Uluru Base Walk

If yesterday was a day of relaxation, then today was a day of action.

The alarm sounded at 4.30am.  It was still dark.  We roused the sleepy boys and piled bodies and bikes into and onto the car for the Uluru Base Walk/Ride.

There were several reasons for our early start.  The local heat management strategy requires the major long distance walks to be closed when the temperature rises to 36 degrees and above.  Today was forecast to be 39 degrees and it would have been no fun (not to mention dangerous) walking/riding in the heat of the day anyway.  Furthermore, it was a great opportunity to watch the sunrise on the rock.

We were at the gates to the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park (which expands across more than 320 000 acres of desert outback) just after 5am.  We were surprised to see there was already a queue of cars at the pay station, but the line moved fairly quickly and soon enough we were on our way.   

The sun soon appeared over the horizon

It produced some great colours on the rock

 

Uluru is 3.6 km long and 348 metres high at its tallest point.  It is 1.9 kms wide with a circumference of 9.4 kms.  It is actually the tip of a huge slab of rock that continues below the ground for possibly 5-6kms.  The Base Walk is 10.6 kms, which we completed in about two hours.




With a few rests

Fletch wasn't too keen on the 'walking' bit.

 



From a distance, Uluru looks smooth and featureless.  But up close its face is weather-beaten - pitted with holes and gashes, ribs, valleys and caves. To the Anangu, these features are related to the journeys and actions of ancestral beings across the landscape.  These stories, known as Tjukurpa, tell about the travels and actions of Kuniya (Woma python), Liru (poisonous snake), Mala (rufous hare-wallaby) and Lungkata (Centralian blue-tongue lizard).

Geologists have different explanations about how these features formed.  The 300 million-year-old rock is comprised of sand, feldspar (various crystalline minerals) and rock, and originally hailed from a sea floor.  The valleys, ridges, caves and weird shapes of its surface were created through erosion and weathering over millions of years.  And surface oxidation of its iron content gives the would-be grey Uluru its striking orange-red.

Whatever your beliefs, it was interesting to see the different faces of the this amazing monolith and it's ever changing colours as the sun rose higher in the sky.  It's awesome to be up close and personal with this iconic symbol of the outback, though it was a little disappointing that a large section of the walk diverted some distance away from the base.

 

 

Here we are having some reflective time after finishing the walk.  The Kuniya Gorge remains a life preserving and culturally significant water hole for the Anangu people.

 

And we had a little selfie fun



By 9am we were back at camp and the temperature was already creeping well up into the 30s.  We enjoyed some down time, relaxing, reading and drinking coffee while the boys fought Lego Wars.

At lunchtime I took a ride on Jack’s bike up to the camp kitchen, to get some supplies.  I was saddened to find that someone had stolen my two large shopping bags full of Christmas groceries that we’d purchased in Alice Springs and stored in the camp kitchen fridge.  I hope that the people who stole the food really needed it.  Obviously we were all disappointed that this would happen at Christmas, but at the same time we were thankful that we’d decided to keep our leg of Christmas ham and 3kg block of Jarlsberg cheese in our own fridge!

 

Jack was mostly disappointed about the loss of his iceberg lettuce

 

 

We spent a lovely afternoon by the pool.  The clouds had gone and the temperature had hit 39 degrees.  We enjoyed some cold drinks in the company of our new friend German (with a hard ‘G’) the German.  German was fun, friendly and well-travelled with a hot bod and a great little pair of speedos!

The boys ate an early dinner at 5pm.  Fletcher was asleep by 5.10pm.  Jack and Jarrah chose to chill out with a movie while the grown ups headed up to the Naninga Lookout adjacent to our campsite to watch the sunset. 

The sunset was not the best we'd seen but we had a thoroughly enjoyable time, sharing drinks and tasty Christmas snacks and engaging in a lively conversation about respect and the Rock.

And trying to work out how to make a love heart shape

 

In fact we were having such a good time that it was well dark before we wandered back down the hill.  It was too late for dinner and we were all weary from our early morning hike so we finished the day with a Baileys and hit the sack.