| "So, it's not JUST a rock!?" - part 2 |
| July 2004 |
| After our lunch we went over to Kata Tjuta...some of you may know this as the Olgas, but as with alot of places around the country, the National Park has now been handed back to it's original Aboriginal owners to manage in alliance with the Government's National Park's Department, so reverted back to it's initial name. The same has happened with Ayers Rock, now called Uluru. Kata Tjuta was an amazing place...I had just been wanting to get to see Uluru, and wasn't expecting much from Kata Tjuta, as hadn't really heard too much about it, as it always gets overshadowed by Uluru I guess. But this place was stunning...again you'll have to check out the photos, but then even they don't do it justice!! It was formed the same way as Uluru, but seems to have suffered far more erosion, which has left rock domes. We did a 3-hour walk through the Valley of the Winds, walking between these domes and up onto smaller ones, past waterfalls, and weird shapes where the rocks have been eroded by water. While we were nearing the end of the walk, we experienced sunset from the domes...they glowed dark orange-red in the fading sunlight...overall the place was unexpectedly beautiful. Back to camp again...this time us girls had stocked up with wine, hoping that we could knock ourselves out and not feel the cold, to get a better night's sleep!! Dinner was interesting, as we were introduced to cooking on the campfire...we had Damper bread, which is kind of like a cross between bread and scones. You cook it in a camp oven, basically an iron pot with a lid, surround it with coals and an hour later, you have beautiful bread...now this style of cooking was completely new to me, so enjoyed the experience! After our effort to polish off our cask of wine, we settled for the night in our swags, this time a bit closer to the campfire, hoping to benefit from the heat. But just as we had all drifted off into a more comfortable sleep, we had a bit of a drama as a log had rolled off the fire and started to burn one of our group's swags and sleeping bags!! I was the first one to wake up, instinct told me to wake up, and even without my glasses, saw flames coming from near this girl's feet!! I was so scared, but tried to get out to wake her up, but panicked coz I was restricted by all my sleeping bags, the swag and layers of clothes!! I managed to get one arm out and throw myself over my sister, who promptly woke up and shouted at me for jumping on her!! We managed to wake up the girl, she got out and we put out the fire with sand and water, and no-one was hurt, just a bit shaken up!! But we couldn't believe that the rest of the camp slept through the whole thing, including a guy who's a fireman back home!?! A few hours sleep, before we had to be up at 4.30 (again!!) to be out and at Uluru for sunrise! We made it round to the sunrise viewing area before any of the other tour groups, so secured a fab spot at the front of the enclosure. It was sooo cold though, but none of us really minded, coz of where we were, looking at this huge piece of chocolate-brown rock, eagerly waiting for the sun to come up and start to change it to bright red! We didn't have to wait long, and the sight of it was breathtaking!! We were told that one of the best ways to see the colour changes is to look away, and only look back every 5 minutes or so, and it really did work...From brown, to red, to orange! After braving the cold for long enough, we retreated to the Aboriginal Culture Centre, for a look at the stories the Aboriginal people believe lie behind the creation and characteristics of Uluru by their gods. All of the different Aboriginal tribes around the country have different versions of stories for the land around the particular area they live in, and these always interest me, so was good to see, and put the whole few days sightseeing into perspective. Then it was onto the "Base Walk" around the whole rock. This was my favourite part of the day, as we got to spend over 3 hours following the paths around the rock base, with it towering above us, and this is where I felt that I really got to be introduced properly to the rock. From a distance the surface looks fairly smooth, but up close, you can see all the gorges, caves, scratches, holes, rock paintings, streams and ponds that I would never have realised existed until seen up close, and would never have expected. (see pics pages!!) We had the option of climbing it too, and some of our group bravely chose to, but I decided against it. The Aboriginal people of the region would prefer that people didn't climb it, as this is something the men of their tribes do in a certain ceremony. For this reason I chose to respect their wishes, as well as the fact that over 35 people have died climbing it since its been open to the public...it's pretty steep, and no safety rails. Though the guys who did climb it in our group had an amazing experience, and from their photos, it looks stunning...like the surface of the moon up there!! We got to finish the day off with a champagne sunset close to the rock, with stunning views of it's changing colours again...you can kind of see this from the photos on the pics page, but again, no photos can do it justice! It was a fab end to an unforgettable day, and reluctantly we all headed back to camp on the bus, again in silence, as we all watched the rock until we couldn't see it anymore...to me it became even more mesmerising, as I had actually touched it and got to know it a little. Our group all headed back to Alice Springs for a group dinner and "after party" at Bojangles, one of the local "cowboy" bars...had a fab night, and stayed out rather later than expected, coz we were having so much fun!! With only a few hours of sleep, we dragged ourselves out of bed the next morning to start our 2-day tour back to Adelaide. The 2 days consisted of alot of driving, like we had expected...though the one reason we took the tour was to visit Coober Pedy. This town is the site of one of the world's largest opal mines, and is such a weird place. Most of the houses and buildings are underground as it gets so hot in the summer, almost 50 degrees, so the streets are like a ghostown!! We got to look around the mine and one of the underground houses, very weird, but very cheap...only around $30,000 (appx 12,000 pounds!?), and our accommodation for the night was in an underground bunkhouse...very strange, but nice and warm! Back to Adelaide for a few days relaxing, before heading off again, to fly to Perth...somewhere I had been before and was looking forward to getting back to!!..... |