The Outback, Part 2: Is that a GIANT ROCK or are you just happy to see me?

Now that’s a sunset to remember.

We didn’t go straight to Uluru that morning, as we had a few folks to pick up first (they were supposed to come for the full three days, but one of them was robbed the night before and had his wallet, phone and shoes stolen. Hiking in sock feet isn’t exactly a great idea. So first we checked out the visitor center at the resort.

This place is chock full of swanky resorts. The cheapest room is probably over 200$ a night, and the most expensive one is about 1,600$ per night, with a minimum of TWO nights. I can only imagine what kind of madness goes on in a room that costs that much.

It’s pretty hard to explain how big this rock is. I took pictures of it from far away and from practically pressed up against it, but somehow that doesn’t quite cut it. Even when I was right there walking around it I would look up at some interesting feature, then walk for what seemed to be a long-ish while – when I’d look up again it would seem like I’d hardly even moved. This rock is 9km around, but the track is probably more like 10. I would have preferred to take more time to walk around it and rest a little, because by the end I was so beat that I could hardly enjoy it. Still, it was an amazing experience.

Quite a few interesting sections of the rock are marked as sacred aboriginal sites, traditionally used in various rituals, and so photographs of them were forbidden. It was interesting how irritated people got about this – even more than irritated, I’d say a lot of them were downright angry. I don’t really have a problem with it, myself – most of Uluru was still available. And even if it hadn’t been, doesn’t peoples’ anxiety about not being allowed to take digital photos for once suggest that maybe there IS a loss of something sacred, even if it’s only “seeing it first-hand,” experiencing something that can’t be taken with you?

We watched the sun set on Uluru while we made dinner, right in the bus parking lot. After that we tried to go get some beer, but the resort was charging 5.50 PER BOTTLE – the same price you’d pay to stay and drink it. Okay, so I understand that you want to cut down on drinking, but SERIOUSLY.

 

So a little less beer-endowed than we thought we’d be, we went back to the campground and talked about morbid things like dingoes eating babies. (GREAT bedtime stories for when one is sleeping only a few miles where this apparently took place.)

The next morning we got up and watched the sun rise.

After breakfast we went to The Olgas, traditionally known as Kata Tjutu (‘Many Heads’).

This was going to be another somewhat challenging hike, but my legs and ankles were telling me to take it easy after two days hard, hard work. I walked up about a kilometer into the trail and then just relaxed while everybody else did the final bit. The view was still nice, and I got some decent pictures.

After this we made lunch and then started heading home. It was getting a little late and the bus was having some difficulties – we SHOULD have been back by about 6pm, but it was 7:30 before we rolled into town, and close to 8 by the time we got dropped off at our hostels.

Then there was a comedy of errors in which we couldn’t get a taxi for the five of us who were at the YHA, so we tried to walk – but we started going in ENTIRELY the wrong direction. It was 9:30 by the time we got there, and the kitchen normally closes at 8pm, but they’d kept it open because they knew we all were coming (VERY nice of them.) They had good, cheap food and good, cheap beer, which was absolute bliss after another long day in a bus. Then we got a free shuttle bus into town and drank our faces off until the bars closed. Somehow I managed to climb into my top bunk without dying and fell into an extremely restful sleep.

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