I had been worried that I’d be grumpy for
the whole time we were at Uluru, but when I woke up the next morning I felt
much better and excited to be here. I was up well before sunrise, so I wandered
up to the lookout at the campground (I couldn’t find the path in the dark, so
went over the sand dune for a little way until I hit the path). It was a cloudy
morning, and the sky to the east was soon glowing red, so brightly it looked
like it was on fire. Uluru looked pretty cool slowly emerging from the dark,
and the sunlight on Kata Tjuta was impressive. There were about 20 people at
the lookout, and everyone was completely silent, it was pretty cool. We watched
the sky in it’s various stages of red – once the sun hit the horizon though it
was completely behind the clouds, so there was no lighting up of Uluru, the sky
was suddenly grey and uniform. Still a spectacular morning though.
I started chatting to another lady up
there, we compared cameras then talked about our trip and our kids, she also
has a Caitlin, about a year younger than mine. When we compared itineraries
they were remarkably similar for the next few days.
Back down to the tent where I pottered
around and everyone gradually emerged from bed. LiAM and Millie and I played
cards for a while. We took our time getting ready, and headed over to Uluru
around 10.30. Our plan was to do the base walk around Uluru, and we were
pleased it was cloudy and quite a bit cooler than the previous couple of days.
Being right up close to Uluru was impressive as always – it is SO big and it
constantly surprises me, I think my brain can’t comprehend its size and so
shrinks it a bit in my memory. We started at the Mala parking area and walked
to the right – I wanted to make sure we at least got as far as the Mutjilipu
waterhole, so we went the direction that would get us there the quickest.
At some places the rock was almost sheer –
looking up to the top was incredible. In others there were folds or caves in
the rock, it kept changing constantly and, where it is permitted, I took loads
of photos. Some areas are culturally sensitive and it is requested that no one
takes photos there – because the place is part of the story and belief of the
local people, it is supposed to only be viewed in it’s actual location. I
enjoyed looking at those parts too, and imagining the generations of people
using these areas for their ceremonies and learning. We ran in to the lady I’d
met in the morning, and met each other’s families and had a bit of a chat.
The first third or so of the walk was
through trees, it was quite green on that side. The waterhole was very cool,
there was still a trickle of water running in to it. We saw water in one other
place and the rest was dry. We saw lots of different types of ants, and several
bugs – there really haven’t been a lot of animals around in this region,
compared to other places we’ve been. LiAM saw a kangaroo. The last 2 thirds of
the walk was mainly further away from the rock – so we got a longer perspective
of the view, which Tony preferred, while I preferred the bit where we were
close up and could see lots of detail. The middle third of the walk seemed to
take forever – we could see features on the rock which didn’t seem to get any
closer for a very long time, and for some of it we were more exposed to the
sun, which was occasionally peeking through the clouds. Tony gave piggy backs to
each of the kids at different times which helped them get a bit further. After
a while Caitlin offered to carry Millie in the sling, so we set them up and
Caitlin walked a long way with Millie on her back, we were all quite impressed.
This side of Uluru was less green but had
different flowers – lots of banksias on this side. We played games to pass the
time – first person to see an ant (easy), first person to get a fly on their
face (also easy – except for Caitlin who was wearing her fly net), first person
to see a bird – less easy. Right near the end of the walk we went back close to
the rock and were able to go in a little cave and see more of the folds. There
was a short walk to a gorge but everyone was just keen to get back to the car
so we skipped that.
Back at the car we sat on the ground for a
while and recovered our energy. The walk was 10.6km and we did it in about 5
hours, so a huge effort all around. It was only 90 minutes until sunset so we
decided to stay and watch that. We popped in to the cultural centre and bought
a couple of pieces of cake to share, then drove to the sunset viewing area. We
ate the cake in the car, then Tony made us all hot drinks while we waited for
the sun to set.
There was blue sky behind the rock but it
was cloudy in the west, so there wasn’t direct sunlight on Uluru. It still
looked so amazing though, rising up out of the desert by itself. About 20
minutes before the sun set, it broke through the clouds briefly and Uluru was
lit up by a brilliant orange light. It only lasted a minute or two, then the
sun slipped behind clouds again, and it was amazing. Very exciting to see. The
sunset itself was again a bit of a fizzer as the usual gradual colour change
didn’t happen, although we could see a bit of a change as the light dropped.
The moon rose behind Uluru shortly after the sun set, which was cool to see.
Back to camp and we were all exhausted. I
went to have a shower and Tony was going to cook some chicken that I’d bought
at a greatly reduced price that afternoon – when he opened it, it didn’t smell
great so we ditched that idea and had soup and noodles for dinner instead. Once
we’d eaten we were fairly quickly in to bed and read for a very short time.
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