The Red Centre (Tuesday, 8 August)
Another early start, this time with a very late finish. Most of the day was spent on the road travelling to Kata-Tujuta (previously known as The Olgas) and Uluru (previously known as Ayers Rock) - but well worth the trip to experience these two sites.
En route we stopped at Mt Eberbezer for a coffee/comfort break and a quick photo stop at Mount Connor.
The National Park has two World Heritage listings - one for the geographical landscape, rare plants and animals, and exceptional beauty granted in 1987. The second, in 1994, for its cultural landscape - recognising the traditional belief system of the Anangu, the traditional owners, one of the oldest human societies on the earth.
On entering the national park, we made our way first to Kata-Tujuta site (arriving about lunchtime) and walked through part of the gorge. 'Kata-Tujuta' is a Pitjantjaqtjara word meaning 'many heads' and lies about 32km (although about 50km by road) west of Uluru.
This site is sacred under Anangu men's law and according to these laws, details of the stories cannot be revealed and some areas are sacred and cannot be accessed.
Here we walked part of the Walpa (meaning Windy) Gorge Walk to take a closer look at the rocks and plants that grew there.
Returning to our coach we then made our way over to Uluru, having our lunch on the way. We had a short stop at the Cultural Centre before making our way to the base of this mighty monolith.
Two of our small party would be climbing the rock. The climb is not prohibited but it is something that the traditional owners prefer you not to do, as in their culture if you injure yourself while climbing the rock they feel responsible. Over 35 people have died while attempting the climb and at the moment a Japanese tourist has been in a coma since the end of June after falling from the rock.
My human decided not to do 'the climb'.
While the rock was being climbed, the rest of us would be driven round the base of the rock but stopping off to take a closer look at certain sites and hear the traditional stories associated with them. (This seemed a sensible compromise to me!). Some of the areas were sacred sites and photography, and occasionally access, wasn't allowed.
This took a couple of hours and after collecting our climbers, we then made our way to the sunset viewing area. While our drivers/guides (Tic and Barry) prepared our bbq, the group enjoyed some refreshment (champagne in the case of my human) and reflected on the day so far.
Sunset came around 6.20 pm (by which time the viewing area had filled up somewhat) and by 6.25 pm it was all over.
It certainly is something to experience, although with so many people around and the sounds of photos being taken it wasn't quite as spiritual experience as expected.
We then began our long journey home after stopping off at the resort to pick up a gentleman from the RFDS who needed further hospital treatment Alice Springs for a for a hand injury.
We made another brief stop at Mt Ebenezer before finally reaching our hotel at 11.50 pm.
Posted 09/08/06 1.50 pm
En route we stopped at Mt Eberbezer for a coffee/comfort break and a quick photo stop at Mount Connor.
The National Park has two World Heritage listings - one for the geographical landscape, rare plants and animals, and exceptional beauty granted in 1987. The second, in 1994, for its cultural landscape - recognising the traditional belief system of the Anangu, the traditional owners, one of the oldest human societies on the earth.
On entering the national park, we made our way first to Kata-Tujuta site (arriving about lunchtime) and walked through part of the gorge. 'Kata-Tujuta' is a Pitjantjaqtjara word meaning 'many heads' and lies about 32km (although about 50km by road) west of Uluru.
This site is sacred under Anangu men's law and according to these laws, details of the stories cannot be revealed and some areas are sacred and cannot be accessed.
Here we walked part of the Walpa (meaning Windy) Gorge Walk to take a closer look at the rocks and plants that grew there.
Returning to our coach we then made our way over to Uluru, having our lunch on the way. We had a short stop at the Cultural Centre before making our way to the base of this mighty monolith.
Two of our small party would be climbing the rock. The climb is not prohibited but it is something that the traditional owners prefer you not to do, as in their culture if you injure yourself while climbing the rock they feel responsible. Over 35 people have died while attempting the climb and at the moment a Japanese tourist has been in a coma since the end of June after falling from the rock.
My human decided not to do 'the climb'.
While the rock was being climbed, the rest of us would be driven round the base of the rock but stopping off to take a closer look at certain sites and hear the traditional stories associated with them. (This seemed a sensible compromise to me!). Some of the areas were sacred sites and photography, and occasionally access, wasn't allowed.
This took a couple of hours and after collecting our climbers, we then made our way to the sunset viewing area. While our drivers/guides (Tic and Barry) prepared our bbq, the group enjoyed some refreshment (champagne in the case of my human) and reflected on the day so far.
Sunset came around 6.20 pm (by which time the viewing area had filled up somewhat) and by 6.25 pm it was all over.
It certainly is something to experience, although with so many people around and the sounds of photos being taken it wasn't quite as spiritual experience as expected.
We then began our long journey home after stopping off at the resort to pick up a gentleman from the RFDS who needed further hospital treatment Alice Springs for a for a hand injury.
We made another brief stop at Mt Ebenezer before finally reaching our hotel at 11.50 pm.
Posted 09/08/06 1.50 pm
posted by The Pink Hat @ 6:01 am
1 Comments:
At 1:49 pm,
Anonymous said…
I'm a firm believer that most 'traditions' or 'superstitions' have their origins in common sense. In this case, the common sense being not to climb something so obviously dangerous to your health!
Glad to hear you're not flagging! Your daily blogs cheer my day..Jazz
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