Our Visit to Uluru/Ayers Rock

                                        

     The third part of our trip northward through Australia’s outback was a long bus ride from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock.  Along the way, we stopped at a camel farm. Camels were brought into the arid country because of their ability to survive on little water and walk through the sandy bush country. Eventually they were turned loose to run in herds, when no longer needed. Some adventuresome souls in our tour group went for a jarring camel ride which Al and I had to decline for orthopedic reasons!

      En route to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, the bus drove into a swarm of flying termites which plastered the windshield. Our driver, who lived in the outback town of Alice Springs, said that the recent rains had probably flooded out their nest. Yikes! It was nice to be inside the bus and not outside! 

      When we reached the resort town of Yulara just outside the entrance to the national park, we had time to explore the Desert Gardens hotel where our group would be spending the night, walk around the town square and rest a little before getting back on the bus for a viewing of the sunset at Ayers Rock/Uluru.

      Then it was time to drive to Uluru, as the local Anangu people call it. There was a viewing area crammed with tourist busses where we stood and watched the fading rays of the sun transform the huge red monolith into darker, more somber hues. Several aboriginal people sat on the curbside displaying their unique artwork—colorful designs of native animals, insects and reptiles using small dots of paint.

      Uluru is the largest monolith in the world, measuring 1,500 feet high and going down about four miles underground. It is a massive sandstone formation, with a perimeter of nearly five miles, rising imposingly out of the barren land surrounding it.

      We returned the next morning before the sun had climbed very high into the sky, to get a closer view. Many people elected to walk on the trail halfway around the rock, while Al and I chose to stay with the bus, taking shorter hikes to see a water hole, caves with pictographs and various markings in the sandstone rock which have special significance to the Anangu, who have lived there for thousands of years. Stories and ceremonies revolving around the sacred rock are still handed down from one generation to the next.  

       As Al wrote in an email to friends back home, “I was surprised at how many of its constantly changing twists, turns and flowing curves seemed to evoke almost living characteristics. Of course this rock is very sacred to the aboriginal people and it is good that it is finally carefully guarded.”

      Tourists are prohibited from the park after dark and from climbing on the rock during certain times of the year. The steep ascent is made by holding onto a steel cable which can be dangerous on windy days. Near the base of the cable, an aboriginal park ranger held up a long lizard by the tail as she talked to a group of tourists. The Anangu people are still allowed to hunt and live off the land much like their ancestors did.

      That afternoon, we flew from Yulara over the same area on our way to Cairns. The aborigine paintings had an amazing resemblance to the rugged country below which was dotted with miniscule shrubs and trees and the larger shapes of dark water holes ringed by white. As outsiders, Al and I both felt very privileged to have been allowed this peek into the lives of an ancient and unique people.

     “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good…Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.” Genesis 1:31a, 2:1 NIV