Uluru Part 1

This is an Australian icon for a reason. Photographs, no matter how amazing or breathtaking they are, just don't do Uluru justice. In person it is so much more awe inspiring than I imagined it would be. The height of the rock, set in such a flat area (although it is by no means the only rock jutting up from the flat plains as there is Mt Connor on the drive in to Uluru and the Olgas which can be seen from Uluru/Yalara), and the depth of colour is hard to comprehend without standing there, in its shadow, and seeing it for yourself.

 One of the first glimpses of Uluru

We stayed at Yalara, which is the only place you can stay nearby, although on WikiCamps there is a free camp further out (we were hesitant to leave our van unattended on the side of the road for hours, even at a free camp) and some people stop at the free camp at Curtin Springs and do the drive to visit Uluru. The campground is fine, although very busy at this time of year, and the most expensive place we had stayed (until Kings Canyon, which was our next stop). Yalara is a big, man made resort area that includes all types of accommodation, a shopping centre and lots of places to eat. We didn't see much of the "town" as we chose to spend our time at Uluru and the Olgas, but we did make good use of the free shuttle bus that circulates the town, to keep Rory entertained while Tilda did school.

 View from the lookout at the centre of Yalara (above and below)

We did the 2 hour ranger guided Mala walk, which was interesting as we learned some of the Indigenous stories of the area. The rangers told some stories and explained some things to us, which was helpful in understanding the Aboriginal culture of the Anangu people. There are some parts of the Rock that you are asked not to photograph as they are spiritual places for the local Indigenous people and when it was explained by the rangers it made more sense. They also talked about why they request people not climb Uluru and we decided not to climb. I figure I expect people to respect my beliefs, even if they don't agree with them, and so I should respect other cultures beliefs. I can see why people do choose to climb and I can imagine the view from higher up would be incredible, but I made the decision to honour the Indigenous culture. The Mala walk ended at Kantju Gorge... who would have thought that there was a gorge at Uluru? I never expected there to be and in fact, the Rock is so much more lumpy and bumpy and textured than I imagined. I'm not sure that any of our photos truly captured it. The gorge was quiet, calm and beautiful. It even had some water in it.

 Tilda and Rory sitting at the very bottom of Uluru (below the climb)

Uluru up close

Kantu Gorge (above and below)

We did  a shorter walk to the Mutitjulu Waterhole, which is beautiful. You can visit a cave, complete with paintings, along the way or just walk straight to the waterhole and enjoy the serentiy (if you aren't swamped by tourists or have your own kids!). We weren't swamped with tourists, and our kids were pretty good, so we got to enjoy the waterhole with our friends. It is quiet, and I would imagine quite cool on very hot days. It looked like there could be a series of waterholes higher up the Rock, which would be amazing if there were and if you could visit them. We didn't walk the whole way around Uluru because it is 10km and we didn't think the kids would last, although you can push a pram the whole way. We drove around it a couple of times on different days instead, which was enough for me, and I quite enjoyed seeing the different faces of Uluru.

There were two things that just didn't sit right with me at Uluru. On the ranger walk they showed us a teaching cave. For me, it is quite a privilege to see places like this, where oral traditions and stories were handed down through words and symbols, but standing out jarringly against all of the other drawings on the cave wall was a big, white leaf. The ranger said that it had been painted in acrylic paint and had no explanation of why it had been added so recently or what it represented. It felt like it detracted from the value of the teaching cave, or that it was orchestrated specifically for tourists, and just didn't sit right with me. The second one was in the Cultural Centre. There was a gallery selling Indigenous art work and painted tools, weapons and musical instruments and there were two Indigenous artists painting while visitors watched. When one of the ladies finished her very attractive artwork (it was one of the few that really caught my attention) the Caucasian lady working behind the counter walked over with a pre-primed, pre-taped canvas, moved the finished work to the side and placed the fresh canvas in front of the artist with only a few words exchanged. The artist picked up her paintbrush and started a new painting. It just seemed very cold, calculating and again, very tourist driven, and I didn't like the way it felt.