The beautiful outback of Uluru! As we enter the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park , we became very excited at the fact of being so close to this famous Australian icon. We learn later that the traditional landowners call themselves Anangu(Pronounced arn-ang-oo. They say that this land was created by the creation ancestors. In their travels they left marks in the land and made laws for us to keep and live by .
Uluru and the area around it, is now part of the world Heritage listing , both for cultural and natural values.We decided to walk around the base, it was only going to be 12 km. Ha ha our kids had only done 7 km across the Kings Canyon, but that was a very rough track, so really 12 km of flat walking, partially in the shade seemed quite okay. Half way along Oh boy , we all wished we had bikes since you can ride around it, but we did it and we learned a lot. What an amazing place.
Around the base of the rock are important sensitive sites, that under traditional men’s law and traditional women’s laws, are forbidden to be viewed or entered unless properly authorised by senior men or women. This apparently has been custom for tens of thousands of years. We could only view these from very large distances,and in some cases you could not see them at all. We also found some small waterfalls around the base.
This was some of the things we read, as we walked around the base ;
”We learn from our grandmothers and grandfathers and their generations. We learnt well and we have not forgotten. We’ve learned from the old people of this place, and will always keep the Tjukurpa in our hearts and minds. We know this place- we are ninti, knowledgeable.”Signed traditional owner. The aboriginal people also said that Tjukurpa has been translated by many people as the dreamtime or the dreaming. This does not seem right to them, as it’s not imaginary or fleeting, this word has a much deeper complex meaning.
It was incredible to be in this area and to learn about this culture that after 25 years of living in I knew nothing about. It’s just not quite the same living in Byron Bay, and reading about it in a book.
In another sign that stood out for us was the please don’t climb Uluru. The culture reasons for this is,its a great spiritual significance to the Anangu people, secondly they claim, it is quite dangerous and over 35 people have died while attempting to climb Uluru. The aboriginal people feel great sadness when a person dies or is hurt on their land, and of course there are also environmental reasons. As I said we were very happy to abide by these rules, and in any case it was an amazing photo opportunity. I think it took us 4-5 hrs , and I was so proud of my kids. We fell into our car, drove to the next supermarket and bought heaps of food to take home and cook. The next day we decided to go to the famous Kata Tjuta (meaning, many heads), which were again very different but just equally stunning . It has 36 steep sided domes that lie about 32 km west of Uluru. We decided to do the Valley of the winds walk. 7.4 km for circuit roughly a three-hour walk. I think that the kids were still recovering from yesterday, and ran out of juice very quickly. Sir Richard decided to do the full circle, and I took the kids back the way we came. Walking can become very addictive, if it hadn’t been for Ayesha and Orlando I think us adults would have done hiking pretty much every second day, if we could have.
As it was very expensive for us to stay in the camping ground something like $60 a night to park our little camper ,plus $25 a day entry to the park we decide to only camp there for three days. I think my biggest surprise was finding this huge resort at Uluru, five or six hotels, a shopping centre, lots of restaurants, petrol stations, airport, and so on something for everybody i guess.
Uluru was definitely a highlight for all of us on our trip around Australia.
