March 16

Get up at 4:30AM to get our bag out by 5AM.  We leave on the bus for the airport and the hotel has provided a box breakfast.  The bat commotion bids us a fond farewell.  This area has been in extended drought, but finally it looks like the rain is moving in.  Thick black clouds and heavy rain.  It’s good we are leaving, we could not have not done half of what we’d done if it was raining like this.  Qantas allows tour directors to handle our luggage and tickets.  The US would never allow this.  We still have to go through security and it is much lighter than UK and USA.  The flight is packed with tourists heading for Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, a world heritage site.  There is nothing else there but a destination for travelers and a tiny secluded Aboriginal village.  The seats are snug but Qantas is generous with small breakfast etc.  It is about a 2 hours 45 minute, 1100 mile flight.  The cloud cover is heavy at first but soon the sky goes to light cloud and we can see miles of scrub land and no people anywhere.  The geology and topography of the area is fascinating.  The plants have and are known being used for functional and medicinal use.  There is much to be discovered still.  While the coast has been in drought, the outback has been getting rain.  We can see areas of white sand, old black lava but mostly it’s dark orange red from iron.  Wherever water has flowed and or collected it is green.  But then there are miles of continuous pointy mountains like a spine, some are miles of soft flow looking like a snake and some look like the back of a giant crocodile.  There are rifts and swirls of massive proportion.  No doubt we’re not in Kansas anymore.  Evidence of ancient sea levels and cataclysmic events are obvious.  We eventually fly over Alice Springs, the only settlement of any kind.  A few isolated ranches are in the area.  We are close to dead center of the country and it is incredibly remote and wild.  As we approach the airport we pass over a huge saltwater lake that looks like giant opals.  There is water there now but usually it’s a sea of pure salt. Uluru appears in all its glory, a dream come true to visit the Rock. We land at Uluru airport and our bus is there, out luggage is taken directly to our bus and we’re off!  The land is flat and rolling with sand dunes here and the soil bright ochre red.  Lots of low trees and bushes but everything is green!  The air is hot but the lower humidity is noticeable.  There are wild camels, horses, kangaroos and other animals in the area, but it is so vast we are not likely to see any.  The bus drops our luggage at the hotel and they will be in our rooms when we check in later.  We enter the National Park (entrance fee) to visit Kata Tjuta, a formation of giant rocks of various materials but look like ‘heads’.  This is a sacred place for male aboriginal ceremonies.  We can only view from a distance and it is a magnificent sight in bright blue sky and fluffy white clouds. Each head has a different look.  The trail to the viewpoint is lined with various brightly colored white, yellow and violet flowers that have come due to the rains.  The Kukura tree (sp), oak, is resistant to fire due to its thick craggy bark.  The trees don’t get too tall but just a two foot diameter trunk can be 600 years old.  Aboriginals use burn to bring new growth and draw in the animals for their hunting.  There are acacia trees from which the boomerangs are made.  This environment makes living things very selective and controlled as they must react to its extremes.  Even the aboriginal people would only allow their clans to become only large enough to survive and their laws are strict and punishment swift.  There were seemingly cruel things done in order to cope, but once seeing this land and its isolation it makes sense.  We stop off at the culture center dedicated to Anangu land talking about the various tribes of Aboriginals in the area.  It’s been well done structurally but there is really no one around to guide us and the exhibits can be a little confusing.  We watch an Aboriginal woman painting a beautiful dot painting.  The boomerangs of the coastal people (what we know) are different form interior people and used in different ways to hunt.  The lunch is sparse in offerings.  And flies, always flies.  Thankfully Knight’s lent us their head nets.  We wear them a lot.  On the bus to Uluru.  This magnificent hunk of sandstone is bright red.  It has layers of sediment that built up in the ocean vertically over time.  Plate pressure pushed it up and it fell over so sediment lines know lie facing up.  The top that pushed out is younger than that bottom.  The sandstone is pock marked and cracked.  This is the sacred ceremonial space for Aboriginal women.  We drive the perimeter of 6 miles.  We stop at the area watering hole where the water runs off the rock into pools below.  There is a cave where the people gathered during the day to teach, we see rock paintings, and to wait for animals to drink and be hunted.  It’s obvious it is hot but the humidity remains low.  We just find out it’s 110 degrees!  No wonder all outdoor activity is a struggle.  There are campgrounds in this compound and ‘cabin’ type rentals.  We arrive at the 5 star Sails in the Desert Hotel.  The entry is covered with canvas sails, the inside has AB art and dried grass lamp shades.  We arrive in our room with two double beds, full bath and large balcony.  We set off to get pics of the grounds and walk into the little shopping area.  Pat finds AB print wrapping paper it is gorgeous.   We see AB art everywhere and start to find things we like.  Have a light dinner in the hotel and back on the bus for a sunset tailgate party at Uluru.  The guide and driver has set up a long table with white linen clothes, champagne glasses and other, plates and piles of snack type foods.  We champagne, non alcoholic drinks and mill around taking pics as the sun sets on the Rock.  It is a picture perfect time.  AB women are selling some of their paintings along the parking lot. Pat buys three, gets their signatures and pics with them.  Back at the hotel a quick change and out to the pool, having it all to ourselves!  Blue underwater lights, the water is cool, the air is cooling.  The sky is clear and the southern constellations are showing themselves with a bright half moon.  Temps drop quickly her.  Off to bed.