Well, Uluru (more commonly known as Ayers Rock) was exactly what I expected-it was one very large, very isolated rock. However, it was also so much more. I headed off to the explore the outback early Thursday morning with Liz and Christine- another American I have met over here. After an uneventful plane ride we landed in the outback mid arvo to discover that Yulara, the town Uluru is in, has a thirty minute time difference. Not sure why the rest of the world is on hourly time zones and Uluru is not, but whatever the case we changed our watches and checked into our 20 person hostel room. As you can imagine twenty people sleeping in one room is not quiet and when we were not waking ourselves up to see the sunrise over the rock we were awoken to random alarms going off every morning well before 5 am. After getting settled in we explored our resort and bought food for the weekend at a little supermarket nearby. Then we hung out poolside until it was time for sunset and went to a viewing area to watch the rock. Yes, I realize how dumb it sounds to say we watched a rock but we did a lot of “rock watching” on this trip. It never moved, nor did it do anything but be massive and beautiful. The sun went down and we took the typical touristy pictures then headed back to the hostel for some dinner of peanut butter sandwiches and some free drinks at the bar from a nice Canadian on holiday. The live entertainment was really good and he played every night. We were also excited to see that the musician was an airline steward and helped us check in and board our aircraft on the flight out.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. We still had 4 days left to explore the outback. On our second day we were the annoying people waking up to see the sunrise. It was pretty, but not worth waking up for so we didn’t stay too long and headed back to bed for a few hours. Our tour of Uluru wasn’t until the afternoon so we decided to spend a stress-free morning laying out by the pool and reading. Much to my surprise and my parent’s probable delight I not only read a book for pleasure but I liberally applied sunscreen to avoid sunburn. The outback gets hot and since Australia is missing the ozone layer, the sun is strong. Luckily I took precaution. After catching some rays and having another poor college kid meal of peanut butter, Liz, Christine and I headed off to our tour. The tour was in my opinion a waste of money. While we did get to drive all the way around the 9.4 kilometer base of Uluru and hike around in certain parts, we were the youngest of our group by a good forty years and it was a very slow paced walk. The upside was learning new information along the way and receiving free snacks and champagne at the end of the tour (necessities for college kids on low budgets). Our guide showed us Aboriginal paintings and led us to the Aboriginal cultural center which reminded me very much of the Masaii village I visited in Africa. There we got to learn more about the people and history of the rock as well as read some stories from the “sorry book”. The book is a collection of letters of regret from people that took parts of the rock only to have bad luck come their way. They then returned the sand and parts of the rock in hopes of reversing what they had done. The reason Aboriginals began their famous dot paintings is because it was suggested they have some written form of their stories in order to remember them. They, however, believed that “government law is written on paper. Anangu law is in our heads and in our souls. We do not put our law onto paper. It was given to us by our grandfathers and grandmothers, our fathers and mothers, to hold on to in our heads and our hearts.” While their culture is still somewhat of a mystery, we did learn solid facts about the rocks. Some of the fun facts we learned are as follows:
Uluru is famous because it is the world’s largest monolith. This means that it is one solid rock made only of sandstone. While sandstone is gray, the rock is red due to the iron in the environment that oxidizes when the water hits it. The rock is 348 meters tall but 6 kilometers of it is hidden underground! There are many sacred Aboriginal stories with the rock about how it was formed and what different lines and cracks mean. While I’m sure you want me to bore you with the details, for time’s sake I suggest Google. One thing I will share is that as of now Uluru is still open to the public to climb. The Aboriginals call the people climbing it mingas, or ants. They strongly urge people not to climb as this is a sacred spot to them and people are ruining it. Taking this into consideration, I chose to respect their culture and not to climb. I only hope enough other people make this same choice, therefore conserving what is so very important to them. They have even said that tourists come and take pictures and climb but don’t truly understand what they are looking at; therefore, they are not appreciating their culture but are also ruining it. I will take their word for it and respect their sacred spot.
