Yulara: Uluru

February 11:  Yulara and Uluru

Imagine finding a desert area that is biggger than all of Europe 

flat, semi-arid with mostly dried riverbeds and salt flats..eucalyptus trees and brush...

then all of a sudden, a huge sandstone rock comes into view, emerging from the earth  that is taller than the Eiffel Tower (1182 feet high), 5.8 miles around at the base and rust in color.  Mamouth! Then beyond that is another stone structure that seems to be made of 36 huge rock balls. Well

the first Europeans to see Uluru and Kata Tjuta rocks in 1873 had just this experience.

The Anangu people had of course been roaming this area for 30,000 years.  These rocks had and have great cultural significance for them.  They had survived in this harsh landscape by learning and transmitting knowledge of the plants, animals and geography and leaving "equipment" for other

traveling clans to use as they hunted and gathered.  

This largest single rock in the world is what we had come to see. And experience.

    Our first view of Uluru

After our short flight into The Ayres Rock (former name for Uluru) airport, we were greated by the buses that take tourists to the resort compound.  Aside from small planes that brought ttourists here in the 1950s, very few people had the opportunity to visit this area until the 1980s because of the lack of facillities.  A National Park was created for Uluru and Kata Tjuta and some leases were granted for hotels in the area...but roads were poor and it was hard to support these facilities.  

Meanwhile the Anangu people were trying to reclaim their land and eventually,in the 1980s, a new government came into power that recognized the rights of native people and agreed to turn over the land to the Anangu under two conditions: (1) that they give a 99 year lease to the gov't to run the park and (2) they allow a resort to be developed.  they agreed and a board was created with 4 Elder Anangu men, 4 Anangu elder women and 4 gov't officials to oversee the property.  

The government tried running the resort and support services and took it into debt.  they leased it to another management company who did fairly well and then in the 21st century the tribe bought back the facilities and have been running them ever since.

And  this is truly a company town:  800-1000 employees, a town for them and their families to live in, with schools, daycare, markets, etc, their own power plant, water facilities, road creation and maintenance and eeverything that it takes to serve 400,000 visitors/year in a range of accomodations from RV parks to 5-star hotels. 

                                  

Well, given our limited time here, we wanted to see as much as possible and we unloaded at the hotel, washed off the sweat and dust from 4 hours at the desert park in the morning and got dressed for our Sounds of Silence dinner on the desert Experience. We hopped onto a bus and headed into the bush...

 and there were served  sparking wine along with canapes made of crocodile, kangaroo and other local foods.

and we spotted some wild life, like our first Dingo

and camel:

Incidentally, we learned that the camels that helped build the railroads

and helped the miners get supplies when there was no other form of transportation were

to be disposed of when they were no longer needed.  The Afgan camel managers were told to kill them.  Rather than doing so, they were released into the desert where they flourished and reproduced.  At one time, there were as many as 1 Million feral camels in Australia.

and heard our first Digiridoo

So traditionally, the digiridoo were made of a stick from the branch of a tree that is malaga I believe and  if the ants have not already eaten out the middle, the branch is stuck  in the ground and these ants (temites) will eat out the middle to make a proper sounding digiridoo.....

The night included a talk about astronomy in the southern skies including the Seven sisters, etc.

and dances by traditional dancers.

and lively conversation with new friends from France, Scotland 

and England.

February 12

After our late night of partying on the desert, it was hard to get up at 4:30 am for our 

"Desert Awakening" experience...but we managed.

16 intrepid souls headed out with a great guide who took us through the desert to a spot where we could watch the sunrise, see the light on Uluru and Kata Tjuta and how they change and have breakfast.

Ned shared a lot of information about the flora, fauna, Aboriginal "Law and/or Lore"

and took us to spend several hours walking on all sides of Uluru and to the local cultural center.

Ned told us about caves within Uluru that were used for 

ceremonies such as girls coming of age rituals, or birthing caves, etc.

Uluru is the female site; Kata is the male site.

There is water that comes around the rock and down the rock when it rains

and there are many bloodwood trees near the base of the rock.  The bloodwood tree

is interesting as it appears to actually bleed when cut and is very stitcky and good 

for healing and as an adhesive. 

 The rock below is for grinding seeds and other native growing materials into "bush tucker" (food frorm the land).thisi is one of the items that is to heavy to carry with you as you move around to find water and animals to hunt.  So it is left for others in this nomadic tradition to use.  this stone is estimated to be 500 years old as a cooking tool.

The other interesting story that Ned told us was of the aunt who found her nephew was 

attacked by another spirit and she changed form to protect or avenge him and went after his attacker as a snake.  Different elements of the rock represented the spear she used, the scar she inflicted, and ultimately how she coilled up as a snake.  And a tree with two trunks that is said to represent the  spirit of the nephew and herself joined.  The aboriginal people take care of each other's kids (nieces and nephews) as if they are their own children.

 

This is a teaaching cave where the people of the desert would come in 

to teach lessons to children.  See the cave paintings in the next photo:

There is much more I could share that we learned in our school 

day with Ned.  He shared his own journey of being born to a 

European mother and aboriginal father (who died when he was very young).

They moved back to the city to be with his mother's people, but when he was

14 he took off to find his father's people and lived in Northern Australia with his father's brother and his 10 kids.  He learned the tribal way in that life and has shared that widely

in his work since.

So...one of my goals for this trip was to get to know a bit about the aboriginal

ways and this stop helped.  Another goal was to see the wildlife that is indigenous

to Australia.  For that, we go to Kangaroo Island....

That's our next stop!