Editor’s note: the _ under the letter “r” in Uluru is not a typo, that is the official and proper spelling.When you see brochures advertising tourism in Australia you usually see a picture of a giant red rock in the middle of the Outback. Well, that giant rock is Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, and is Australia’s most recognizable feature. It’s the Grand Canyon of Australia and knowing this I decided I had to get there before I left the country. Plans were made for April 2009 and before I knew it I was off for the Red Centre, the official Outback… and no, I am not talking about the steakhouse!
Uluru is a large sandstone rock formation in the far southern part of the Northern Territory. It is located within the Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park. There are many reasons why Uluru is special. In fact, it is so special that it is on the World Heritage list, and moreover, the National Park where it exists is one of the few World Heritage properties listed for both its natural and cultural values. Uluru helps form part of the traditional belief system of one of the oldest human societies in the world, the Aboriginal people.
In the words of Ron Burgundy, it’s kind of a big deal.
Considered a very sacred place, Uluru has been looked after by the Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years. Only in 1873 was it discovered by Europeans and named after the, at the time, Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers.
Geologists claim the formation of Uluru occurred when a depression in the Earth’s crust formed 900 million years ago and over the course of several hundred million years many layers of sediment accumulated. Also during that period of time, there were occasions when this area was a shallow sea, helping to collect the sediments.
About 550 million years ago some mountain ranges were crumpled and buckled, while others were uplifted. During this time there were hardly any life forms which lead to bare mountains, which allowed for erosion to wash away huge amounts of sediments (read: rock), leaving behind present day Uluru.
However, the Aboriginal people have a different story. Out of respect, I will let the people tell their story, which can be read by clicking below. It’s a quick read, and I strongly recommend reading it. If you’d like to take a break from reading, there is a video link on the upper right side of the page that’s only about 1 minute 30 seconds.
http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/uluru/culture-history/culture/creation.html
All of this, of course, is leading up to the actual visit to Uluru. We made the excursion during the Australian autumn. This actually is an ideal time of year to visit Uluru as it’s located in a hot desert in the middle of the country. Typical high temperatures from late spring though early autumn easily exceed 110 degrees, whereas in mid autumn they are a lot more palatable at 85 or so.
After the nearly 3 hour flight from Perth, we landed at the rather cozy (read: smallest airport in the world) airport and headed off to our accommodation. Joining us were our dear friends and travel companions, the Gailey family.
The place we stayed at, Ayers Rock Resort, is the only show in town. In fact, the combination of people staying and working there, make it the third, if not the second largest “city” in the Northern Territory (behind Darwin).
Talk about isolated.
Once we were settled in we headed out to see the rock. When Uluru came into view, it truly lived up to its reputation. It was absolutely amazing. Even our young children were impressed. Although my (at the time) just-under-two son thought Uluru took on the appearance of, well...a giant “poopie”.
In fact, he felt the need to remind everybody of this routinely. Needless to say, it provided endless comic relief and took the pressure off me to come up with witty, and certainly, potty humour.
Once we got close enough where we could park the car, we began walking around the base of Uluru.
It was just breathtaking.
Along the footpath there were signs peppered throughout explaining the significance and meaning of various parts of the rock. We also had the privilege of seeing water moving down the rock compliments of an evening thunderstorm the day before. A rare treat indeed as we were in the middle of desert.
As far as climbing the rock, well here’s the deal. The Aboriginal people ask that visitors do not climb the rock. It is very sacred and they are extremely saddened when somebody dies while on the rock. Inevitably, at least a few people die each year while attempting to climb the rock, either from slipping or succumbing to the elements, usually the extreme heat.
We choose not to climb it. The analogy I used to justify this was if somebody invited you into their home and simply asked that you remove your shoes when you enter and you don’t.
Kind of rude.
Only several months ago one group of people took it a step further to demonstrate their distaste of the Australian Government not passing legislation to make it illegal to climb Uluru. They decided the best way to illustrate to non-Aboriginal people what it’s like to climb Uluru was to climb a Church. They attempted to climb the Church Prime Minister Kevin Rudd regularly attends to prove this point.
Perhaps wrong, but I thought it really put things in perspective.
Later that afternoon, we decided to do the obligatory and watch a sunset over Uluru. The rock actually changes colours as the sun sets from deep reds, to bright oranges and even dark purple. It’s beautiful to watch…and I have plenty of pictures to prove it! And thanks to a few passing showers near sunset, we were provided with a treat…a rainbow alongside Uluru. Without question, this is one of my favourite photos that I’ve ever taken. Note: A special permit had to be purchased and obtained to share this photo with you and WSYR.com. Please refrain from copying it.
As incredible as Uluru was, arguably as impressive were the stars.
That evening I armed myself with the Southern Hemisphere star chart and drove just outside of the resort so that there was no light pollution whatsoever. In fact, there just happened to be a new moon (a phase of the moon where it’s not visible). Man it was dark, pitch black. The stars in the sky were outstanding. I have never seen so many stars in the sky!
Seriously.
I was so impressed, I rushed back to grab the others, my wife and Paula were first. We parked the car off the side of the road and just looked up. The girls were as amazed as I was. We just sat and watched for the longest time. The Milky Way was never creamier and the stars were never so bright. We even saw two or three shooting stars.
I then dropped my wife off to gather the rest of the Gailey family (my two little ones were asleep). They were just as impressed and we saw even more shooting stars. Collectively, I must have seen no less than 9 or 10 shooting stars. I was speechless! Imagine that…Chris Brandolino with nothing to say!
I could go on and on about this trip, but the blog is already too long...I bet you're pretty sick of reading right now. The rest of the trip was spent exploring and admiring Uluru and the stars. I left with over 300 pictures of the rock and some amazing memories.
Side note: Check out the video of my swatting the flies at Uluru. One thing the travel brochures don’t mention is how annoying and overwhelming the flies are.
Other links that may interest you about Uluru:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluru
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list
http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/uluru/index.html
http://www.nttravel.com.au/uluru-ayers-rock-accommodation-listings.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/10/2622230.htm story about climbing Uluru
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/the-chaser-church-stunt-was-responsible-says-julian-morrow/story-e6freuy9-1225752293768?from=public_rss story about climbing Uluru
