Red Centre - Uluru 10/12/07 - 13/12/07

The Red Centre - Uluru

Uluru, or Ayres Rock as it used to be called, is on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert. The rock itself stands 348 Metres above the surrounding plain, the same height as the Eiffel Tower. Uluru is 400km by road from Alice Springs, and a long....long way from any other major town.

Callum near Mt Conner, this flat topped mountain is on the road leading to Uluru.



Our first views of the rock 30kms away. The country around the rock is a mixture of red sand hills and rocky plains - all of it very dry.
Note the freakish markings in the sand, the wind in these part can create all sorts of shapes!?

Kata Tjuta or the Olgas. These mountains are 50 kms west of Uluru, and surprisingly are made from a different type of rock. Uluru is sandstone and Kata Tjuta is made from conglomerate rock.

Uluru is riddled with many caves. The local aboriginal people are the Anangu. The cave around Uluru are of great importance to the Anangu people, they used the caves for teaching, living and holding ceremonies. This cave was used by the Anangu men for teaching.
Kate and Richard tried to hold their daily lesson here.. but the students were climbing the walls.

Uluru is made from a single sandstone rock that goes up to 6km underground. The colour of the rock is grey , but the coating is a red colour due to a type of rust. The sandstone contains iron oxide which oxidises to create the red colour.

Mitch and Callum near one of the larger caves.

Uluru has two semi-permanent waterholes, Mutijulu waterhole would have been used by the local wildlife as well as the people. Aboriginal hunters would never attack a animal at a waterhole but typically would hunt an animal leaving after a drink. This prevented the animals from fearing the waterhole.

Uluru is in the desert.. but is rained ( it only rains a few days every year).

We watched the water work it's way down through the cascades.

Uluru turns purple in the rain.

One morning the Howes got up at 5am to see the sunset...

there was a lot of moaning......

but it was beautiful.....

Kata Tjuta

This small range consists of 36 domes, climbing to a hight of 550 metres above the surrounding plain and over 1000 metre above sea level.

It is beautiful in a different way to Uluru. We went a for walk through the domes, the valleys between are very green and peaceful.

Richard and Mitch in the valley of the winds.

The climb...
It was very steep and scary. There is a heavy chain that you can use on the steepest part of the climb.

Callum was ready to climb.. but his mother was not so keen.

Mitchel, Callum and Richard set off up the climb.

The local Anangu people ask people not to climb Uluru as it is a sacred site. The National Park is jointly managed by the National Parks Service and the Anangu people and the climb is still open as it attacts people to the rock and, for many other Australians, climbing the rock is part of their culture.

400,000 tourists visit the rock every year.











Over 30 people have died climbing Uluru.

There were many pools of water on top of Uluru. Callum and Mitch wanted to swim...

Mitchel and Callum were much braver than Richard, who was pretty nervous about climbing back down... but crying .. or calling for the helicopter seemed a bit unmanly.

Have you been here? It has taken us two and a half months and 13,000 km driving to get here... but it was worth the drive.

A caterpiller eating Callums shoe! These caterpillers are very common in this part of the desert.

Camels are a big problem in central Australia. These camels are the wild decendants of the orginal camel teams used to bring water and food out to into the desert. Some claim there are between 400,000 and 1,000,000 camels in the wild... this has a big impact on native animals and plants.