my sister took a morning trip to the restroom and when she walked in, all the sinks were being used by middle-aged asian women. my sister was confused. did she go to the wrong bathroom?
so we made it to uluru at sunrise... oh, and saw it at 'twilight':
oh, and yesterday we saw this:
anyway, we saw the sun rise over the big rock and it changed colors again. more
reds and oranges. but the FLIES! oh man, i haven't mentioned the flies. the flies are a force to be reckoned with in the outback. my sister and i kept tying sweaters and bandanas around our faces to act as a fly/mosquito net. and yes, they were there at sunrise. we actually waited a bit outside the truck watching the sunrise and the flies were so bad we watched the rest of it from inside the car. it was nice inside there.
then our tour guide said we had the option to climb Uluru or walk around the base of it. however, the Aboriginals really don't want people to climb up to the top of Uluru, because it's such a big part of many of their sacred rituals and history that even tho the Aboriginals can't tell us not to climb it, they really don't want us to, so none of us did.
when the Government decided to give the rock back to the Aboriginals or say that the Uluru/Kata Tjuta area was now a national park, in the deal they made with the Aboriginals, they said that they wanted to keep the Uluru Climb legal because they thought it they got ride of it, tourism would slow down. so even though this rock means a whole bunch to the native people of the land, and they had to have their land 'granted' back to them, and they don't want people climbing it because it takes away from their sacred traditions, the government said 'nope, we want money, so we will let people trample all over your big rock'.
so don't climb it.
but you can walk around it. and man... no matter what side you see this thing from... it's still a big rock. it was at least a 2 hour walk... just to walk around this thing. we were pretty done looking at the outback about 1/3 of the way into the walk... but we completed it, and we touched it. we were allowed, don't worry.
then after the 'base walk' we had another darn walk. this was a more guided walk to a certain part of the base of Uluru where we learned about the types of activities and ceremonies that used to go on there. like here:
that's Wave Cave. yep, it's carved into the base of uluru. story goes: it was made by a giant mole that was lonely and wanted the Mala people to stay and live there. i'm not lying.well, the Mala people didn't live there, but they used it as part of the process for boys becoming men. boys in small groups would sit there alone for weeks and weeks in order to become men in their society. then there's this long story about an evil spirit being sent over to Uluru when the Mala people were in the middle of several ceremonies at the rock and the Mala people ran away and left 4 of their boys in the wave cave... and they waited forever... and now they are part of the cave. see those 'bumps' (2 1/2 in this photo)... well, there are 4 in the cave, and those are supposed to be the 4 boys left behind.
in conclusion, the rock is big, and red, and big.
then we had lunchies and my sister's entry for today was "at lunch we decided we didn't like the other American in the group because she talks TOO MUCH and we DON'T CARE. then we had popsicles."
next up was a 4 hour car ride to King's Canyon. it wasn't too bad. my sister and i played gin, slept, and at all the rest stops we visited, each had different Australian animals. so we got lots of pictures of camels and kangaroos and later emus.
when we first got to the King's Canyon area, we stopped at a different resort... a place we eren't going to stay at, but we used their picnic tables and pool. i still don't know why. and after i got pulled into the pool by our tour guide, we were able to take nice showers there.
then we were off to our actual camping area... which was up this large hill and down a long bumpy dirt road. AND we saw a dingo. a real live wild dingo. and it was not eating a baby.
when we got to our camp area we put some chairs in the center, and we all talked a bit and shared photos from the trip thus far waiting for dinner to be cooked.
oh, and we learned what everyone calls McDonald's in their home country
America: Mickey D's
Australia: Macka's
Switzerland: Mack's
Belgium: Mickey's
the dinner was good and my sister and i headed to bed while everyone else slept in sleeping bags outside to sleep under the stars. oh, we saw the Southern Cross and Orion's belt, and we could see a satellite passing overhead because the sky was so clear.
walking around rocks make us tired.
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2 comments:
I didn't think you could see Orion's Belt from the Southern Hemisphere. The Southern cross, absolutely...hence its name, but not Orion's Belt. But I could be wrong here, since I never have been in the Southern Hemisphere when I wasn't in a big city and the stars are never very visible. But the water does flush in the opposite direction in the toilet bowl...that I've witnessed. It is the important things that one remembers!
yeah! that's what i thought! i thought all the nothern hemisphere stars couldn't be seen in the southern hemisphere, but i was wrong. cause there it was!
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