Wednesday 24 July 2013 – Walking around Uluru then back to Curtain Springs

Woke up early and off to Uluru to go with the park ranger on the Marla walk at the base of the rock.  

He took about 2 hours to explain the history of the indigenous people the “Anangu’ people who lived around Uluru for generations, and explained their culture - including before and after meeting European explorers and settlers. 

The good news is that much of their culture and language are intact with the men going off for men’s business for up to several months at a time.  He also explained how the Anangu people cared for the land via patch burning to encourage the right vegetation for their food and also to develop the right habitat for animals and other creatures.  He explained the geology of the region and how the rock was formed and tilted up.

Mel and I walked around part of the base spending some time at the Mutijulu waterhole listening to the water, birds and insects and enjoying the warmth of the sun out of the wind.  It is a lot different to when I was here with my children back in 2006 when the rain hit Uluru and the water just gushed off the rock forming amazing waterholes at the base of the rock.

To our friends at Solidarity – it was a very special experience for us to be able to sing Mantaku in the place where it belongs and as a celebration of the land being given back to its rightful owners.

The ranger also explained how important it was not to climb Uluru:

·         Safety - 35 people have died climbing it and rangers have to regularly rescue and helicopter people off the rock;

·         Environment - many phones, cameras and other items are dropped over and the pollution from these batteries and peoples excrement all flows down into the waterholes when it rains and affects the animals, vegetation and the Anangu people who eat them.

·         Sensitive site – climbing the rock to the Anangu people is basically desecrating an object with great religious significance to them. 

Visited the Visitors Centre and viewed the art work from different indigenous peoples and saw some cultural dancing.

Leaving Uluru, Mel and I were having a good winge to each other about the Ayres Rock Resort campground and filled out online survey re $ vs lack of facilities - and quite a few things that had gone wrong there.  We then decided to do our reading from the Bible, and wouldn’t you know it but the reading was Psalm 73 about always being grateful and thankful.  God spoke to us about our winging attitude and words and the need to be thankful for what we have - doesn’t He always seems to put his finger right on the very things that need attention in our lives!  The guy who wrote the notes accompanying the reading said that he’d seen a bumper sticker saying “To blessed to complain” – which really sums up our situation.

Lovely BBQ for dinner at the back of the store – here they provide free use of their bbq facilities and open area to sit down to eat and relax.  There are many aviaries where you can view birds indigenous to the area and a huge cactus - the photo of Mel beside it provides scale.

Great moon again tonight – too photo and then on close up looking at the photo we could clearing see the moon’s craters – amazing.