4/5/14 - Uluru

We flew from Cairns to Uluru in the morning. Bill noticed the landscape was red dirt with no water for hours. This is called the Red Center. It was very hot and very dry when we arrived. Our hotel was Sails in the Desert.

Uluru

We spent a few hours at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (1325 sq. km.) which is on Anangu (the Aboriginal people of the region) land.  

 It is believed that the Anangu have lived there at least 22,000 years. The surrounding area receives only 200 mm of annual rainfall per year.

Diane with bug mask

We visited Uluru (348m high) and went for a ranger guided walk up to the Uluru monolith rock to see the relief of the surface, plants growing from crevices in the rock, ancient paintings on cave ceilings, and a variety of vegetation.

In the Kitchen Cave girls learn to cook from women singing. Men teach boys to hunt and then they are initiated

The outside of the rock is very hard but water gets into high caves and forms fascia which falls away. There is a lot of erosion at the lower levels and bottom as the surface is soft. 

The vegetation needs very little water. Frogs can be dormant for 5-6 years until rain comes.

We stopped by the Cultural Center in the Park and happened to see a dingo and a poisonous centipede.

Kata Tjuta is a larger formation in the same National Park. It has 36 domes, the largest Mt. Olga is 546m.

There are many Uluru Stories describing ancestors, relationships with nature, and the rock formations.

Later Bill and I visited a local museum with information on the local wildlife.

We watched Uluru in the evening while the sun set.