More of the Outback

Day 2

The next morning we woke up at 5:45 to a beautiful rainbow and sunrise, ate brekkie, and then drove to Kata Tjuta where we did a 7 km hike for about 2.5 hours. This was by far my favorite hike. Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, looks like a big clump of rocks from a distance, but up close there are trails that go in and out of the rocks. It is another sacred Aborigine ground along with Uluru. The lookout points on the hike were incredible.

Ashley and I had about 2 km left of the hike, and we decided to fill up our water bottles one last time to get us through to the end. I set my backpack and camera down on a bench to fill up my bottle at the water station, and then when I dragged my backpack off of the bench, my camera came out from underneath it and smacked into the ground. My heart stopped. I quickly picked it up, turned it on….and nothing. I stared at it in shock thinking that there was no way my camera could be broken. But, it was. Luckily all of my pictures were safe on my memory card, and Ashley said that I could take as many pictures with her camera as I wanted and she would take lots too for me. Most of you know that I love taking pictures, so to have this happen was a really big letdown. But I didn’t dwell on it, and told myself that I would enjoy every minute despite my loss.

After our hike, we drove to the Aborigine Cultural Center at the base of Uluru. We did a short walk-through, and then began our 2 km hike around part of Uluru. Craig talked a lot and pointed out the areas of the rock that the Aborigines used…the kitchen, lookout holes, wedding ceremony spot, etc. Everyone is given the option to climb up the rock; however it was closed because of high temperatures. Also, Uluru is very sacred land to the Aborigine people, so as an act of respect, they strongly encourage everyone NOT to climb. I asked Craig why they even offer climbing in the first place if it is disrespectful to the Aborigines, and he said that white man’s law is above Aboriginal law, so they can still offer it. This upset my friends and I because why is white man’s law above? The Aborigines were the first people to inhabit Australia, yet they are looked down on in society and disregarded because of their ‘stone age’ lifestyle. I am learning about them in my Australian Multicultures class, so hearing more about this on Aboriginal grounds was really intriguing.

After the hike we drove to the sunset viewing area of Uluru. We had dinner and spent time chatting with everyone on our tour…and watched tour bus after tour bus file in to park for the sunset. We had some time to kill, so Ashley and I took lots of jumping pictures with Uluru behind us. So fun! The sunset was unlike any other I have seen before. The clouds were perfectly positioned for the sunrays to beam out from them. Supposedly the rock changes color for sunrise and sunset, but all I could see was it getting darker as the light slowly disappeared. But it was amazing anyway.

We made our way to the Ayers Rock campground, were able to shower and use real toilets!, and then laid out our swags for bed. The stars were even better than the night before—I felt like I was being consumed by stars because they surrounded the entire sky, and were not just directly above me. I found the ‘southern cross’ and ‘scorpio,’ both constellations that we don’t have in the northern hemisphere. What a great end to another great day 

xxx Megs