Blog 5 The Big Rock

After leaving Alice we moved south to the turn off to Uluru at Erldunda only a distance of 200klms and camped there for the night, went into the bar and had a beer, but there was no atmosphere so we went back to the caravan and went for our usual nightly stroll, drink in hand. Ran into a friendly couple there and had a drink with them, Sandie and Jeff. Jeff was in the Skippy Squadron in Vietnam.

There was a great sunset there that night.

The next day we moved on to Yulara, the resort/camping area outside the national park for Uluru. On the drive in I was becoming a bit cynical about the rock, thinking we have seen so many mountains, gaps and gorges and I was wondering if all this was going to be worth the drive in. On arriving and queuing up to get into the park, my mood was getting worse, then into the park to set up, someone called it the Afghanistan caravan park, it is all red sand, with a small concrete block, all the facilities are good.

That night we went up to a small hill within the park to watch the sunset on the rock which you can see in the distance, hmmmmm that was interesting????.

However the next day we decided to reserve our judgement and went out to Uluru, well I have changed my mind and I take back my cynical remarks of the day before, it was spectacular.

 The size of the bloody thing, we decided to do the walk around, its 10.6 klms, but all flat. Packing the water bottles and lunch we set of, it was huuuuge; we did a side track of 800 metres into one of the waterholes.

I found the mens cave, this is where the all the guys got together and made inma (ceremony/party)

The women also had a cave Kulpi Minymaku

We didn’t try to climb the rock as the local indigenous people who are the owners ask you not to climb, and not to photo certain areas. Having said that I don’t think even if I was asked by these people to climb, I wouldn’t any way; it would kill us, besides the height would have had me frozen anyway.

Please don’t climb Uluru

“That’s a really important thing you are climbing. You shouldn’t climb. Its not the real thing about this place. The real thing is listening to everthing. We are obliged by Tjukurpa (traditional law) to teach people what behaviour is appropriate.

It has been this way since the beginning.”

 Went back to the car park to watch the sunset, unfortunately there was too much cloud cover and there was no show of the colours.

Although on the way back to Yulara we came across the sun setting through the clouds.

Next day we did Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), these are a bit further out but again well worth the trip, we did a small walk only 2.2klm return with a slight incline up to the lookout in the Valley of the winds.

Kata Tjuta means many heads in the local language. This area is sacred under Tjukurpa and Anangu men’s law

At one lookout you can see the Olgas, but on turning around you can see Uluru in the distance, it certainly stands out in the desert.

On the way back we came across a group of camels going for a stroll through the land.

Last day at the Yulara camping ground was spent resting reading and writing and getting ready for the next stage. Moved on on the morning of the 14th and went back to the Stuart highway at Erldunda, and again camped there for the night.