Uluru (ayers rock) we couldn't go to ...
Trip Start
Apr 01, 2001
1
34
89
Trip End
Ongoing
Uluru (Ayers Rock),
Australia
Sunday, November 18, 2001
We couldn't go to Australia and not visit Uluru (Ayers Rock). That would be like going to London and not seeing Big Ben! So, we arranged a few days stop-over on our flight from Perth to Cairns. At the airport we were greeted with "Here are your boarding passes, you've been upgraded to Business Class" - COOL! As scruffy as we are after 7 months backpacking, we still look a lot smarter thatn the average Australian... wearing shoes must have clinched it!
Paul got so upset on the flight that he called the air hostess to complain... After having had every metal implement he owns confiscated before boarding, he was now sitting one row away from the cockpit, fully armed with a sharp metal steak knife, supplied not by Bin Laden, but by Qantas!
We had expected to fry at Uluru, where temperatures can reach 52 degrees celcius. We were a little concerned that our tent might melt, but as soon as we stepped off the plane our fears were laid to rest - it was cold, grey and pouring with rain! We piled on our fleeces and gortex jackets and got on with pitching the tent.
One thing you have to accept when you visit Ayers Rock is that they have got you by the gonads and will squeeze until your wallet is dry! Ayers Rock resort is 20kms from the rock itself, so, unless you have your own transport, you are left with very liimited options - either; Pay for a shuttle bus and leave the rock before 4pm (to see the rock at sunset will cost you even more); Go on an expensive guided tour; Or rent a bicycle and hope you don't kill yourself cycling 50kms in the desert sun.
Once you have got yourself to the rock, and paid your $15 Uluru National Park entrance fee, there are a couple of free ranger guided walks and talks. Throughout our visit we heard from all the white rangers that Uluru had been handed back to its traditional Aboriginal owners; and now it is Aboriginal people that control its future.
On Oct. 26 1985 Uluru was handed back to its traditional Aborginal owners... but... it was immediately required to be leased back for 99 years at an annual rent of $75,000 Aus$, plus 20% of the park entrance fees.
The only Aboriginals we saw in the park were a group of scuffy looking boys on beaten-up bicyles who confronted us asking for money! Even the talk on "Aboriginal Women's Business" was conducted by a white girl from Melbourne! Although she claimed otherwise, it was hard to imagine her digging for witchety grubs and biting into the abdomen of big juicy honey-ants.
The climb to the top of the Rock goes over the traditional route taken by ancestral Mala men on their arrival at Uluru. Because the path is of great spiritual significance, the Aboriginal people ask tourists not to climb. But of course the Japanese do!
We didn't do "The Climb"... this had very little to do with its "spiritual significance"... it was just too bloody hot!
After a couple of days camping at Ayers Rock Resort, we were transformed from stingey backpackers to real "tourists". If we hadn't loosened the purse strings, so to speak, we wouldn't have seen anything. We signed up for "The Olgas Sunset and Champagne Tour" - which involved sitting in a car park with a cup of Australian champagne (ie. cheap sparkling wine) while it got dark. The guide lead us to expect the rocks to turn a vibrant red, dissolving to a flame-like orange, melting to a warm mauve. But, the sun went down, and the rock turned grey!
As soon as darkness fell we were whisked off on our next "tour" - The Sky at Night Show. The advertisement said that the astronomer would teach us how to "find south using the Southern Cross", but we were soon informed that we would have to wait until 4.30am before the Southern Cross becomes visible in this part of the sky! (an none of us planned on staying up that late).
We did get to look through a powerful telescope and see Saturn... complete with its ring. Paul's favourite part was the Darth Veda impressions that the astronomer kept doing with his mega-powerful torch for pointing out the stars. Tonya was more impressed by a shooting star that streamed across the sky for 6 seconds and split into two pieces right over our heads.
On to Cairns and the East Coast...
