Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We caught a flight to Ayers Rock, which turned out to be worth us booking so far in advance (we booked before we left) as flights were going for $800 (320 quid!!) here in OZ, but it was definitely the best way to arrive as you get a fantastic view of Uluru (Ayers Rock) as you fly in. Although Laura took lots of photos of Ayers Rock from the plane, which she wasn't too impressed with, only to find that she had in fact been taking photos of something completely different!! When we saw Ayers Rock, there really was no mistaking it, it was pretty impressive! We can't really explain why Uluru is so impressive, because it is just a big rock, but it just is! It's huge and situated in the middle of a desert with absolutley nothing around it for hundreds of miles (maybe thousands??). Ayers Rock has only one resort, which is owned by one company, so it is no surprise that it was mega expensive while we were there, we had to stay in a tent and that was still 40 quid a night. But as usual, we threw caution to the wind and decided to see the rock in the best way and booked ourselves on to a couple of Anangu Tours.
Anangu Tours is owned and run by the Anangu Aboriginal community who are from the area, and the guides are all aboriginal people who are accompanied by a translator. We decided to see Uluru at both sunrise and sunset. The night before our trip to see Uluru we did a Star gazing trip which was fantastic. As were were in the middle of the desert (well, appartently, we were told it is actually called a "Semi Arid zone" - but it is basically as close as you can get to the desert, without it actually being one!) there were no light sources around for miles and no buildings to block the views of the stars. We were shown how to look for due south by using the stars, (not had the chance to use this since, though, as the skies have been cloudy ever since, but we'll be OK to get lost in the middle of desert on a clear night!) we also looked at the constellations and star signs. We found out that we aren't actually Saggitarius though, as when the star signs were first contructed the postioning of the stars would have been different, and so nobody's star signs are actually correct, we are now Scorpio! We then had a chance to look through a really powerful telescope at some of the stars and planets which was really amazing, and almost unreal!! Laura was lucky enough to see quite a few shooting stars too, Holly kept missing them though, even though Laura kept screaming excitedley and pointing into the middle of space every 10 minutes!
The next morning we got up really early for our trip to Ayers Rock (it was still dark it was that early!). We headed straight to Uluru and took loads of photos as the sun rose, turning the rock red. We then went to the Cultural centre to meet our guide. Wally and the interpreter Jimmy, took us on a walk through the bush. He showed us how to start a fire, make glue from bashed up leaves and how to throw spears, all very useful for Swadlincote! He also told us some of the aboriginal stories about Uluru. He explained how a poisonous snake boy tried to escape from the West after he commited a crime to the Western people, but was followed and killed by their tribe. You can still see the spear marks on the rock! That afternoon we headed back to the cultural centre to meet our female aboriginal guides, Bonnie and Elsie, who completed the story. They told us how the Aunt of the poisonous snake boy heard of his death and was so angry she did a war dance and threw her poison all around. (Apparently, all the trees and plants around that area are still poisonous and aboriginal people never gather food from that area.) She then went to look for the person who killed her nephew and killed him with her digging stick. You can still see the slither marks where she went around the rock and the crack in the rock where she struck him dead!! The guides taught us about the different 'bush tucker' and showed us into some of the caves around the foot of Uluru, where you can still see some aboriginal cave paintings from hundreds of years ago. Then we headed back to the viewing point to see the sun set over Uluru, which was really amazing, the sky was clear bar a few clouds, which made the sky seem even more red. We also had a good view over the Olgas, another sacred rock formation nearby. There isn't a lot of information about the stories for this place though, as the aboriginal people still use the rocks for their ceremonies which are kept secret. We flew back to Cairns the following day after a really good couple of days at Ayers Rock.
- comments