Week 5

First, a quick note to say that this is a new blog site (note the suffix of "2") as some had complained that the previous one was becoming slow to load due to the heavy burden of so many pics! I will now change the suffix sequentially every 4 weeks to keep things moving faster. If you would like to revisit weeks 1 to 4 they are at: www.downundertour.blogspot.com

WOW!!! What a week we had this week, taking in Ayers Rock (Uluru), the Olgas, (Kata Tjuta), and Kings Canyon, (Watarrka)! I've worn through the first pair of shoes, and from the pace we are keeping, this certainly won't be the last.

I wanted to do something special to celebrate the 15 year anniversary of my marriage proposal to Maree, so we decided Uluru would be a good place to celebrate. It is, after all, an incredible testimony to longevity.

We got on the road to leave Alice Springs shortly after daybreak, around 9am or so. :) The trip is about 4 hours and the roads are good if you can avoid the cattle. It was disappointing to see around a dozen of them dead alongside one stretch of road and one destroyed car out in the paddock with the front end caved in where someone had not managed to avoid one of them. I reckon there is a reason God invented fences and it would be good for graziers to take advantage of such great technology both to save their stock as well as the lives of those people on the roads.

Christian was the first to spot Uluru, though we would have still been 40 km's away, and it was only a few minutes later that Mariah spotted the Olgas (pictured in lower section of blog). If you have never been there, these iconic geological formations are BIG. It is one of those things that just does not get captured adequately in a photo.
The thing that surprised me most about this well photographed rock is that it is not smooth, (as it has always appeared to me to be from the photos I have seen), but rather has a myriad of angles, cracks, crevices, caves, valleys, surface irregularities, etc. There are two water holes that I saw and enough caverns to house a community with ease, which is exactly what it did for many generations of Aborigines.

It also has a range of appearances, depending on the light. We saw it look purple, brown, red, orange, and pink, but the true colour in good light is “rust”, because that is what the surface is. Yup, it is oxidized ferrous material that we would typically go after with sandpaper and touch up paint if it was on our outdoor furniture.
To give you an idea of the "footprint" of Uluru, we hiked the perimeter and it was over 9 kms in circumference. We saw such a diverse range of formations as well as some interesting wildlife such as this caterpillar that looks remarkably like a "dot" painting. Though Uluru is undoubtedly very large (with the vast majority of it underground, similar to an iceberg), it is not the largest rock formation in the world. That title belongs to Mount Augustus in West Australia, which we will leave for another point in time. The interesting formations are a result of sea action millions of years ago and when one looks at the "cave" in the left picture and the inside of it on the one on the right, it is obvious that there were some powerful forces at work over a long period of time. The inside of the cave is like a "tube" for those of you who surf. If it were smoother you would struggle to keep the skateboarders away as it has a great angle. To give you an idea of the size of it, have e look at the people on the right end of the "tube". Another interesting Uluru formation is captured in the pic on the right. Some say it looks like a lion, but for anyone who has ever caught a leatherjacket (a type of fish), they would know that it is a great image of the head of one, complete with teeth. Viewing the surface aberrations is a bit like looking at clouds and spotting the resemblances to different things we are familiar with. I couldn't help but think that it would have been fun to come up with "dreamtime" stories about the different aspects of this landscape.

The last photo is the classic picture of Uluru at sunrise, a shot the children were not that fussed about us taking since it meant that they were up well before dawn so we could go and see it, but it was one of those things we just had to experience.

I was not sure quite what to expect as far as development at Uluru but just outside the national park is a town (Yulara) that has almost anything, though as with most remote tourist destinations, it bears a price. After checking into our campsite we took a nice bottle of red and went to watch the sunset over the rock. It was terrific to experience this and a nice way to set the mood for a lovely evening. We then headed to dinner at the Boughroom Restaurant in Yulara for a feast fit for a king, (or anyone else who appreciates great food). We had appetisers of smoked mackerel, salmon, mussels, etc., then a beautiful salad followed by kangaroo and crocodile. Dessert was cheesecake for me but the others opted for mudcake and pavlova, washed down with a nice cup of fresh brewed coffee. We waddled out more than satiated and well fuelled for the following day's hikes in the Olgas (Kata Tjuta).

If Uluru is big, the Olgas are massive, at almost twice the height of Uluru. There are two hikes in the Olgas, one that is relatively short, (the Walpa Gorge walk) and not physically very demanding, and one that is "difficult", (The Valley of the Winds walk), requiring about 4 hours to complete. Not sure of which to do, we thought we'd better do both.

The Walpa Gorge walk (pictured right) is an easy trail but does get windy as well since the wind is swept between to massive rocks into a narrow gap. You'd be pretty much guaranteed to get a kite up but the flight range would be restricted by the rocks...

The second hike started off without too much of a challenge but then did become pretty vertical as the views got better with the increased elevation. The pic on the left was taken from one of the lookouts and as you can see, it is awesome. The children did well with the hike, but they are becoming pretty seasoned at it by now. Parts of the hike have you scrambling up steep rocks and through areas where there is just enough width for your feet but we still managed to maintain a comfortable pace throughout. In the picture to the right you may be able to make out Maree and Mariah as they trailed Christian and I at that point in the walk.

At the end of the walk (as well as in a couple of areas at Uluru), they had these great seats one could use for a breather. They are made from only a few pieces of timber and are just beautifully done. I think one would look really nice back on the veranda in Lennox Head...

The following day we left for King's Canyon (Watarrka), stopping along the way for a camel ride.

The campground at Kings Canyon was a bit disappointing in that the site sizes are very small, but the view from our site (pictured on right) was magnificent as the sun set on the surrounding mountains.

The next morning we got out for a short hike which traversed alongside a creek bed at the bottom of the canyon and then wound its way up to a lookout. In the photo to the left you may just be able to make out the water at the bottom of the canyon from this lookout. The walk back down was quicker and this hike was a good warm-up before tackling the hike to the top of the canyon and around the rim.

The Kings Canyon area is another interesting geological formation where there was a relatively flat surface that cracked in almost a grid-like formation, and then has had millions of years of erosion, resulting in a series of "beehive" looking formations. Not only do the beehives look like they just couldn't be a natural phenomenon, but the surrounding pathways through the area also look like something designed by an architect to maximise the effect of the scenery.

To make this climb requires a pretty good level of fitness and it is tested right from the start as the first part of the climb is up the side of a mountain.

Some of these areas are not for the faint of heart or those who have trouble with heights. There are sheer drop offs and the fact of the matter is that when one hikes here, they are hiking on the rim of a canyon.
In the heart of the canyon lies a secret Garden of Eden, which someone had told us not to miss. The entrance to it is about halfway around the canyon under a staircase so it is easy to miss from an observation perspective as well as perhaps a stamina perspective, but have a look at the pic on the left and you can see what a superb spot it is! This is where we had lunch and watched the nature show unfold as the dragonflies chased down the other small flies and insects over the water there. The canyon loop is more forgiving on the last section as it is far more gradual a descent than the abrupt start.

Upon returning to our campsite Maree thought we should go on another hike to a sunset viewing area but we all politely declined, saying the view we had would be hard to beat and frankly given the choice of relaxing at the campsite watching the sun set with a nice red sounded much better than hiking up another mountain at that point.

The following morning we did the last hike in the area, at Kathleen Springs, (pictured right). This used to be a cattle mustering area and the natural land formations were terrific for that purpose. The land forms a bit of a "V" and at the apex there is a spring from which the cattle would drink, keeping them quite contained.

From there, back to Alice Springs before heading north again in search of just where we can try witchity grubs and bush coconut firsthand...

Next week's update is sure to be interesting!