Uluru

Rock painting on Uluru

Wave cave on the Mala walk

Holes in the sides

Sunset with the moon

Today was Uluru day – we went to the ranger guided Mala walk this morning which was quite good, but a very big group (since it was free), and some information overlapped with other talks we’ve been to covering aboriginal culture, or by what’s provided at the Cultural Centre here. I’m not sure why there isn’t a whole lot of technical information here about either Uluru or Kata Tjuta, there’s very basic info about what types of rock they are but that’s about it. She could point out some rock paintings though which was good, and once the ranger talk finished we kept going on the general track right around Uluru, which takes a couple of hours. It was 10.6k and I was very impressed that the kids did it (at least it was nice and flat), and unfortunately there wasn’t a whole lot of information along the way. Again I think it’s largely because members of the public aren’t allowed to know most of the stories about the rock and the sacred places surrounding it – there were periodic signs saying no photos at this particular spot, which usually had a tourist standing right next to it, taking a photo. I guess we’ve gotten used to lots of tourist signs telling us about the flora and fauna, or just something to read along the way. It might sound like I’m disappointed but I’m not at all, Uluru has in fact been better than I imagined – I thought that because the image of Uluru is almost overdone in general media that it might be a bit of a let down, but not at all, I found it pretty amazing up close. It was also a lot bumpier and pockmarked than I realised – loads of holes in it and a few gorges as well. There’s even a permanent waterhole on one side, just can’t work out where the water comes down off the rock from though (a sign would have been good!). As with a lot of places we’ve seen, I reckon it would be really cool to see it with rain pouring down as you can see the marks of all the places where it cascades down.

Anyway that was most of the day, we had a quick rest back at the tent before driving back again for our sunset viewing, along with every other tourist here. We left the tent nearly an hour before sunset and got one of the last remaining car parks in the special Car Sunset Viewing car park. I’m glad we got there though because it looked pretty special, especially with the moon above it.