Uluru and Kata Tjuta

You will have to pardon the number of photographs here, but it is just impossible not to take lots and lots when looking at these amazing natural wonders in the Australian Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. For context, you should understand that we booked a several day tour of the region, including this park and Kings Canyon, where we will be tomorrow. There are several events which make up the tour. Last night, after traveling to the Ayers Rock Resort from Alice Springs, we were taken out to a sunset viewing area for Uluru (once called Ayers Rock). This was the view of the rock when we arrive, about an hour ahead of sunset. I know you have all probably seen pictures of this amazing natural feature, but to see it with the naked eye is truly amazing. I just juts up out of the surrounding desert ground. We learned later that another portion of it descends into the earth for 5km or so (about 4 miles). We learned how it was formed, but I won't bore you with that here.

This part of the desert, near almost the exact middle of Australia, gets an average of 300ml of rain a year (about a foot). Some years they get none, and some years they get 600ml or more. Rivers are typically dry and only flow on rare occasions, sometimes years apart. Water is exceedingly precious here. So, we were surprised to see quite an active thundercloud area in the distance and enjoyed watching some impressive lightening. We worried that it would interfere with our sunset viewing of Uluru–but as the Aussies say, no worries.

Along the way, we had learned that flies are especially pesky all day long, and we were encouraged to pick up fly nets. Here we are with the only ones we could find (they are in high demand). We were very, very glad we had them. Probably 50% of the people we were around wore them.

We knew exactly when the sun was supposed to set, and so we watched the shadow rise across the face of Uluru as that happened.

I am not my friend Dick, who would surely have taken better pictures than I did, but here is what I got. Watching the colors change on the faces of Uluru as the sun set was something else.

The sun setting in the west was impressive too. After this all finally settled down and it turned dark, the flies just disappeared. We were then treated to a really nice barbecue dinner in the park. Our tour company does a great job all the way along. During sunset, they served wine and "nibbles" (Aussie for snacks), and then the sit-down dinner in the dark, with the silhouette of Uluru in the distance, was great. We had steak, chicken, prawns, kangaroo steaks, and lots of other things. They like meat in the outback.

Then it was up at 4:30AM for a sunrise viewing of Uluru. I got these photos of the eastern sky.

There were several tour buses of us waiting for the impact of the sun on Uluru.

And this is what I saw.

After the sun was up, our tour guide took us on an up-close tour of the big rock. In this photo, you might be able to see the path up the rock that has been used for years to allow climbers to reach the top. The path is along the skyline on the right of this picture. These days, climbing is discouraged. We learned a lot about how Uluru has been protected and returned to its original cultural place with the aboriginal peoples (the Anagnu). The park is managed by a board of eight aboriginals and four Aussies of European descent, and we came away very impressed with the quality of the park, the lessons about the site, and the protection of its resources, geological, ecological, and cultural.

Here is my sweetie listening to part of our tour.

Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and respectful of the aboriginal perspectives.

One of our stops was at this water hole near the very base of the big rock. We learned a great deal about how precious water is, how limited it is, where it can be found when rain fails to fall, and even how the aboriginals see bathing as a great waste of water.

We saw an area with aboriginal rock paintings.

I love how our tour buses remind me of an insect, with big red feelers, and a smiling face.

Later today, we went to another area of the park, where the Kata Tjuta natural feature occurs. Uluru and Kata Tjuta are within several miles of each other, but Uluru tends to overshadow Kata Tjuta in terms of people's awareness. Both were the result of interesting geological events, but the end results were very different.

We did two hour-long walks this afternoon of the Kata Tjuta rocks, which appear as 36 different domes. Less is known about the cultural significance of Kata Tjuta, since the Anagnu peoples are more protective of these natural features and still utilize them for ceremonies of various kinds.

As I said, we did two different hour-long walks, which were trying in the over 40º Celsius temperatures we have seen the past two days. We have handled it well, but end-of-day showers have been very welcome.

At the end of the second walk, the guide took this picture of me, which is interesting in terms of its composition. There are frogs that live by burrowing down into the ground and surviving for years without appearance. When there are rains, as there were in January, these sorts of rare water features can appear, and the frogs will emerge to breed. We didn't see any tadpoles, but our guide said that frogs and tadpoles had been seen here recently. I really came away from these two days with a new appreciation of the desert and the survival of species and the ability of aboriginal tribes to survive in such conditions.

Here is Kata Tjuta as we watched it at sunset over wine and nibbles, supplied by our tour company.