Day 2 Mulga Adventure: Uluru

I slept so soundly. The sleeping bag and swag were exactly enough to keep me toasty warm. It was windy though, so I worried when I woke that my hat had blown away after I took it off during the night. But no.

Kata Tjuta National Park was only a tiny way from camp. After a nice peach and cereal breakfast at camp, we headed into the park to a viewing area to see sunrise at The Olgas with Uluru in the distance. Many other tours and groups had the same idea so it was pretty crowded, but not enough to be a problem.






After sunrise and a toilet stop, we headed to Valley of the Winds within Kata Tjuta which is billed as an excellent alternative to climbing Uluru. Here, Tom explained the aboriginal understanding of how the features of the land were created and, for those of us (me) who'd forgotten highschool geography, how this contrasts with the developed world's belief.


Apparently, the name "Valley of the Winds" has nothing to do with the wind, but it sure was windy in this area. And bloody cold, too.


After the walk, we headed to Uluru to have a grilled sandwich at the culturual centre at the base of the rock. I loved my surroundings.

All the literature around the rock (on the ticket, in the guide book, on the signs, in the culturual centre) states very clearly: we kindly request that you do not climb Uluru. The aboriginal people request this because the rock has great spiritual significance, unlike Fooluru which has none. Postcards in the culturual centre come in two flavours: one that says "I've climbed Uluru" and another that says "I respected the wishes of the aboriginals and did not climb Uluru". Nevertheless, the climb was closed when we arrived for safety reasons.


We walked the 9k around the rock instead and learnt lots about its importance and history in the process.

Oh, and had lots of fun!








By the time we'd gone around, the climb had opened! May and I were among the last to make it back to the start due to the silliness we were having with our cameras so we didn't get to climb, though I still made it a little way up; high enough to get scared! One girl in the group, however, conquered the rock inside 40 minutes. Impressive!

The park offers designated viewing areas for sunrise and sunset. We were one of the first to arrive at the sunset viewing site but were eventually joined by many others. We roped a section off with beer cans but still one of the champagne and caviar groups tried to invade. Did we let them? Did we hell!


Finally, camp. But this time with lots of drunken stories and games including Street Fighter! This isn't a bad attempt at writing Mulgas, wouldn't you say?