It’s a long drive from Alice Springs to Yulara in the Northern Territory of Australia where we stayed for 2 nights. Our breaks during the drive were at Stuart Wells Roadhouse, then Erlinda Roadhouse and most interesting a cattle station in Curtin Springs. The family has more than a million acres of land and Mt Conner is the giant mesa you see in the photo below. Mt Conner is one of the 3 huge rocks in this national park and it is composed of carmichael sandstone. We did not visit any closer to this mesa.
The next day, we had an hour-long drive to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Here we saw Uluru … you may remember I mentioned reading the book, Tracks: A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback, in the mid-1980s, and wanting to see this monolith Uluru. It was called Ayers Rock by early European settlers, but the Anangu indigenous people, its spiritual caretakers, call it Uluru.
We took a couple of short walks as we drove around Uluru which is composed of arkose, a course grained sandstone rich in feldspar. One walk was at a waterhole, a great meditative place when no one else is around… not happening for me on this day, but a beautiful place otherwise! It’s also important to mention, various areas at the rock are closed to the public when the Anangu hold their traditional practices. This is their sacred rock and land and was handed back to them in 1985. Australians to this day as trying to unfold the history of this country. Committees and companies work with the aboriginal people to be more accurate with the history and understanding the need to recognize those people who came before the Europeans. Much more could be said; however, that in itself will prompt much discussion … another day.
Another hike took us to the “kitchen” or otherwise the women’s area
Then we hiked to a gorge with very high walls:
Our goal was enjoy Uluru as the sunset; however, it was a light rain and cloudy. So we huddled under a bough (ramada with thatched roof) to have snacks and drinks. Here is Uluru:
Next morning we were up and on our way at 5AM to see Uluru at sunrise. Now it is pouring rain, but we went anyway. Had coffee and biscuits, under a bough, and waited for the sun to rise. The water was pouring down the sides of the rock.
Our guide showed us a photo of Uluru when the weather is sunny … of course that is also what I saw in the book many decades before … here it is:
We returned to the hotel for breakfast; an hour later off for a hike at the third mountain in the national park: Kata Tjuṯa. This mountain has many large domes or “heads”, 36 of these formations I was told. As we walked the Walpa Gorge Walk you cannot help but notice the conglomerates in this rock: granite and basalt pebbles and cobbles held together with sand and mud. This walk was very wet, the rain was pouring. The wind almost blew a couple of people sideways and yet we kept walking! Water was flowing all over. Another woman referred to a swollen stream as a waterfall … not sure I agreed with that assessment, but everywhere you stepped it was wet!
I spent the afternoon at lunch, viewing a movie, visiting an art gallery, checking out the small shops and trying to stay dry as it has been pouring rain, thunder and lightning all day. People here are used to rain 5 days out of the year and here we are on one of the days. The good thing was no bug-nets were needed today. Some folks wore them yesterday, but I was not particularly bothered by the flies. As spring weather warms up to summer, there will be more flies. I wished to find an aboriginal artwork, but nothing struck my attention and unfortunately with the rain on this day the women were not outside selling their work. One could buy a piece or 2 for $200 total. Their art with lines, circles and dots is colorful and interesting. At the art gallery I only saw pieces for $780 plus … actually I did see a couple for $360 … again, nothing struck my fancy, so no art from Australia for me. But here is some artwork from aboriginal artists:
