Uluru National Park - Day 211
Trip Start
Jan 31, 2008
1
145
251
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
In my car somewhere
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park,
Northern Territory,
Australia
Saturday, September 20, 2008
The biggest and most impressive crater is 180 metres wide and 15 metres deep. A solid iron meteorite hit the earth at thousands of miles per hour which resulted in these scars on the barren landscape. Must have been an awesome sight seeing this red-hot lump of iron burning up as it hit the earth's atmosphere. Aborigines may have actually witnessed the impact over 20,000 years ago, who knows. Defiantly worth the bumpy ride to visit the craters but it was nice to get back on the smooth tarmac of the main highway. Headed west to Uluru next, through the resort town of Yulara. On the way the first big sandstone peak I saw was Mt Conner, a steep sided red sandstone rock with a flat top towering above the surrounding scrubby plains
Henbury Meteorite Crater 1
. Then Uluru came into view, I was still tens of kilometres away when I got my first glimpse of Australia's most famous landmark. Didn't really look any different to Mount Conner from a distance. Paid the park entrance fee and joined the road which circles Uluru. The closer you get to Uluru the more impressive it gets with the smooth red curved rock sculpted into unique shapes. It really is an awesome sight, especially up close.
Climbing Uluru is a bit of a contentious subject but I decided to climb to the top this afternoon. The local aboriginal people don't like tourists climbing, but everything is set-up for people to make the steep ascent with a marked route, handrails and signs. The aborigines say they don't like people climbing because, "it makes us sad when someone dies or gets hurt". Surprising it's quite frequent that tourists need carrying off Uluru, mainly from falling or heat stroke. Anyway, it's a big famous rock and I couldn't resist. I had to climb it!
The first half of the climb is extremely steep probably 45 degrees in places. The sandstone of Uluru is smooth and grippy underfoot but I certainly wouldn't want to be up here in the rain, would be lethal
Henbury Meteorite Crater 2
. After the initial calf sapping climb the remainder of the trail to the summit passes over rolling red waves of rock with little pockets of water and small patches of vegetation. Reached the summit marker and enjoyed the views of the surrounding desert landscape. The only major feature on the flat plain is the Olgas 35km away in the distance. In many ways the Olgas are more impressive than Uluru. It's thought the Olgas were once a bigger version of Uhuru, 10 times bigger in fact. The geology of the Olgas meant the stone eroded more aggressively over the millennia. After desending Uluru I drove over to the Olgas and hiked 8km around the massive sandstone domes, which pretude from the flat landscape with such a majestic presence. Some really awe inspiring views along the walk, defiantly some of the best scenery I've seen in Australia so far.Returned back to Uhuru for a perfect sunset. Uluru is exactly how I imagined it to be. It glowed with a spectrum of reds as the sun disappeared beneath the horizon. Defiantly worth the long desert drive from Darwin! Another wonder of the world seen, I'm a lucky man!
