Ayers Rock - March 2 to March 4

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 - From Cairns to Ayers Rock

OK, the day of relaxation is over.  On to more adventures.  I knew when planning the trip that Ayers Rock would be one of the highlights of the trip.  Yet it is so difficult to explain to someone in a minute or two why that is so.  It’s a big rock in the middle of the desert, 300  miles from the nearest town (Alice Springs) and a thousand miles from the nearest city.  Yet look at any travel guide for Australia and chances are the rock is on the cover.

We flew from Cairns to Ayers Rock, a three hour flight.  The time zone changed – by a half hour!  Weird.  Ayers Rock is in the Northern Territory, which is not a state.  Weird.  The resort that is the only “civilization” there has about 2,000 residents to run the resort and the national park.  But when the resort is full of tourists (like us) it is the third largest city in the Northern Territory.  The Ayers Rock Resort town is called Yulara, which means “weeping.”  Legend has it that the name comes from what  tourists do when they get the hotel bill at the end of the stay.  It still brings a tear to my eye!

What a difference in environments - from rain forest to desert.  But in keeping with our luck the past few days, the desert was quite green from… record rainfall in February!  As we approached the airport, I could see Uluru (the aboriginal name for Ayers Rock) out of my window and I had another one of those “Wow!  I’m really here” moments.

Aerial view of Uluru (from a collection by "Buniculla" on Flickr

As soon as we were off the plane, we were welcomed by the most numerous residents – the flies.  The Australian fly is maybe a third of the size of our house fly, but three times as obnoxious.  They don’t bite, but they covet any moisture they can get from you, so they go for moist orifices like eyes, mouth, nose, and ears.  We were warned about this in advance, so we bought fly nets to cover our faces for trips to the rocks, where they are the worst.  They actually weren’t too bad in the resort.

Our first activity that night was to be a dinner on the desert watching the sun go down behind the rock and eating an authentic Australian dinner under the stars.  (The flies suddenly disappear at sundown.)  But the “Sounds of Silence” event was cancelled because of… RAIN!!  IT’S NOT FAIR!  OK, IT CAN RAIN IN CAIRNS, BUT NOT IN AYERS ROCK!  We did have the same meal in Sails in the Desert Hotel, but it certainly wasn’t the same.  Nevertheless we did have kangaroo and crocodile meat in various forms  They tasted like, ah…. chicken.  No, I’m kidding.  They were actually quite good and could be a staple in my diet if we could get them here.  (Don’t shed a tear for my eating Roo – kangaroos are as common in Oz as deer are in this country.)  We didn’t get to try camel or emu.  Would you believe that there are over a million camels running wild in Australia?  And that they are not native to the continent, but were brought in to be beasts of burden while building the railroads, then released into the wild.  Big problem!

Thursday, March 3, 2011 – Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)

We absolutely loved our room with a balcony with view of Uluru!  The balcony was always in the shade (yes, the sun did come out today!) and remarkably free of flies.  Very pleasant!  So with nothing we had to do until 3:00, we got a takeaway meal from the café and ate on our balcony, watching Uluru change colors during the day as the sun coursed through the sky.  One just has to stare at Uluru.  More particulars coming up tomorrow.

The view from our balcony.  It's better than it appears here.  See  next picture.

This is what it really looked like from our balcony.
I've learned that you have to zoom in a little to duplicate what the naked eye sees.

Today we are taking a tour to Kata Tjuta.  Kata Tjuta is another rock formation about 35 miles away with four or five monolithic edifices.  Taken together they are even more impressive than Uluru. Both sites are sacred to the Anangu, the Aboriginal tribe in that area.  We walked the Valley of the Winds, a very rugged trail, including a couple steep ascents that were a little scary, but we were rewarded with great views of the “Olgas,”  the English name for the formations.  I was very proud of Karen, for whom the trek was probably a little too rugged, but she hung in there and we completed the journey, often bringing up the rear, but hey, there were no other septuagenarians (me) or sexy-genarians (as I like to call Karen) in the group!  It was a little more challenging with the slightly limited vision through the fly nets, but I would have been in misery without them.  The flies seemed to find me especially juicy.  Here are a few of the gorgeous views.

Atta girl, Karen!

Yes, that really is Jim and Karen behind those fly nets.

Kata Tjuta at sunset, with bubbly in hand.  Cheers, mate!

We were then taken to a special vantage point to watch the sunset with a glass of champagne and watch the colors change on Kata Tjuta as the sun dropped into the horizon.  A super day!!  We skipped supper and went to bed, because we were destined to arise in the middle of the night the next day.

Friday, March 4, 2011 - Ayers Rock to Sydney

We were up at 4:30 to prepare for 5:30 pickup for “Desert Awakenings”  (I hate getting up in the dark!)  Our luggage had to be ready for porter pickup while on tour.  (I hate packing the luggage in my sleep!).  Our conveyance for this tour was a 4wd truck to a high point in the desert to have breakfast (steak and egg sandwich, juice, and coffee – one of the better breakfasts of the trip!) and view the sunrise - beautiful color with scattered clouds.  From this vantage point we could see both Uluru and Kata Tjuta, which are about 22 miles apart..  This is one of those images that will be burned into my brain forever.

Sunrise at Uluru

We then drove to Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) to stop at several points and view the Rock.  Our guide, a cute young lady from the west coast of Australia, told us some of the Anangu stories which helped to explain why the rock is so sacred to the indigenous people.  We saw where people can climb the rock, although it was closed that day due to high winds.  I would not have climbed it anyway, for two reasons:  1)  the Anangu tribe (who actually own the National Park land) request (but do not demand) that people not climb their sacred rock, and 2)  it would be too damn steep, anyway!  Going up wouldn’t be so bad, but coming down would be incredibly scary.

The climbing trail up Uluru.  There have been a few fatalities over the years.

Uluru is 1,141 feet high, 2.2 miles long, and 1.1 miles wide.  And, like an iceberg, we are only seeing the tip, as it extends several miles into the ground.  The famous red color comes from the rusting of the iron content in the sandstone.

We went to the Anangu Cultural Centre where more stories and history were pictorially told with art and text on curved walls, very artistic and moving.  We then drove to the classic “postcard view” to take pictures, then back to the hotel to get the bus to airport.  After takeoff, there was a great view of the rock… from the other side of the plane.  Why is it that I’m always on the wrong side of the plane for the great view?  Why is it that I get in the slow lane at the supermarket?  Have you ever noticed that…  Wait, when did this become an Andy Rooney segment?

An example of the holes formed by the erosion of water exiting the sandstone.
Note the heart shape of the top hole.  It is part of a legendary story.

The tour guide classic view of Uluru, with two classics in the foreground.

Ayer’s Rock, or Uluru as we should call it, is a very special place.  There is something mystical about it.  You could look at it every day and somehow the color is always changing – deep red at sunset, light red during the day with dark splotches from passing clouds, black during the occasional rains.  From a distance, it is a smooth, gigantic mound.  Up close it has many folds and ridges and pock marks, as its porous nature absorbs the rain, but the water exits at weak points in the rock, which widen into holes, and sometime support some vegetation.

We have been many places in the world and seen marvelous sights.  Uluru would be in the top five.

Next:  The Blue Mountains west of Sydney