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David's Pictures |
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Amber's Pictures |
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Amber's Journal Today we spent the day in a Technicolor desert. We spent the morning taking a walk around the base of Uluru with a local guide who told us about the Aboriginal legends of Uluru, some of the plants we were seeing…and warning us the "bush salute" we were doing (waving flies away) was a LOT worse in other times of the year! At the Rock, there are a LOT of teeny flies that like to buzz around your face. Disney gave us fly nets to wear over our faces-you look goofy doing so, but it keeps the little blighters away, and as Jamie from Mythbusters says "I kinda like it in here, it's kinda private." Uluru is indeed a rock worthy of notice. It dominates the landscape-it's like a giant heaped up the biggest ever sand dune in the middle of nowhere. Uluru is arkose sandstone (really hard sandstone) with high iron content, so as it weathered it rusted like the rest of the sand in the desert. Around the base there are small nooks and shallow caves, some of which are sacred areas still, and others that are decorated with Aboriginal artwork-abstract patterns, swirls, spirals and dots. It's Spring in Australia, and they've had rains, so the desert was a place of color and pretty, strange looking blooms. There are also wispy little desert oaks all over and plenty of spinifex grass which is called porcupine grass since it's very sharp and spiny. The desert was definitely all decked out for company! After a lunch of Aussie burgers (David's had egg and beet in it!) we had another hike in Walpa Gorge which is in Kata Tjuta/The Olgas. Most of our path was through a stony path through huge weathered walls on both sides of us. The trail crossed a pretty little creek that dodged around boulders and supported a swath of happy green plants, making a tiny oasis amidst the severe red stone. After the hike, David and I went to watch the sunset at the outlook point. The colors were utterly amazing and the desert looked different every few minutes as the light faded away. We enjoyed the show till dusk started to fall, then hiked back to the hotel before true dark as we had no flashlight and it gets impressively dark in the desert! |
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