Day three started out with a tour pick-up time of 5:30 for me and Liz. We headed over to a lookout spot to watch the sunrise over another rock formation called Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and Uluru. Then we headed to the Olgas and began our self-guided 6 kilometer Valley of the Winds hike where we saw wild kangaroos hopping around and made friends with an interesting (to say the least) couple from Ohio. On the hike we were amazed at how big the 36 rock formations are and just how beautiful rocks can be. (I can’t believe I just said that). Once again being the youngest people in the group Liz and I finished our hike heaps before the others so we sat in on a tour to learn a little more about Kata Tjuta. Because it is so sacred to the Aboriginals, only initiated members can know its true meaning. We did, however, manage to learn that New Zealand moves 3 cm closer to Australia every year and will eventually be an island right off the coast. We also learned that Kata Tjuta is a conglomerate and has strata lines at an 80 degree angle from sediments being forced together. Uluru’s strata lines are vertical. The strata lines are nearly at right angles of each other and the rocks were formed by the same mountain range millions of years ago-weird! Another thing we found interesting is that both rocks erode a little each year but because they are eroding at the same rate of Australia, they are still the same height as they were when they were formed. After our hike we relaxed by the pool and spent the evening at the hostel’s cook your own barbeque. I opted out of trying kangaroo and emu because they were both bloody, red meats and crocodile was a little out of my budget. Therefore, I cooked a nice little veggie burger and had heaps of fresh fruit and corn. With our stomachs finally full of real food it was time to get the party started on the dance floor. We made friends with 3 older gentlemen who asked us to dance. By older I mean they probably went to high school the same time my grandparents did. At least they were fun to dance with! It was then off to bed to prepare for another long day of relaxation.
Day four began with an early morning hike through the outback where we ran into our friends from the night before! They were headed off to cairns and we regretfully denied their invitation to join them. The goal of our hike was to find a sign that told drivers to drive on the left hand side while in Australia but when we saw a snake’s trail through the sand Liz was hesitant to continue. While we never ran into the snake, we did get to see the rock from a few new angles!
After the walk we went back to the pool to play some cards and lay out. I taught the girls how to play 4 Kings which made me a little homesick for my dad. Thankfully I met a nice traveler that helped me keep my mind off home. We talked about how amazing Australia is and about how we were both reading books by Bill Bryson. For those of you that don’t know, he is a travel writer who is not only humorous, but extremely informative. My new friend and I were going to swap books but neither of us finished in time so he gave me another to read instead-Aussies are extremely nice people. After a few more hours of cards and socializing it was time for our much anticipated camel tour! Liz and I shared a camel named Chester and he was about 30 years old (camels can live up to 60, but their prime is 16). Chester was a very nice one-humped dromedary camel. Australia is the only continent where these are still found in the wild, about 1 million to be exact. We saw an example of these wild camels when we came back to camp and they had caught a wild camel and were planning to tame him. Because they live in the desert, camels have some interesting adaptations. Their hump is made of fat and they can go almost a month in the winter time without water. The pads of their feet are like sponges so they land on the sand softly. Camels must live in dry environments because if their feet soak up too much water they will get a fungus and rot. Our guide (whom we all think was extremely intoxicated) compared it with wearing wet sneakers for a week. Camels can carry around up to half of their body weight and because they weigh around 500 kilos, I didn’t feel too bad for mister Chester. Although our walk was slow and steady, much like a guided horse ride, camels can run up to 65 kilometers an hour, which they frequently do in the camel cup held in Alice Springs every July. Some of the camels on the farm were raced in the cup and even placed! A few other fun facts I found interesting are that camels breed standing up and since the males penis faces backwards it has to loop around, much like an elephant’s. After learning our plethora of fun camel facts and watching the sun set (this time on the back of a camel!) we headed back to the farm to once again enjoy free snacks and drinks-score! We also received a free photo cd of our experience because the creepy, single man “accidentally” burned an extra one. Seeing as we also got $20 off our camel tour it was a pretty cheap, fun experience that I would definitely recommend. I would also recommend star gazing in the outback as Christine and I did. Liz was too scared of the critters to venture out in the dark but other than a close encounter with a mouse, we survived and were able to see the stars in the middle of the outback. Not something that a year ago I thought I would be able to say I’ve done.
The trip was an expensive one but definitely worth it. While I already felt a sense of familiarity with the rock, it was nice to finally see it in person. It reminded me of the Grand Canyon but instead of looking into a hole I was looking up at a very, very large rock. It’s a weird comparison, I’m aware, but it’s also very difficult to describe. Seeing the outback was an experience and I once again wish more of my friends and family could enjoy this with me. The trip did teach me that I want to be a tour guide when I grow up. Probably for a summer or two but as much as I love learning fun facts about new places, I would love to teach others as well. Now I need to find somewhere to do it and someone that will hire me. Hmmm I guess I’ll get started on that when I get back stateside. Until next time-G’day, mate!
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