Uluru

Friday 15 July

There's a lot more traffic once you hit the Lasseter Highway. After all, Uluru is what people are here to see in the Red Centre. The dirt had slowly been turning more and more red as we headed south out of Kings Canyon into a landscape of grass covered sand dunes with desert casuarina. Once you head west the spectacular Mt Connor emerges from the southern plains with its flat messa top, and finally a bit further west, there she is the giant orange rock in the desert, Uluru.
Yesterday we went and watched the colours change against the rock as the sun set. The gullies casting shadows, grey lines where water seeps, diagonal sedimentary bedding planes. How on earth did this monolith get uplifted on its side and now be the only thing remaining in a sea of red sand?
We spent today exploring around the Rock in the bright sunlight and an icy cold wind. We joined a group with a Ranger on the Mala walk. He told us all about the Aboriginal people from the area and how they used caves, waterholes and sacred places. He also told us that because Uluru is a sacred place to the Aboriginal people that no one should climb it. Luckily the climb was closed today due to high winds at the summit so the decision of not climbing was already made. The path up the side also looked quite hairy with a metal chain going up to the sky and I was glad I wasn't taking the boys up there.

In all the national parks we've visited this trip there have always been signs about the Aboriginal culture and the significance of the areas, however, none of the rangers we've met, looking after the parks and running the educational talks and programs have been Aboriginal, which I think is a bit disappointing. If these places are so important to them, why aren't they the ones looking after them and sharing their culture with us?

As you drive up to Uluru it just gets bigger and bigger. You really just have to stand there a minute and take it all in. The base of the rock is a lot more beautiful than I'd expected. Close up, the orange cliffs, that look like they've been cement rendered, tower above you and you can see grasses and figs and other plants clinging on to cracks and pieces of rock that look like they're about to come crashing down. Maybe in a few thousand years, or maybe tomorrow. In some parts of the base of the rock there are piles of boulders and others there are wave shaped caves with rock art. There are native desert plum, wattle and bloodwood. There are also two pools of water which were beautifully clear and quite full from rain two weeks ago.
We really wanted to ride bikes around the 10km base track, however the bikes for hire were all booked out. Lloyd and Rex had their bikes with them so they had a short ride.
To finish the day we drove all the way around in the afternoon light to get a few more photos.