Trip to the Red Centre - Day 2
We woke up around 5:00am to drive 500km to Uluru (Ayers Rock). The drive there was pretty uneventful, although we did notice that the desert is quite green this time of year and in some places more closely resembles the African Savannah with a few mountains in the background than a desert.
Eventually we arrived at Uluru, it looks exactly like the photos you see of it in books from a distance but driving up close to it is nothing short of incredible. You don't realize how large the rock really is until you're standing at the base of it looking up. It's quite an anomaly in that the landscape is fairly flat all around it and then there's this rock that soars upwards in the middle of it all.
The weather was cloudy the whole time that we were there which actually offered a quite unique experience in viewing the Rock since during this time of the year the skies are usually cloudless and blue.
Most photos you'll find of Uluru show that it looks fairly smooth when you look at it from far away but when you see it up close you can see that it actually has a lot of caves and crevices.
Each year there are hundreds of people who climb Uluru, this is actually quite upsetting to the native people who consider the Rock sacred, as it is a part of some of their religious rituals. In fact, there are signs posted everywhere asking people not to climb. It's also quite dangerous since the rock is very smooth at the climbing spot and there's nothing to hang onto. In fact, when it rains the path is closed off completely as the Rock becomes very slippery.
After spending some time walking around the Rock we went to the Cultural Centre. There we saw an exhibit showing all sorts of aboriginal art as well as a brief history of the people. Unfortunately we were not able to take any photographs of the exhibit.
We stayed at the Ayers Rock Resort where there is a YHA youth hostel. The Ayers Rock Resort is actually a small community with an assortment of accomodations, everything from the cheap youth hostel $23/night to expensive hotels. They had a bar, an Internet cafe, a pool and even a cafe that served everything from burgers and kangaroo steaks to popcicles and fresh fruit. We stayed in the girls dormitory that had 16 other girls in it, and at night you could hear singing from the bar as the band played on. This hostel, like the last, also had kitchen facilities but we didn't bother to cook since the food was relatively cheap ($7.50 for a meal).
1 Comments:
It does indeed look like quite an impressive sight.. I must see it for myself someday. I vaguely remember watching something on TLC or DC about the rock and why it's there and stuff, but it escapes me now.. either way it's a very interesting and unique object/place/thing I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
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