uluru (formerly known as ayers rock)

we we woke up, checked out of the "motel adjacent casino" (very classy!), and headed to get a taxi to the airport. after our close call in melbourne, we had tried to give extra time to get to the airport, but finding an empty taxi stand put a small dent in our plan. eventually we got a taxi and we arrived at the airport with about 8 minutes to spare (we were getting better!).

once we landed in alice springs, we headed down the stairs and over to the terminal - yes, this was a small airport where we disembarked outside the terminal. we picked up our rental car and headed off on our outback adventure. our plan was to drive the 500km from alice springs to uluru - which takes about 5 hours. this way, we could see a bit of the outback for ourselves.

we grabbed a quick breakfast at a cute cafe in alice springs. the cafe was situated in a small shopping centre, and there were a bunch of art and souvenier stores that we really wanted to visit... but we didn't want to end up driving in the dark, so we had to forego the shopping :( if you ever plan to visit alice springs, save half a day or so to do some shopping!

we hit the road, and found the drive to be as expected: hot, dry, a whole lot of nothing! it was actually quite a bit greener than i thought it would be, and with many more plants, bushes and trees. but the places to stop for gas, food, or toilet breaks, were few and far between - about 100 km apart! and even then, the "stops" were generally a one-stop shop with a small cafe, gas station, and bathrooms outside.

the driving went quite well - we even got to stop for a red kangaroo in the middle of the road - and after a few hours, we saw a large monolithic mountain looming before us - not uluru, but mt conners, australia's only mesa. we stopped at the lookout for a few pictures, but kept heading for our destination. we pulled in just before sunset, but decided to check into our hotel and save the rock for tomorrow.

uluru, formerly known as ayer's rock, is basically a giant rock that towers about 350 meters high, and also runs 6km underground. it is a sight that is sacred to the aboriginal people in central australia, as it contains evidence for a number of their dreamtime, or creation, stories. a few kilometers away from uluru, there is now an "ayers rock resort" which is home to five different accomodation options, ranging from camping to a deluxe resort. we chose to stay at the "outback pioneer lodge," a sort of lower-end accomodation. we settled in and headed to bed early, as we had both sunrise and sunset tours scheduled for the next day.

we woke up before the crack of dawn, to meet our sunrise tour. we booked tours through a compny run by the anangu (pronounced ananu) aboriginal community that has been living around uluru for thousands (and thousands) of years. we loaded onto our mini-bus around 5:45 and headed over to the sunset viewing area. it was cold and rainy, but we braved the wet weather and watched the first rays of sunlight hit the giant monolith. we took about a LOT of pictures!

sunrise at uluru

after the rainy sunrise, we hopped back on the bus and headed over to the cultural center. the center has two education areas, one with some of the dreamtime stories of uluru, and another with general information about the rock, the animals, and the people of uluru. we read some of the dreamtime stories, and then headed over to the cafe for our breakfast overlooking the rock.

after breakfast, it was time for our cultural tour walk, lead by an anangu man. he told us about the story of blue-tongue lizard-man, an anangu dreamtime ancestor who traveled to uluru to make friends, and then betrayed his hosts by eating their emu meat and lying about it. his nest is visible on the side of the rock. after hearing the story, we learned a bit more about "men's business" - hunting food and building weapons. it was really interesting to learn about this culture and heritage of people who have been in australia for tens of thousands of years!

after our tour we decided we wanted to return to the cultural center to learn more about uluru (and to shop!). we even went on our own walk around the base of uluru. we got to see a few of the caverns in the rock, and the art that anangu people have used to tell stories for thousands of years. it was beautiful and poigniant to be able to see such history with my own eyes!

walking the base of uluru (it warmed up in the afternoon)

rock art!

we had to head back to the pioneer lodge to embark on our sunset tour. for the sunset tour, we ended up starting with more time at the cultural center - if we had known, we wouldn't have spent our early afternoon there! then, we went on another anangu walking tour, where we learned the story of the woma python, another dreamtime ancestor. she came to uluru because her nephew had been stabbed, and she took out her vengence on the attacker. she slammed her walking stick onto the snake who had stabbed her nephew; the first time missing, and the second time hitting him square across the face. the evidence of her attack is found on the rock - there are two long scratches in the rock, and the second long mark actually drips red after the rain - all of the other spots drip dark!

the two marks made by woma python's attack - the fatal blow is on the left

it was really interesting to see how the anangu tour guides used drawings to tell their stories. this was a recurring theme - a common way for the anangu to communicate, and it was evident in the drawings throughout uluru. we also learned about "women's business" - gathering bushtucker. we got to see a variety of fruit and seeds that women collected and prepared for food.

after our walk, we headed over to the sunset viewing area. there were already hundreds of tourists lining up to see the rock turn bright red as the sun set. although it had stopped raining as we headed over to the viewing area (with the tour-provided glass of champagne), a giant rainbow appeared over the rock. it was unbelievable! we even saw a guy lead his girlfriend off the main path, under a large tree, and get down on one knee! i can hardly imagine a more beautiful place to get engaged than uluru at sunset, with a rainbow!

although the clouds in the west kept us from seeing the true "uluru sunset" with bright blazing colors, i think the rainbow was worth it!

that night, we decided to take advantage of being in the outback, spent some time looking at the stars in the southern sky. after our eyes adjusted to the dark, we could see SO MANY beautiful stars, and even galaxies, light up the sky! to add to the splendor, several thunderstorms were raging across the horizon. one of them, just to the south of us, had lightning strikes across giant thunderhead clouds. it almost looked like a mushroom cloud being lit up every five seconds or so in bright red and blue colors - incredible!!!


we didn't stay out stargazing too late, as we had to be up bright and early the next morning for our drive back to alice springs airport. more on that tomorrow!