There was a huge thunderstorm last night from about three to four in the morning. Constant lightning and heavy rain kept us awake. The tent dripped and leaked around its seems — Jo and I were regretting using the tents provided and not digging our own out of my bag! It finally cleared up around five, just as we getting in time for a quick cup of tea before piling into the bus to drive out to the Uluru sunrise viewing area. Heading into the national park we all had to hold our entry passes up to the windows to show we’d already paid — a bit of a joke really, as the passes aren’t valid unless they’re signed, and there’s no way that the rangers can see 15 passes as a bus drives through the gate!
Around the rock to the sunrise car-park and join the throng, once again surprised at the number of people here. One busload asked Sandy quite sternly to move the bus out of their line of sight — it didn’t occur to them to walk 5m further along the road!
Like last night, once again there was a lot of standing around and waiting, but unlike last night the results weren’t really worth it. The sun gradually came up through the clouds and the rock gradually got lighter — no amazing colour changes, no “Oohs” and “Aahs". The only point of interest being the fog and low clouds over the top of Uluru and Kata Tjuta looking impressive shrouded in thick fog, but too far away to photograph.
Back in the bus, back to Yulara for breakfast, then back again to Uluru for the walks.
We arrived at the start of the Mala walk just in time to join one of the rangers for a free tour, as Sandy freely admitted, he knew far more than she did, and she was coming along to learn too. He started off a little self-conscious, speaking a little too soft and a little too quickly, but soon got over it and was a wealth of information. One major problem was hearing him over the noise from all the frogs in the waterholes! Very loud, and sounding quite like the bleating of sheep or goats.
We learned a little of the Anungu and Mala people, and the stories that go with Uluru, but as was pointed out a few times, without being a member of those families, the only stories that can be told are the equivalent of nursery rhymes — very basic childrens’ stories giving only the outlines of the significance of the sites. This goes for all the dreaming stories Australia-wide, so there’s a whole lot here that I’ll never know. The stories explain partly why the Anungu strongly request that visitors not climb the rock; but in a trade-off with the tourism operators, its not forbidden. The tourism operators claim that if visitors couldn’t climb, nobody would come here, and both they and the Anungu would have no income. We asked how many people respect the Anungu’s wishes and were quite surprised — 80-85% of visitors still climb, although in certain demographics it is much higher. According to the ranger almost 100% of visiting American and Japanese ignore the native requests and climb….
At the conclusion of the guided walk, Jo and I headed off anti-clockwise around Uluru while the rest of the group detoured back to the bus to top up drinks, then set off clockwise. A long walk. A very long walk! The most fascinating parts of Uluru are all the places that are of special cultural significance, there are signs forbidding entry and photography, and $5000 fines for breaking these rules. It’s all a little confusing though; from a kilometre or two away all the photos show all of the rock, but up close one whole end is off-limits. Should all of the thousands of tourists be fined for taking their photographs from the sunset viewing area? Should NASA be find for their satellite photos of the top of the rock? Would the Anungu prefer that nobody too any photographs at all? I’m really not sure.
Finally back at the car-park around noon, stupidly neither of us had taken much in the way of food! Must be turning into a stupid tourist — the bus driver didn’t tell me to think of taking food on a 10km hike, so I didn’t think of it myself! I think we met most of the others almost exactly half way around. There was five or ten minutes of sitting around waiting for the last few to get back, nobody asked who had climbed the rock — the two Japanese guys did, not sure who else did or didn’t. Then it was back to camp for some much needed lunch!
After lunch it was time to visit Kata Tjuta, and walk through the valley of the winds. A large thunderstorm was moving in from the west, and everything was still damp from the morning’s rain, so there was little chance of the walk being closed — something that happens when the temperature exceeds 35 °C! Sandy looked knowledgeably at the clouds and claimed that we’d be all right, that we’d be sheltered by the “domes from the rain if it did arrive, so we headed off up the track…
The wind increased as the storm drew closer, and was further intensified as it funnelled in through the gap between the domes. Heading down from the “1st Lookout” — the point where the walk is closed in hot weather — one of the party was spooked by the thunder and started to head back. Sandy talked him out of it, convincing him that it was only noise and lightning, that there probably wouldn’t be any rain, that we should head on…
Looking back up the hill from the bottom I was watching as the clouds reached the domes we’d just passed. Boiling in over the hill, the wall of rain came sweeping towards us! Some people struggled into their spray jackets, some (like me) had left theirs in the bus or the camp, Ken decided that the best option was to take off his t-shirt, roll it up and keep it dry in a bag.
The pelting rain only lasted a few minutes, together with wild winds that thrashed the trees around and had us all wondering where we could get shelter, then it had all passed and we were left soaked, but gently steaming!
It was an amazing walk from there on, as we watched, the rain started running off the domes in streams and small waterfalls, some only lasted a couple of minutes, some seemed to be draining larger areas and kept going the whole time. Sandy was very excited, it was her sixth visit to Kata-Tjuta and the first time she’d ever seen rain out here, “Look at the waterfalls! she kept on exclaiming.
At the next major intersection in the track Sandy and some of the group turned around, while the rest of us decided to walk around the longer loop and do the full walk. Annoyingly, half-way around we were interrupted by a member of another party who was chatting incessantly on his mobile phone — amazing that it has coverage out here, 20 or more kilometres from Yulara, but incredibly annoying to the rest of us!
It had been bliss the last few days being away from any kind of phone coverage, even Yulara had none until late yesterday evening as they’d been hit by lightning. All of a sudden phones had started bleating and beeping and then three or four of the group had spent the next hour or so texting or talking to friends and family in Australia and England — so much for backpacking in the 21st century, seems some people are never more than 12 hours from an SMS from mummy and daddy!
Wind, rain, lightning, thunder, rainbows, red rocks, blue sky — an event-filled two hours around Kata-Tjuta… and we’ll never know the significance of it all, since the whole area is still part of “men’s business” for the Anungu, and not a word of that is told to anyone outside.
On the bus trip back to Yulara Sandy suddenly came to a halt for no apparent reason and half-leapt out of the bus “Quick, quick!” she cried. We all followed, and amazingly, she’d spotted a Thorny Devil as it was walking across the road. Amazing because we were travelling at about 100km/hr, and it is only about 20cm long! Together with the Frill-necked dragon it’s probably Australia’s most well known lizard, appearing on postcards and picture books around the world. Quite amazing to see in real life, so much smaller than everyone imagines!
Another Uluru sunset tonight, but much more low-key than yesterday’s. Jo and I grabbed a couple of beers and walked from the campsite to the nearby lookout, then stood around with half a dozen others and watched quietly as the sky faded to orange and purple. Uluru was nowhere nearly as exciting as yesterday, but the colours on Kata-Tjuta summed up the desert evenings.
Where?
Yulara village(,)
