Saturday, August 06, 2005
Sunrise and sunset at Uluru are big events, and
people turn out in crowds to watch Uluru at these times. The rock changes colour as the sun sets or rises. Sunrise was at 7.20 am. But we wanted to be there much earlier for some pictures. So we were up at 6.00 and at the rock by 6.30 am. Which was good. The horizon was just developing colour. We drove to a suitable spot and watched the rock from there. Nearby were two guys who'd been at Rainbow Valley when we were there and we got chatting. They'd come across the Simpson desert crossing hundreds of sand dunes in a Subaru, which was quite remarkable. It is a 4WD vehicle, but a car. They did get bogged and the muffler got ripped off etc. But they made it. We told them how crowded the campground was at Yulara. They'd been bush camping and told us how to get to the spot they'd found.
After watching sunrise we had breakfast and set off on the walk around the base of Uluru. Uluru is a very sacred place for the aboriginal people and they request you to not climb it. The requests are all over the place, on the pamphlets, on sign boards and even on a board at the start of the climb. But the tourists do it anyway. Apparently many have died trying to climb it. There is a chain all along a rock slope which one can hang on to and use while climbing. Even at the base of the climb there is the aboriginal request that one not climb the rock. But people were swarming up it. It is a very enticing rock to climb. But one cannot disrespect what a community holds sacred, and so we decided to walk around the base instead. Even on the walk there are many places where one is requested to not take photographs, as these are sacred places. There were boards which mentioned if the spot was sacred to men or women. They didn't say more than that. Apparently they are not supposed to give information about these places to the uninitiated. So there wasn't a lot of learning, but the rock itself is wondrous and awe-inspiring. The surface is not smooth, rather flaky. And there are many caves and hollows that have been eroded. In a few of them there were many rock paintings, made by aboriginals of course. There were two gorges with water-holes. There must be many pockets on the rock itself which hold water. Some look like giant cascading water-features from a distance. There is no way to describe the feeling when you walk into these gorges. In front of you is sheer rock, rising like a wall. You can't see the top until you lift your face so that it is facing the sky, that's how high the walls are.
One thing which struck us about the rock was that many of the eroded hollows were shaped like lips, and so it seemed that the rock had many mouths. The curves of the rock were smooth and graceful.
The walk around the base is about 10 km. We'd walked there from the visitor's centre which is 2 km away. So it was a 14 km walk, which we did over 3 ¼ hrs, stopping many times to take pictures. It is such a photogenic place. And the views and shape of the rock was constantly changing too as we walked around it. We decided to stay another night so that we could visit the Olgas the next day. The road we'd taken from the meteorite craters to Uluru had been rough and the welding on the muffler had come off and so the car was rattling again. We took it in to a mechanic who said he'd have a look at it the next morning.
We headed off to look for the bush camp spot that the two chaps had told us about. There's had been about 12 km away. But much closer we spotted a track going off the road, and we took that. It led through spinifex and young desert oaks. We found a spot and decided to stay there for the night. The camping provided at the resort was very crowded. This was free- no money and no people. We did pass three young chaps in a car, who'd also picked this spot for camping. And later saw some people ahead of us too.
We were woken around midnight by some shouting. Two men were talking in German, and apparently looking for someone that seemed to be lost. Every few minutes they would yell out his name at the top of their voices. They even shone the torch on our tent. This went on for quite some time before they gave up looking and went back. We could hear their car which sounded like they were bogged in the sand on the way to where we were camped.
The next morning we watched another sunrise at Uluru, and took some more pictures. Then we went to see the mechanic, who did some more welding on the exhaust pipe. Had breakfast and went to the Olgas.
The Olgas are eroded rock mountains 50 km from Uluru. They must have been many mountains. They had eroded into many smooth looking domes. This too was sacred ground. There was no climbing track, but there was a walking track which takes one through the Valley of the Winds. 
This track descends through a gap and then passes through a narrow gorge, between one dome and another rock which folds around the dome. This was like walking through a canyon. Here the walls were very high and steep. Around one side of the dome the track ascended steeply and as we mounted the last few steps we came into a wonderful view. In front of us the track descended steeply, still between the dome and the rock. Ahead was a flat plain from which rose many more domes. It was a dramatic scene. Moreover, the walls of the rocks on either side of the track were in shadow, contrasting with the sunlit vista of the domes in front.
The rock that these domes are composed off seem very different from that of Uluru. While Uluru seems to be of Lava flow, and homogenous, here the rock seemed to be a matrix, like lava had flowed over existing rocks and bound them in. It was like concrete. As the rock eroded the smaller rocks embedded in it became visible, just like you can see aggregate in broken concrete.
The walk was about 8 km, which with ascents and descents, and plenty of stopping took us about 2 ½ hours. After lunch we were ready for another walk. This one was a shorter one, through a gorge. The gorge was quite narrow, and the walls on either side absolutely vertical. When we'd walked a fair way in, and turned back and looked, the shape of the gorge was exactly like a giant U. But at the other end it became a V, which ascended some way up from the floor. Here it was moist and there was a spring and a tiny creek. Many short trees and vines were growing in this favourable spot. We had to retrace our steps to finish the walk. We ran into the two chaps from rainbow valley again.
We decided to head off and drive towards Kings Canyon. Got to Curtin Springs around 7.00 pm.
