Day 16 08/04/2011 Uluru and Kata Tjuta

Day 16 08/04/2011 Uluru and Kata Tjuta

Well I can now tick of three things that I had on my list to be accomplished before I died!! 1) see Uluru at sunrise, 2) see Uluru at sunset and 3) walk the base track of Uluru.  Today I set off on to walk the base track on my own, the children had declined the invitation to join me on the 11km walk and Peter said “well someone has to look after them!!” so he stayed behind, I did say he could go tomorrow if he wanted and if this was something that he had always wanted to do, I would hate to be holding him back but he didn’t look that keen.  So I set off on my own.  It took me about 2 hours so I set a fairly good pace, but it was a great walk and one that I will remember forever. 

The walks that we had completed so far had many spots where the traditional owners had asked that photos not be taken because of the cultural significance of the sites, where we had been so far most of these sites had been to do with women’s business, today I learnt that the other side of Uluru was all about men’s business so there were many sections that I could not photograph even though the structure and weather / water patterns were amazing!!

Today Uluru was also open to be climbed, the wind had dropped and I have to admit I was surprised by how many people were still climbing the rock even after they had stood in front of the signs that explain why the traditional owners request visitors not to climb!!.  I have no desire to climb Uluru and even though the opportunity presented itself today, I did not get any urge to climb the rock. I left knowing that I would not get this opportunity again.

Whilst I was away having a leisurely stroll around Uluru, Pete was back at the van trying to get the kids motivated to write their journals and do some school work, by the time I got back Claudia and Zac had escaped and only Callum was left procrastinating over his journal.  Eventually Callum finished and he too escaped the van.  I knew my initial plan to just ignore their education for two terms was much more sensible than committing to any home schooling!!  Zac can’t understand why they have to do school work at all at the moment as it is school holidays in NSW!! I explained he has only done about 2 hours of school work in the past two weeks so I was hardly over working him by getting him to do some in the “holidays!!”

We spent the afternoon playing in the pool it was very hot today…the dry heat has made the children very tired and slightly irritable so thank goodness for the pool!!! Whilst we were doing this Pete went in search of a bottle shop as he had drunk all of his beer.  He came back empty handed, not because there was not anywhere to buy alcohol but because a case of Corona cost $240 yep you read right.  He thought he read the Corona’s were $54 and he thought this meant for a case so he went to the counter and asked for a case of Corona – the sales lady said that will be $240!! And he said no it says $54 and she said that is for a 6 – pack.  Apparently the liquor licence for the whole Yulara community precludes the selling of alcohol at “takeaway prices” all alcohol must be sold at single serve cost – so a single bottle of corona is $9 and a case is the staggering price of$240 – so you guessed right Pete didn’t get his beer!!  This is a dry community!!

Tonight we had decided to go out to see the sunset over Kata Tjuta (The Olga’s) so I packed a picnic dinner and we headed off.  Having never seen Kata Tjuta before I was overwhelmed by the rock formation size – the collection of dome shaped rocks are huge, don’t ask what I was expecting I really don’t know but it wasn’t this. 

Kata Tjuta for the viewing area that we were at was so wide that I couldn’t fit the whole rock formation in the screen on my camera for the photo.  Again it was awesome to watch the rock face slowly change colour from brilliant red to a deep almost purple colour. 

But again like when we were at Uluru for the sunset and sunrise, I was drawn to the brilliant sunset that was happening behind my back and kept turning around to photograph the changing colours in the sky!!!  A good night was had by all and Claudia was sound asleep by the time we travelled back.