After 5 hours in a truck we were only to pleased to get out and stretch our legs with a 2 and a half hour walk round the Olgas, as the rock formations are called. They are actually 600 million years old and about 400 meters in height, it was amazing to be exploring somewhere that had been formed so many years ago. This is one of the many beauties of travelling Australia it is like a huge theme park for grown ups holding lots of naturally formed attractions. It is absolutely stunning scenery, it is so unusual to see such a flat, vast terrain, with the huge rock formations erupting out of the ground. The reason for their curved shape, is that the area used to be a large inland sea, and the water movement had ground down and rounded off the edges of the rocks. The name the Olgas was given by the explorer who found it, the Aboriginal name for it was Kata Juta (or many heads).
After our track around the Olgas, we got on our truck and headed to watch Uluru at sunset. This is one of the most iconic images of Australia, a giant rock formation in the middle of the outback. We approached it just before sunset, when the rock glows orange as the sun reflects off its surface. The theme park feel continued as the viewing area was filled with coach loads of other groups, with trestle tables laid out with food and drinks. Our guide 'Scooter' poured us all some champagne, as we watched the colours change around us.
After sunset, we headed back to basecamp, which was a set of permanent tents and an eating area. This was the only way I (MC) could get Marie to agree to go on a camping trip to the red centre, ours was the 'safari in style', with permanent tents, wooden floorboards and actual beds inside the tents!!
After dinner, I decided to leave Marie to the luxuries of the tent, and sleep out under the stars, in an Ozzy Swag!! This is like an outer layer which you place your sleeping bag in and sleep alfresco! In the early years of Australia, the explorers would all sleep in these, which are much smaller and much simpler than a tent. They are canvas bag, with a built in mattress, very cozy once you get yourself settled. It was magical to watch the stars above, as the sky was crystal clear, and you could make out our solar system, the Milky way with its cluster of stars, and dark and light stellar clouds! I have never seen the sky so clear! I can see why they call it the Milky way!
Next morning, we were woken up at 5am!! It was freezing!!! We had the sunrise over Uluru activity next. We expected to do a similar experience as we had done at the Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat, which was to grab a seat before sunrise and watch as the sun came up and changed the colours of Uluru! However what actually happened was we got dropped off next to the rock, in the dark, and cold! And we were to walk around the rock, as the wind whirled around us!! Not the relaxed morning we expected!! The size of Uluru can only really be appreciated by doing this walk, it took about 3 hours to do the 9 mile circuit. The rock itself is made up of smooth areas, and rough area of holes and shapes, very different to the photos of the smooth rock you see from afar. We also got to see some of the spiritual areas of the rock, which were sacred to the local Aboriginal's as part of their belief, known as the dreamtime time. ( the aboriginals do not like the fact that westerners refer to their beliefs as dream time as they say dreams are not real and they whole way of successful living is/was, however dream time is how it directly translates.) Also we saw some rock paintings done by the ancient Aborigines, some of which were maps, to show how to get from place to place in the local area, and find water on route. The map also showed how men and women had to camp in opposite sides of the river for contraceptive purposes, they realized new mouths to feed meant more hard work of hunting and gathering! As we walked around the rock, the colours changed from dark core, to magnificent reds and oranges, making the sky piercing blue, a blue that I had never seen before. The surrounding dessert is heavily covered with trees and plants which is also something I had not gained from the pictures of Uluru. The vegetation survives due to under ground streams and rivers.
As we completed our tour, we saw the handrail which makes it way up to the top of the rock, which outline the route to walk up Uluru. The handrail looked very flimsy, and it starts half way up the rock, and there is only one hand rail so god knows how people would pass each other on the rock. You would have to visit the rock to appreciate what an immensely hard climb this would be to do. The rock is 348 meters high, the angles become increasable steep and many areas are convex, you can imagine people would be concentrating on not falling off, rather than enjoying g the climb, as there are no foot holes, it is completely smooth. 39 people have died trying to climb the rock!! Most of the time the climb is not open as the conditions are either too windy, rain has been forecast, or it is too hot which would cause heat exhaustion. Apparently out of the 39 dead a few were children or teenagers, a typical death would be where someone drops their water bottle, or their hat flat off and their initial reaction is to catch it and then they fall. The climb has been open just 15 times in the last year. We had already decided not to climb before going there as we had heard from Globe Trekker that the aborigines do not want people to climb the rock as it is their spiritual place. We later learnt that the aborigines are more concerned for people's welfare, they really do not want people dying from climbing their rock. Aborigines did not used to climb the rock just a few of their spiritual leaders are historically reported as climbed the rock.
At the visitors centre afterwards, we were fortunate enough to listen to a few Aborigines, they presented to us via an Australian person telling us about the stories of the rock, and about living off the land eating bush tucker! One of them looked like James Brown! Very surreal! We even tasted some of the berries which were the bush tucker known as bush figs! Not very tasty! It was interesting to meet some aborigines and learn all about how they survived in such a hostile environment. Mufajel had already taken a stroll into Alice springs to see if he could talk to an aborigine, he too is fascinated by them, he bought a painting off a lady but she couldn't really speak English.
