Gismo Queen and her King

Day 47 - Yulara (Uluru)

What glorious weather we have had here in Yulara. Warm sunny days (mostly 23-24C although today was a bit cooler), not a cloud in the sky, and even the nights aren't so bad. We even turned the heater off last night! We really aren't looking forward to travelling further south though as we heard about the wild and woolly weather in South Australia and Victoria today.

Not too much of a sleep in this morning as we wanted to do the Mala walk around part of the base of Uluru this morning. So we were there ready and waiting by 10am along with twenty zillion other people, but there were a couple of rangers so we got split up and the groups weren't too big.

The walk went for 1 1/2 kilometres with stops and stories at one of the (Anangu) boy's caves, one of the women's caves (although as a male, the ranger wasn't allowed to tell stories at this one), the kitchen cave and finally a gorge with a waterhole.

The stories were very well told, the rock art explained and a very interesting debate about the rock climb. The Anangu people would rather visitors didn't climb anymore so as the land owners and co managers of the park with Parks & Wildlife, they undertake the role of explaining their rationale so that people are informed. There is talk of stopping the climb altogether by 2019. Approximately 40 people have died to date, climbers leave a lot of rubbish behind (both human waste and rubbish waste, which all gets washed down the rock when it next rains) and the climb covers a sacred path which is told in the Mala story.

We felt this reasoning was very well told, that visitors should respect the Anangu people and believe there are plenty of other things to do here that means a visitor doesn't need to climb. I don't think I would ever get tired of looking at the rock from all it's different angles, at the holes in the walls, the sheer cliffs, and of course, the different colours at different times of the day. The true rock colour is actually a dark grey, but the high iron content and water runoff, turns the exposed rocks the reddish brown that makes the rock so attractive.

After the walk, we completed the drive around the base and observed the "holes" in the northern face (above) as we did. Each side has it's own character! We then headed back to the caravan for lunch and then made the 5km trip to the Yulara dump point, which is nowhere near the caravan park and is in fact, in the industrial estate. I could write a book about all the different types and places of dump points. We then took a drive out to the airport to check it out - very civilised. It really is easy for visitors to get here. Such a different experience to some of the other places we have visited on this trip!

This afternoon, we headed back out to Uluru and visited the cultural centre, which explains some of the history and stories as told by the Anangu people. It was well done and we enjoyed the various aspects. Greg even bought a pair of music sticks!

Back to the caravan park for a warming spaghetti bolognaise which was enjoyed by everyone. It got pretty cool tonight so we retired to our respective caravans pretty early.

posted by Tracey @ 10:04 pm