
of a sit, I walked back across the dunes to kill some time before my 2:00 pick
up for Kata Tjuta. I arrived at the front of my hotel around 1:10 and ran into
the Tassy group from last night as they waited for their coach to Alice
Springs. We ended up sitting and talking
until both of our coaches pulled up around 2:05. The conversation was wonderful, and the woman
that had reminded me of Aunt Betty last night turned out to be the Australian
incarnation of her, a tenacious retired English teacher whose sense of humour
made the chat fly by.
Finally our coaches arrived and we all bid our final farewells and I
got on the coach to head to Kata Tjuta.
The trip out took between foty-five minutes and an hour. Along the drive through the National Park we
were given a bit of history on the area as well as an explanation of the walk
options that we would have at Kata Tjuta.
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| Uluru on the drive to Kata Tjuta. |
Our next stop was the Valley of the Winds, a walk through Kata
Tjuta. I met back up with the Brissy
couple and have to admit that I was incredibly impressed that it ended up being
the three of us leading the pack along the hike (which was rough in some
points). We had a great chat and talked
to the guide a bit along the trek to the first lookout site. At the first
lookout the group split with about 20 of us continuing onto the “difficult”
portion of the hike and the rest returning down to do the “easy” route at Wapu
Gorge.
The hike did get a bit more strenuous with steep, narrow paths leading
between the domes of Kata Tjuta, but the three of us blazed ahead on the trip
to the second lookout point. Along the
way the guide shared information about the region, and we got to see some
parrots in some in the Valley. To get to
the second lookout, the final obstacle was to ascend “little Uluru,” a 45 degree
slope. It turned out to not be nearly as
difficult as I thought it would be, and the three of us even beat the guide up
the hill!
After a few minutes at the second lookout, we turned around to head
back out of the Valley in time to catch sunset.
On the trek out we got to see some wallaroos, and got distracted in
conversation, getting out of the Valley and back to the coach about ten minutes
before the last of the group made it out.
It turned out that the Brissy couple do some marathon walking, so I shouldn’t
have been so surprised at the pace we were able to do.
Once everyone was back on the bus we pulled off to the sunset viewing
area. With only 20 minutes to sunset we
were in a bit of a rush, but stopped to take some pictures of the feral that
had appeared to graze by the road. As
seems to be standard of all tours, once we arrived at the sunset area we were
treated to wine and light snacks as we watched the ‘show.’ We got on with one final great conversation
(covering the Euro zone economic woes and some views about Australian life)
before we boarded the coach to head back to the resort.
With that being my last activity at Uluru, I now am planning to wake up
for one last sunrise (though not as early as the past few days since all I need
do is walk to the top of the dune behind my hotel).
It has been an incredible trip, and I have been very lucky to meet some
great people!
Words of the Day – Outback
Edition
Billy Tea – tea produced from vegetation out in the bush and cooked in
a billy (pot) over a fire
Bush Damper - unleavened bread baked in the hot coals of a fire
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