The old woman who talked about bush tucker was really cute she was called Millie. Apparently the witched grub that we see them eating on celebrity get me out of here tastes like a cooked chicken egg ( as you can imagine we took Millie's word for that). It was really cool to learn how they were completely self sufficient, even making all their medicine. It amazes me how they worked out what plants was food and for example the plant spinney flex they worked out could be used as glue, to glue together their spears which they would use to hunt animals.
Later on in their history they of course needed these weapons to use against the Australians. It is recognized in Australian history that the aborigines are their worst social failing. It wasn't until the 1960's that the aborigines were actually counted on the census. There are terrible stories where aborigines have been attack and the wife has been made to carry the husbands head around her neck!!! Urgh !! They were not referred to as human beings, but as bush creatures. One of the sad things that I learnt is that between 1910 and 1970's one third of aborigine children were taken from their parents and placed in foster homes or state training homes. The idea was to prepare these children for a more rewarding way in the white world. This was all legal as well, as until the 1960's in most Australian states Aboriginal parents did not have legal custody of their children. A government van would turn up and literally just take the children, the government thought they were doing a good thing. They would then eliminate all contact between child and parent, at 16 the child would be turned out into the community with all it's prejudices or decide if they wanted to find their family, where at this point which they would find it impossible to integrate back into their original way of life, so there are generations suffering the mental abuse of family separation, which explains some of the reason why the aborigines have such a high rate of alcoholism.
Over the past twenty years governments have made huge efforts to improve relations. They have restored large tracts of land to aboriginal communities, they have returned Uluru to Aboriginal stewardship. They have introduced community projects and initiatives to help them set up small business. None of this has helped the statistics. It is difficult to set up a small business when they have no education, no mathematic or grammar skills. By the end of the twentieth an Australian aborigine was 18 times more likely to die from an infectious disease than a white Australian, and 17 times more likely to be hospitilised as a result of violence.
I'm sure given time things will only improve for the better with the next generation but for now walking through Alice springs I could see aborigines loitering with no jobs, many were drunk, woman and men seemed to all have uniform of black trousers with a football shirt, I can not see them in the media either, they are not presenting on television they are not serving in the banks, or in shops. We stopped off at KFC on the way out of Alice Springs and finally a very polite young aborigine served me from behind the counter, showing hope for the future.
After the walk, we headed off to our new basecamp, just outside Kings Canyon. This was another long drive through the red centre, passing some interesting landscapes along the way. We were so blessed that day as our guide 'scooter' scratched the van to a holt and picked up a small lizard called a thorny devil! ( not horny devil which we thought he said) the lizard does have little horns J Its very vibrant yellow and black, and full of spikes on its back! The spikes are not very hard, but the creature is very typically Australian, very unusual looking!
At our next basecamp, we climbed the rocks surrounding the camp to watch another awesome outback sunset! Just as we did so some local dingoes decided to walk around the camp! After dinner the group sat around the fire, and we had roasted marshmallows. The group was from UK, France, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. Both Marie and I along with the majority of the crowd, decided to sleep under the stars in our swags! I found out that the song Waltzing Matilda was actually sung by Swag men about their swags, which they used to dance with, in their solitary time out in the bush, with little or no female company!
The next morning, we had another early rise, and headed to Kings Canyon. Another spectacular landscape where the canyons soar up into the sky. We walked up the hill known as heart attack hill, a very steep climb, but compared to our climb up to the lagoon in Krabi, this was very manageable. As we ascended, we had fantastic views of the landscapes surrounding us. Once we reached the plateau at the top, we stopped at various places along the way, taking in the view. The rock formation of this area was created millions of years ago, similar to the Olgas and Uluru. We walked over to the edge look out points, to get fantastic but scary views of the land below!! There are no barriers here...it's Oz! If you are stupid enough to get too far, you will kill yourself! Simple as that! People have died in the past tripping, dropping cameras and trying to retrieve them etc etc. Even last year, one hiker got lost, and was stuck out for days, by taking the wrong turnings! The rescue team could not find her for 3 days, because she kept moving, so the searchers had look at the areas she moved to! Only when she wrote sos by using stones did they manage to rescue her! This was just by taking one wrong turning!
We passed a point in the plateau known as Pricilla's crack! This rock formation was made famous by the Australian film, Pricilla Queen of the Desert! ( see pics for a pic of Marie in Pricilla's crack ummmmm nice ! ) And they wanted to film a scene of a 'cock in a frock on the rock' on Uluru, but the Aborigines would not let them use Uluru, so they used the rocks at Kings canyon! After a couple of hours through the rocks, we headed back to our tour bus, for our lunch and then the long journey back to Alice Springs.
Our time in the red centre was fantastic, and gave us a real insight into the real Australia! Most people just visit the coastal areas, which only make up a small percentage of this large and amazing island. We had a real insight into Aboriginal life and get a real feel of the fantastic landscapes they live in.
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