Spring Break, Part 2: Uluru and Kata Tjuta

After spending four days in Alice Springs, we headed out in our huge SUV and 20 litres of water (I'm a safety gal) into the desert to head to Ayers Rock, more commonly known as Uluru to locals.

Uluru is a huge sandstone rock in the middle of essentially flat desert.  It looks small from faraway, and as you approach it, its massive volume is overwhelming.  It is a sacred spot to the Aboriginal people.  In the 70s, a lot of damage was being done to the area around Uluru, so the Aboriginals and the Australian government created a resort about a 30 minute drive from the rock where tourists could go, visit Uluru, then leave without causing damage.

The drive took 6 hours, and there were very few signs of civilization along the way.  We stopped at a couple roadhouses, all of which offered water, beer, petrol and a few rooms to rent (all the necessities), and strangely, emus and kangaroos. It was a beautiful, not too hot day but the flies were awful. Along the way you occasionally see road trains - semi trucks with three trailers attached.  Definitely want to keep your distance with those. We also saw a huge snake slithering across the road, and a couple unfortunate cattle and camels that had been hit by cars or trucks. If you rent a car in NT, you are not allowed to drive at night for this very reason.

The resort is still a good half hour drive from Uluru, and 45 minutes from Kata Tjuta.  It was completely luxurious compared to Alice Springs, and has its own little town square including shops, a post office, a grocery store, and a choice of five hotels that share three pools.  Forty years ago, there were hotels right at the base of Uluru, and the tourist trade was destroying the sacred places. The Aboriginal people got the land back, and lease it now to the National Park for 99 years at a time, and they've moved the hotels away so less damage is done.

Our first full day there we went hiking at Kata Tjuta. This is a lesser known but still sacred site for Anangu people who are the traditional owners of the land. Kata Tjuta means "many heads" and looks like 36 rounded outcroppings of rock. European explorers named them the Olgas after a queen of Spain.

Kata Tjuta from about 3 km away.

There were a few routes to take to hike Kata Tjuta.  We inadvertently took the long 10 km one when we got to the halfway point and some random tour guide said, "oh the rest won't take you more than an hour." It took us two and a half more hours. We ran out of water.  I got badly sunburned despite reapplication of sunscreen and it wasn't even that hot.  The good news was the second half wasn't nearly as technically difficult as the first part, but by the time we got to the end we were worn out.

Photos of Kata Tjuta:

At 4 km into the walk.

It amazed me how green the desert was.

About 1 km into the walk. Already tired . . . the terrain is very rugged.

Kata Tjuta and Uluru are both part of a larger underground sandstone rock mass. The holes and caves were formed by folding and erosion of the sandstone over the centuries.

At kilometer 7 or so.

Kilometer 8ish. She is getting too big for this!

Kata Tjuta is a much less visited attraction in the park - less profile and less accessible. I didn't take many photos of the super hilly part because we were just trying not to fall over cliffs or backwards down steep slopes. Despite the difficulty, we really loved it, and would go back in a second, but with more water and long sleeves.

The following day we biked around Uluru. You can hire bikes, and we didn't think the kids (especially Ruth) could walk the whole way around. I'd recommend this for anyone with small children - we got around in 3 hours and no one was particularly worn out or dehydrated at the end.

The bike trail to Uluru

All the rain the region had received a few days before resulted in a burst of wildflowers.

The 10 km ride was much more relaxed than our 10 km walk of the day before - very flat, and we started earlier so it wasn't too hot. Plus it only took us three hours. There are lots of plaques around the rock that explain the Dreamtime stories associated with Uluru. If you're ever in the region, we'd all highly recommend this national park.

On our last day we did a little Aboriginal dot painting. The resort offers classes that are taught by Aboriginal women. Our teacher, Sarah, spoke no English. There was a white Australian girl who translated what she said. Sarah started by drawing figures in the sand and explaining what they were.

Here's a graphic of some of what she taught us:

The woman symbol has a digging stick, the man symbol has a spear and a shield. A child is drawn as a small U.

 And here is an example of Aboriginal artwork using the symbols. The art was everywhere, and Sarah made a painting at our class that was bought immediately by one of the other participants in the class. I found them beautiful, but a little out of our price range.   Next time.

Water holes and campfires and people walking between them. The extra dots are to add interest to the painting, and to indicate different terrains. Orange and red is the desert, blue is water, green is grass, etc.

Here are the final products of most of our class.  Sarah's is the large painting.

I didn't mean for the blog entry on the rest of our spring break to take so long.  A lot has been happening here (next blog post!) and we've had some shockingly bad Internet service, which combined to sloooww me down.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and if you're ever in the southern hemisphere, come to the NT!