Uluru and Kata Tjuta
Sep 22, 2023
Hello from Ikara (Wilpena Pound) on the traditional lands of the Adyamathanha the Ikara-Flinders Ranges, where I'm going to take some time to post about our amazing experiences in Uluru and Kata Tjuta, on the traditional lands of the Anangu.
We arrived on Monday afternoon and got settled in to our lovely 2 bedroom unit in Yulara, the resort town 20 minutes north of Uluru. Bob and I claimed the murphy bed in the lounge room, which seems a lot more comfortable that the sofabed, leaving the queen bed free for Rhonda, who was arriving the next day, and snuggling grandchildren ❤.
We attempted to get up and moving early the next day to middling success, making out to Uluru by 9:30 for our 9am reservation at the bike hire. And off we went!
The Campbell's old bike is seeing places!
The sun peaking over the rock
Josie loved her borrowed tag-a-along!
I quite like this photo, as it does seem like I'm really steaming up behind the kids!
Towards the end of our ride we were a bit rushed/stressed as making it around the full 15 km took a while, and after our late start we were starting to cut it a bit fine on the airport pick up. But we made it just in time!
GG cuddles!!!
After getting GG settled in at the apartment, we headed back to Uluru to watch the sunset, with a few of us trying our best to sketch the rock and the many colours as the sun disappeared over the horizon behind us.
The hats can get in the way of cuddles!
We attempted to get up in time for sunrise the next morning but were a bit late by the time we got to the lookout, but we did get to see some sun rising as we drove along!
Rhonda contemplated a Segway tour, so here she is trying one out. It didn't work out timing wise in the end, but she did say it was fun giving it a try!
When we got home we were a leeeeetle tired, so we had a bit of a quiet time (i.e. a nap, at least for Bob and I) then we headed to a dot painting workshop which was really lovely. A local Anangu artist talked us through some key symbols and techniques used in dot paintings in the area, with a non-Aboriginal guide acting as translator. We also able to see and feel some tools such as a non-returning boomerang, a digging stick, and a coolamon (all of which I have unfortunately forgotten the Anangu word for). Then we got to try to paint our own painting, where we were encouraged to tell our own story using the traditional Anangu symbols.
On Wednesday afternoon Bob and I were very, VERY lucky to have a bit of alone time while the kids hung out with GG. Given our morning nap we decided to head out to Kata Tjuta to attempt do the walk in the Valley of the Winds. Unfortunately we left it a bit late so only made it to the 2nd lookout halfway around the loop, but we still really loved it. Just the difference between composition on the rock between Uluru and Kata Tjuta is fascinating - Kata Tjuta is made of composite rock with big river pebbles and Uluru is made of sandstone. They are both created from the fast erosion of a mountain ranges millions of years ago, with the debris and sediment settling in large depressions in the earth that were then solidified under an inland lake and pushed up a few million year later (I'm sketchy on the timelines) due to shifting tectonic plates. The Valley of the Winds is a sacred site for the local men, so there are significant restrictions on where we could take photos, but the composite rock did remind me of a chocolate slab made with left over mini Easter eggs.....
Photos from afar were fine, so here are a few in late afternoon / early evening...
On approach
As the sun sets
As we headed home
The south eastern side of Kata Tjuta at sunset, which just looks like a painting!
As a reward for our big walk we treated ourselves to room service, a bottle of champagne and the Barbie movie - there was a lot of giggling!! And the next day we absolutely nothing! It was so lovely!! We watched Dungeons and Dragons, and I finished the bottle of champagne with orange juice (love a bucks fizz!). Then we headed out for our fancy dinner at the Field of Lights - we had a lovely group at our dinner table with lots of laughs and good story telling. Then we got to wander through the lights, which were very pretty.
The next morning Rhonda and the kids joined us for a fancy buffet breakfast which was very tasty. In the afternoon Rhonda and I and the big kids went back to Kata Tjuta to do the Walpa Gorge walk - it was pretty hot, not much shade and more hilly than we expected, but Rhonda's new knee held up a treat so that was great! Photos of this part of Kata Tjuta are allowed as long as they included both sides of the gorge.
After dinner we did an astronomy tour which took us into the national park so we could enjoy the darkness of a proper night sky (which was particularly dark due to it being a new moon, which was very lucky!). We learnt lots about the galaxy and the constellations and Aboriginal astronomy, got to see some objects through a telescope including Saturn which looked so clear and close I thought that maybe they'd just draw it on the lens. Then we got to take a great photo with the Milky Way behind us.
My attempt to capture the constellation Scorpio, which we learnt at the Field of Lights dinner is also known as Maui's hook in the south pacific
A long exposure photo that they took for us - it's very interesting to see how everyone reacts when told they have to stay still for 25 seconds. I think me and Nora win the award for most uncomfortable!!
We also got to download some of the company's generic photos of the night sky, which are very cool.
After a quiet Saturday morning we went back out to Uluru to visit the cultural centre and galleries, were the girls got some lovely artefacts and I got very splurgey with the most beautiful painting - I can't wait to get it up on the very blank white wall above our lounge!
