Uluru

ULURU

• Convoy again from Alice Springs to Uluru. David and Ginna in Arvi with us. About a 4.5hrs drive. Went very quickly as Ginna and I sat in back and chatted most of the way. When I  did my 100km stretch of driving David and Mark slept or read and even Ginna had a kip! 
• Stopped at Erldunda for lunch which is the turn off the Stuart Highway to the Lasseter highway about half way. Roadhouse, toilets, pub and lots of emus including one with a little chick! 
• The wildflowers, bushes and trees were really something to see along the way. New yellow ones which are fluffy and Mark says a grevillea! Also discovered that the trees we call "dunny brushes" are actually juvenile Desert Oaks who once their roots reach the water table send out large branches and adopt their weeping willow look.
• Next stop was to look at Mt "Fooleroo" or Mount Connor which is uncanningly like Uluru from a distance and probably fools quite a few visitors. 
• Finally the views of Uluru as we drove into the Uluru- Kata Tjuta (or the Olgas) National Park. For those who hadn't seen it before it exceeded all their expectations. 
• Not long before brother Stephen and Sue arrived and all hands on deck to put up annexe for first time. Sarah and Peter were exempted and booked into the Sails in the Desert Hotel as did we later!
• Mark spent his time in iPad looking at instructions for putting up annexe and yelling out helpful hints. Luckily our son in law and my relatives are campers and handymen/women or else it would not have been erected!.
• A few minutes to pack up and head out to sunset drinks looking at Uluru! We took everything but the kitchen sink in 3 cars! Important though to have chairs, french champagne, cheese platter etc! We sort of took over with music going  and lots of comments like "this tour rocks" or the "greatest rock tour"!!! 
• Then back to campsite and dinner for 10!!! Must say Arvi kitchen not built for this type of mass entertaining but with lots of help with Salads, baked potatoes and the men on the BBQ for fillet steak and sausages it all went smoothly. Vats of beautiful red wine brought by Ginna ( Victorian Heathcote blend) and Sue ( SA Lake Breeze shiraz) helped! 
• Daniel and Pete set up the guitars and sang. Luckily the neighbours across the road enjoyed the free concerts as did some Dutch tourists who walked around to find out where the great music came from! 
• Next morning (early some with hangovers) we went either cycling  or on a cultural tour plus walk around the base of Uluru. 
• Some facts- the local indigenous people are Anangu. They have lived  around Uluru for probably 30,000 years. It was "discovered" and climbed by an englishman William Christie Gosse in 1873. He named it after Sir Henry Ayers who needed Premier of SA. Ernest Giles sighted Uluru in 1872  and named the Olgas after Queen Ola of Wurttemberg! 
• 1930 first plane landed at Uluru; 1930's and expedition in motor vehicle from Erldunda to Uluru; 1950's tourism started; 1985 handed back to traditional owners and 1994 declared dual world heritage site.
• Uluru is 3.6km long and 348metres high at its highest point (taller than Eiffel tower). It is the tip of a large slab of sandstone rock that continues 5 to 6 kms underground. It came to the surface about 400 million years ago when the sea disappeared and ad the whole of Central Australia was subjected to massive forces. Some rocks folded and tilted and layers of sandstone tilted 90 degrees to stand on end. Well that's what my book says! 
•  It's surface is flaky red from rusting of iron in the arkose rocks which make up Uluru. Arkose is grey  and that colour is seen inside its caves. The face of uluru is pitted with holes, gashes, ribs, valleys and caves. 
• The Anangu believe these features are related to the journeys and actions of ancestral beings across the landscape like the Kuniya ( woman python women) and the Lungkata ( blue tongue lizard man) 
• Our bike ride was wonderful because of all the lush vegetation, Sarah however did not appreciate the king brown snake she heard hissing and saw rearing up at her!!! 
• The walkers around the base who set out near midday were pretty hot and tired at the end- but good on them!
• Pete, Sarah, Mark and Sally headed to Kata Tjuta where the heat, the wind and the flies were a bit of a deterrent to any long hikes! Had to eat our sandwich in the car! 
• We had time for a swim and a rest before our Field of Light Dinner experience which I might do in another blog as this has become a tome! 
• Suffice to say that Uluru is a very special place and even if you have seen it before or seen the photos on TV and in magazines, nothing is like it in real life. It quite a spiritual experience and the fact it stands here in the middle of the desert and has done so for millions of years is amazing. Let's hope it is still here in another few hundred of million years and we haven't destroyed ourselves or our environment so it can continue to amaze.