The Rock! And The Olgas...
Trip Start
Jun 17, 2007
1
70
85
Trip End
Sep 16, 2007
Yulara, Australia
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Nearing Yulara, the Ayres Rock resort, the rock came into view... massive massive massive. Unbelievable! It reminded me of the foot of a giant, complete with toes and everything... not that I've ever seen a giant's foot but, ya know... films and stuff.
Nearly as unbelievable was the fact that for the first time, we were paying to camp somewhere, and for the first time on the road (I probably shouldn't be admitting this), we took the liberty of having a shower. And it was immense! After that palarva, we thought it only right to dig our best clothes out from the bottom of our rucksacks, and do our hair and whatnot, ready for sunset at the rock. I even put mascara on - an unprecented event for us backpackers.
Our efforts obviously impressed some of the other people who'd come down to watch the sunset, as we befriended a middle aged couple who'd driven over from Wollongong, and they kindly shared their cheese and crackers with us as darkness descended on the rock - sophistication itself! We watched for maybe an hour and a half as the rock changed from bright red in the clear light of day to a darker red, with the light illuminating certain craters, and then to a darker shade of purple, before turning a dullish-reddy-black with the night sky. I thought it was quite odd how the sunset viewing park put the sun behind us, and the rock infront of us - I would have prefered the opportunity to see the sun set behind the rock, meaning its glow as it tucked under the earth would have lit up the outsides of the rock. Still, I was impressed with how the colours changed, although their were some "whinging Poms" around, who labeled it as "another one of Australia's big disappointments". I don't know what else they were referring to, but I just went up and told them effectively to piss off home, if they were so disenchanted with it. What were they expecting - it to turn bright pink with yellow polka dots and start singing the Blobby song. English people abroad - so irritating... made me so ashamed to be English!
*376 km driven*
Lucy's alarm went off at 5.50am, and outside it was still pitch black, with the moon out in full force. By the time we reached the sunrise viewing area, annoying further away than the sunset area - eating into sleeping time! - the world was light, although the sun didn't rise for about 15 minutes. As it did, it was pretty much a reversal of last night's events, although from a different angle. It was amazing how bright it was with the sun shining fully on it, compared to its slightly dull red colour without the sun.
In an attempt to dodge the crowds and tours staying at Uluru, we drove on to Kata Tjuta, or The Olgas. This was a wise decision, as the viewing area about 20 km away was deserted, and the carpark on arrival similarly desolate. From the viewing area they looked so big - I could only get them in 3 pictures!
Closer up, unsurprisingly, they were even bigger. Again, vertigo-inducing when you stood at the bottom and looked up. We commenced the Valley of the Winds walk, which lived up to its name, battering us with torrid winds as we climbed up to the first lookout point to reach the loop section of the walk. The scenery was so varied, in terms of the texture, colours, height and shape of all the rocks that its yet another place thats virtually indescribable.
Some of them had cave/crater like holes in the sides of them - apparently due to the work of little rats and mice, living up there. And some of them had random trees and bushes growing up the sides of them. Some resembled giant fresh clay pots, and others, sheer sandstone cliffs redolent of Kings Canyon and the Western Macs.
After the second lookout, the views fizzled out somewhat, as the walk meandering through grassy lowland, featuring stray rocks, and gum and eucalyptus trees. 2 and a half hours later, we were back at the van, ready to move on to Uluru, and amazingly, we'd managed to pick up an outback radio station... and even more amazingly, it was actually quite good!
We parked up in the Mala car park, starting the base walk from there. This was the point where the Uluru climb can also be attempted, but it was closed today during strong winds. We might have eaten our words, had we been up there, but I didn't think it looked that steep! I didn't really wanna climb it anyway, given that the local people don't want you to. There were memorial plaques there aswell, for some of the 35 people that have died doing it... kinda offputting.
So we started the circuit in a clockwise direction, trying to take in all the different faces of Uluru, and all under the ever-changing shadows gifted by the roasting sun. There were sacred waterholes, watershoots, stripes, caves complete with cave paintings, a rock that looked like a turtles head popping up out of the ground, gorges, a section of erosion that looked like mitochondria (sad to be recognizing this, I know), next to one that looked like the contents of a human skull, near to a cave that resembled a mouth...all of this with a vivid imagination of course ;)
All this was encircled by layers of black gum trees and eucalyptus trees, inhabited by kookaburras galore. Quite a few of these natural wonders in the rock face were sacred sites, and so illegal to photograph. In places the walk was fenced off, and we had to take the road, but we covered the 9.4 km in 2 and a bit hours, with a dash of sunburn to show for our efforts.
The rock was amazing - a million different faces, each with their own story to tell. Walking all the way round it was like travelling to a thousand different places in a couple of hours, it was awesome.
Leaving it, and the red centre in our wake, we headed back out to Erldunda, and rejoined the Stuart Highway, pushing on towards Adelaide and new adventures.
Where I stayed
Yulara Resort