Then we went back to the apartment to get picked up for a guided tour around Uluru. Our guide Mon was a non-Aboriginal woman from Melbourne who had taken up tour guiding once her kids had finished uni, and was really passionate and engaging. The Anangu people have given all tour guides 3 of their Tjkurpa (traditional lore, spirituality and stories) to share with visitors, along with really specific instructions about how to tell these stories. We were told the tji tji (or children's) version of the stories, which set out the basic narratives and morals of the particular stories. As an individual grows and matures they are told more layered and complex versions of the stories. On the way around Uluru, Mon pointed out Tjukuritja, which is the physical evidence of the the actions of the creation / ancestral beings in the Tjkurpa.
Our first stop was the Mutitjulu Waterhole. This spot is on the way to the waterhole, where you can feel the rock itself, which is just around the corner from Kulpi Nyiinkaku. This was a teaching / nyiinka / 'bush boys' cave where young boys who were deemed old enough to leave their mothers live and learn to become a wati (man) from their grandfathers.
Some of the teachings are expressed through rock art on the walls.
Here we are at Mutitjulu Waterhole, one of the only permanent water sources around the base of Uluru. As you may be able to tell, Josie was a little out of sorts at this point....
The waterhole had been filled a few months before when Uluru got a good drenching after a really big rain event - Mum had mentioned that at the time, and our tour guide Mon told us about how spectacular it was to see.
Here's a photo from Weatherzone that shows the waterfalls flowing off the rock at the time!
As you can see, it was a pretty crowded afternoon at Uluru.
Back to the bush boys cave, we also could see where the boys would hide behind a solid wall of the cave with a tiny hole to watch while animals such a kangaroos and emu had a drink at the waterhole. The elder men waited further back and waited for the signal from the boys that the animals were leaving, in particularly noting when it was the last animal to leave to be targeted by the hunters. Hunting the last animal in the group ensured the ongoing sustainability of the food source, but also ensure that the animals were not scared off the waterhole.
The Tjkurpa that we learned at the Mutitjulu Waterhole told the story of Kuniya and Liru, the female woma python and male venomous snake. Click on the link to read more detail of the stories as told by the Anangu.
The Tjukuritja visible in the photo above is where Kuniya dealt Liru a death blow, the long gash on the rock face in the top right corner of the photo. When it rains, the water out of this crack runs red, which is the only place in Uluru where this happens.
Our next stop was around other side of the rock on the Mala Walk, which we had missed on our hurried end to our bike ride so I was very pleased to be able to check it out. On the way Mon told us the Tjkurpa of the Mala people, the Tjukuritja for which is visible on the northern side of the rock. This is a sacred men's site, so no photos are allowed. It was also the site of the original camping ground and airstrip in the early days of white tourism at Uluru, which was particularly egregious given the cultural importance of this site.
Once we go to the Mala walk the first place we visited was the kitchen cave, which was where the women and girls prepared food while camping at Uluru.
An ancient grinding stone
This was an amazing spot where we could reach up and feel some ledges on the back side of the overhanging rock that were incredibly smooth to touch. The painted symbols visible on this side of the rock indicates what was stored in the ledges - they are emu tracks, flagging that emu fat had been stored for hundreds if not thousands of years. Very cool.
We then powered up to one end of the Mala walk to see Kantju Gorge, which is the highest waterfall when it rains on the rock. We were pushed for time to make it to sunset so Mon thought Rhonda may want to wait in the bus, which Rhonda took as a challenges - she was first to arrive to the Gorge and the first back to the bus! The new knee really is holding up well!
Where the water falls when there is water to fall!
An amazing burr on a tree that caught my eye.
We stopped to see another sunset, and Mon set up a lovely spread of damper with oil, vinegar and local dukkah using native ingredients, with some lovely drinks. It was just delightful - I went back for more bucks fizz, Rhonda and her new friend Marilyn went straight champagne, and the kids smuggled some soft drinks...
Sneaky soft drink sneakers!
Bob, Rhonda and the big kids capped off a jam packed day by going to see the Field of Lights, while Josie and I had an early night....
It's hard to capture the size and scope and overall effective of the installation, but its very pretty!
On Sunday morning we got ready to say goodbye to GG, which was very sad, as it was so great to see her and get to experience the amazing place with her. But bless her, she did take a lot of our unused clothes with her, which has made packing WAY easier ever since.
After dropping GG back to the airport we got to have a very cool catch up with the Blakes, who were up from Forrest Beach with their extended family. Heather had reached out earlier in the week to see if we were going to be around, and we were very excited that our timing worked out. Unfortunately we didn't actually photos of this coincidental catch-up (we were too busy having a cocktail by the freezing cold pool!) but it was really lovely to see them!
Taking the wetsuit for a test drive!
Nora's handstands are really coming along!
Warming up in the sun post swim
We wrapped up time at our Emu Walk apartment with another attempt at fettuccine carbonara which was slightly less successful than the original one (but still pretty good considering it was created in an electric wok) then headed to bed for a BIG drive to Coober Pedy the next day.
I will mention that I was very sad to miss out on joining a Walk for Yes - I did check in with the campaign organisers if there would be a walk at Uluru, but due to cultural sensitivities and national park requirements there wasn't one in the area. I enjoyed seeing all the photos from the Sydney walk, and wore my t-shirt in solidarity. Given this is as close as I get to social media, I also wanted to share this video which I think is a really great expression of support for the Voice.
