Although I get up at 4:30, I am a few minutes late getting onto the bus for our five o’clock departure, and some people are cranky and demanding apologies. Little Dan, who is now looking forward to going home once we get to Sydney, is also late, but refuses to apologise, saying ‘no, I’m not sorry, it’s f****** five in the morning!’, a reaction which made my half hearted apologies seem gutless.
As it happens, the sunrise is somewhat anti-climatic.
From a distance, Ayer’s Rock / Uluru, looks like a featureless monolith. However, on a two and half hour circuit walk, it becomes a different site up close, with the rocks full of creases, crevices and undulations.
On the tickets for entry to the walkways, which cost A$25, and on signs in the Uluru Cultural Centre, there are statements on behalf of the Aboriginals saying that Uluru should not be climbed. However, I am finding the Aboriginals relationship to non-indigenous Australia is one of cloaks. In the 1980s, Uluru was officially given back to the traditional Aboriginal owners, in return for leasing it back to the government for 99 years. It is officially managed by the Aboriginals and the Australian government, but you won’t find any Aboriginals in the official Information Centres or acting as guides. The only ones I see are some women in the car park selling very cheap traditional dot paintings, which contrasts sharply with the rip-off prices in the Cultural Centre where there’s a wicker bowl on offer for A$70, or a spear, which is just a sharpened stick, for A$50.
Both the government and the Aboriginals want to make money, so tourism reigns and, despite the requests to respect the wishes of the Aboriginals and not climb the rock, there is a chain rail up one side to help you do exactly that. Today the climbing path is closed. This is not, I suspect, due to respect for the Aboriginals, but to the Australia’s now highly developed health & safety culture because if it starts to rain again ‘it’s dangerous!’, according to the sign.
Uluru was formed about 1.5 million years ago by pressure from continental plates below pushing up the rock. At one time, this part of Australia was in the sea.
I don’t find Uluru to be the most imposing site of the day. After the circuit walk, we drive over to the nearby Kata Tjuta (many heads), otherwise known as the Olgas. These are a formation of many taller but narrower versions of Uluru. They are deteriorating mountain range, and the surrounding scenery is much more spectacular than the barren landscape around Uluru. The rocks themselves have less of the variations we saw earlier, but the eight kilometre circuit walk is still an impressive one. Unfortunately the flies seem to like it too, and I am glad I’ve bought my net hat. Jen says it’s an improvement too.
From a car park viewing point, we watch the sun set over Uluru. There are a dozen or so coaches parked there too. One is serving its passengers a buffet of multi-flavoured salad and fruit, though the main meal is sausage & mash just like ours. However, we don’t get served on a table with chairs like them and nor do we get served champagne! I divert my head sniffily from such opulence.
The aforementioned Aboriginal women selling paintings are here, but they are reluctant saleswomen. You have to initiate any conversation to get them to let you have a look, which is quite a contrast to our experiences in many parts of Asia, where you knew such of brazen act of commercial interest could end up with you buying a whole stall of goods if you didn’t turn and run.
The sunset is more satisfying than the sunrise, although for once I wish for rain as heavy falls can cause hundreds of little waterfalls to cascade down the rock. We make do with the sunset’s ability to impose moods onto the face of Uluru.
We camp at a campsite called Curtin Springs, setting up tents in the dark. I spend the evening on benches outside the campsite shop / bar, where there is a mysterious sign asking us not to feed the emu. The shop is closing for the night, so I buy myself a bottle labelled ‘F****** Good Port’ which promises to ‘make rabbits bite pitbulls, leaden pencils, blunt barbwire, prolong premature ejaculation (sic – why would you want to prolong premature ejaculation?), fuel flying doctors....it’s just f****** good’. Surprisingly it is quite smooth and drinkable and I finish the bottle.
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