The Outback - Day Two

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

We were woken by Steve at 4am so that we could have breakfast and be back at Uluru for sunrise. We were pleased to be able to be out of our tent in the slightly cooler air, but still rather snoozy. We had 3 options for what we could do, we could climb the Rock, do a 7km base walk or go to the sunrise area and then do a 5km base walk.

The Anangu people see Uluru as a very sacred place and it features heavily in their dreamtime stories. It is still used by them for initiation ceremonies and the only people allowed to climb the rock are the Anangu male elders. As such they prefer you not to do the climb. The Aboriginal culture is very much one of making your own choices and mistakes so there is the option to climb, but they refer to the people that do as ants. It's quite dangerous to climb it though, there's a chain at the begining and then nothing, it gets extremely hot and can be windy at the top so often the rangers close the walk anyway which is what happened on our visit. The forcast of rain meant that no-one could climb that day. Chris quite wanted to climb but had already made the decision not to, but quite a few people from our group were going to climb. A little way around from where the chain is are some plaques in memory of the people who have died doing the climb.

Chris and I decided to go to the sunrise viewing area even though it was cloudy. We thought it was worth seeing just in case there was a break in the clouds. There weren't any spectacular colours but the rock looked pretty cool anyway! Afterwards we took a 5km walk around the base. Uluru is very cool. It's as red as you think and has lots of interesting textures and shapes in it. As you walk around there are some parts that are particularly sacred to the Anangu people which you can't go near, but a lot of it you can get right up to and explore. It was very peaceful and not too hot at that time in the morning so we had a very enjoyable walk.
Steve then took us to the Yulara waterhole. The reason that Uluru is so important is because when it rains, water cascades off of it into the waterhole, which collects far more rain than if the hole was out in the open. Accoring to the Anangu dreamtime stories different parts of the rock were formed by different animal ancestors. Around the waterhole is the reamins of two snakes which had a big fight with the winner turning into the rainbow serpent. There are also some very old cave paintings in a part that used to be used as a school.
After our guided walk we visited the cultural centre to gain a bit more info and have a snack and then went back to our campsite to clear up and have lunch (at 10:30).

For most of the afternoon we travelled to our next campsite at Kings Creek Cattle Station. We were relieved to be in the bus for a while as the temperature was 32 degress at sunrise and rose to 42 by the time reached the Station. On our way to the campsite we slept quite a lot but had to wake up just before we got there so that we could gather firewood. A nice surprise for us! When someone asked if there would be snakes Steve replied that it was too hot for snakes. Everyone was quite indignant, but we quite quickly and efficiently collected enough firewood so that we could cook that night. It did seem very crazy to be building a fire in 40 deree heat.
Our dinner was scrummy though, chicken and veggies and homemade bread cooked in the coals of the fire all washed down with a couple of cold beers.
That night we decided to bring our beds outside to see if we'd sleep a bit better. There were far less clouds so it was a little cooler and there was a nice breeze so we slept pretty well. The moon was almost full so it was quite bright and we didn't see anything gribbly, just stars.