The Yin and the Yang
In Yulara I feel as if I’m not really far from anywhere – regular flights come from and go to major Australian cities every day, the hotels have huge buses lined up to take tourists from place to place throughout the day, there is a full 4G phone signal, and the campground is well fitted out for the large and small mobile adventurers.
From my hotel room, I can see the great monolith that is Uluru, sitting high above the red earth, changing colour through the day until it fades to a deep purple and then disappears in the darkness. It’s easy to forget that we’re about 500 km from Alice Springs and 1000 km from Adelaide.
This was brought home to me yesterday when I met “the man from Toll” as he was closing the doors on his massive semi, before he drove back to Alice. He makes this trip 3 times a week, one of the many semi’s that help to make this place the small city it is, rather than a place in the centre of one of the vast deserts of this world.
The infrastructure support is immense – and they do this well … but something has been missing for me. Before I came here, I knew this would now not be the place I’d visited when I was at school, when there was only a campground at the base of Uluru and all the roads were red dirt. I have been missing the feeling of being “away from it all.” However this changed today.
Wednesday 14 August
But first to last night. Ant & I went to dinner in the desert – the Sounds of Silence. We arrived by bus and walked up a small dune for drinks and nibbles before dinner. Uluru was to our east, the setting sun reflecting off it with that magic redness against a bright blue sky; Kata Tjuta was to the west, the sun setting behind it, creating a silhouette against the yellow-orange sky. The moon was almost full and was rising high in the sky.
We met various people, nibbled on delicacies that included natural fruits and flavours, and even some crocodile. As the sky began to darken, and the sun’s warmth disappeared, we walked down to our dinner in the desert, where we were seated at tables, our chairs slowly sinking into the sandy red soil. The food was good, and we met some interesting people. The highlight for me, along with having dinner with my wonderful nephew, was a talk from an astronomer who pointed out the constellations – not easy with such a bright moon. With two well-placed telescopes, we were able to see Saturn with its rings, and craters on the moon. A great finish to a really lovely day.
Thursday 15 August
This morning, following our daily buffet breakfast, we drove to Kata Tjuta to walk amongst it’s rocky “mounds.” Sarah, Ant & the boys dropped me at the easier Walpa Gorge walk, a 2.6km round trip, level 3 walk, while they went on to the Valley of the Winds, an 8km, level 4 walk.
I was now away from it all in a rather beautiful place – no mobile phone signal (we had a radio phone just in case), not many people, and a challenge that tested me nicely.
There is something captivating about Kata Tjuta – perhaps it’s the various shapes and their huge sizes, connected by gorges. Looking up the sides of the massive walls, you can see small trees that have found cracks to set their roots in, finding the nutrients that allow them to thrive. Other cracks and hollows seem to be nesting places for birds – mostly heard but only 2 seen today.
On our way back to Yulara we stopped at a lookout over Kata Tjuta – this was amazing. Looking across a valley filled with black-trunked desert oaks, the immensity of Kata Tjuta was visible. A look over my shoulder, and there was Uluru in the distance, and other huge rocky mounds even further away. The feeling of being away from it all had returned!
This evening we saw sunset at Uluru, with lots of questions and discussions with Charlie & Toby while we watched the colour change, although not quite to the deep purple we’d hoped to see. Driving back to Yulara, Oscar and I were discussing the way the earth’s shadow fills the sky at sunset, when suddenly we saw the full moon rising in the sky, with Uluru to its right. A wonderful photo op!
Tomorrow, my last day here, I’ll be up super-early for a quick trip to see sunrise – then it’s back to Yulara for the bus to the airport, and my flights back to Melbourne.
Sarah, Ant & the boys are also leaving early – they’ll be packing all their things into the appropriate places & spaces in their caravan and ginormous 4WD that is their mobile “home away from home.”
Then they’ll be on their way back to Alice Springs before making their way to Queensland. I’m so happy for them as they head into the “wild” once more, to enjoy the solitude at times, and the fun of catching up with new friends that they continue to meet up with in different locations, as well as meeting new people.
How wonderful it is to be able to explore our great southern land, with its bright blue sky, vast red plains and dunes, yellow sandy shores and sparkling constellations!
Photos can be seen at this LINK