Around the Rock in 4 hours

After arriving at the Ayers Rock Resort in Yulara, I had one of the best burgers I have ever had (in spite of its exorbitant price tag), listened to the nightly band, and crashed early. In the morning, I was going to see one of the most recognizable images of Australia - Uluru, aka Ayers Rock.

I first stopped at the excellent cultural center and learned about some of the history of the area. It was very well put together and I enjoyed the exhibit. One of the most interesting things in it was the "sorry book", which is a book of hundreds of letters that people have sent along with rocks or dirt they took from the area. Uluru (and The Olgas or Kata Tjuta) is a place of religious significance to the Anangu (Aboriginal people of the area). It was so interesting to see all of those letters from people who took rocks and then regretted it enough to send them back. Some felt the rocks had brought them bad luck.

Then I continued on to the car park for the rock itself. It is pretty amazing. It's such a strange thing to have this huge rock towering in front of you. Here's the first sight you get:



That sign on the bottom left is asking people not to climb, and all those people are climbing it anyway. I read in my guide book before I went that it is not really appropriate to climb the rock, and everything throughout the park comes just short of begging you not to. I decided before I left the cultural center that I wouldn't climb, but I won't say I wasn't tempted when I saw all those other people doing it.

Instead, I set out on the base walk around Uluru, a 9.4 km walk. It was longish but fairly flat - the only difficult part was the heat. Oh, and the flies, which were incessant. I was swatting them in my sleep that night! Some of the most spectacular areas of Uluru are off limits to photographs because they are areas of special significance, but I took several pictures of the other areas. One of the neatest things about the rock is its texture - from the ground, the sides look like skin. I felt like if I reached up and touched it, it would feel like an animal. It's even more reinforced by the areas where the facade has been chipped away and you can see through to the tunnels under the surface - it's like a whole organism is enclosed within the rock. I'm rambling, but it really was neat.





After the hike, I went back to the hostel for a bit and then returned for sunset. It was quite lovely - Uluru changed from its characteristic red/orange through a variety of darkening colors. Just as the sun finally set, the moon rose.





I went back to the hostel and attempted to cook my own burger, which was a bit of a farce. (At this hostel, there was a place where you could buy a variety of meat and then cook it yourself on outdoor grills. All while listening to a local man perform on stage!) Then I went to bed early because I was getting up for the sunrise today.

Unfortunately, technical difficulties are going to force me to make you wait for the part of the story that involves camels! Until tomorrow...