January 2016

In an attempt to actually finish this blog, I will try to start keeping these entries short. Or, at least stick to the trip itself. We’ll see how that turns out. For today, I’ll least break it up into different sections.

Sunrise at Uluru

I mentioned yesterday that the best times to be at Uluru is sunrise and sunset, because of the changing color and intensity of the light on the rock. During the day, or in overcast conditions, the rock tends to be a dull brown color. So we got up super-early, around 5 am, to attempt to see this in person. Our attempt at sunset the night before had been mostly overcast.

We got to the sunrise viewing center about 6 am, a half hour before sunrise. The sky was already fairly bright, and there were lots of people scattered along the trail, and crowded at the viewing platform. I picked a less crowded spot on the trail, with nothing between me and Uluru except the desert.

We lucked into almost perfectly clear skies, and I stayed at my spot to enjoy the theatrics and take lots of pictures. As I stood facing the rock, the show started out behind me, with the approaching sun illuminating a few whispy clouds near the eastern horizon.

Then I switched my gaze to the dusky brown of Uluru and awaited the first rays of sunlight. But there’s probably not much I can write that will describe the sunrise appropriately, except that it was quite magical.

For whatever reason, there’s something about sunrises and sunsets for me that is incredibly soothing to my soul. It’s one of the few times I can be perfectly content while staying in one spot, and not really doing anything, just relaxing my mind, feeling at one with the world, and absorbing the power of nature. We also had the added bonus of the near-full moon setting, but still fairly high above Uluru.

There is one thing about sunrises and sunsets that I find really interesting, so I’ll mention it. I’ve always thought about sunrise/sunset as a shadow moving across the earth’s surface. Sunset begins with you being in the light, and when the sun sets you are instantaneously in shadow. And for most sunsets I’ve seen, I’m so focused on the sun or sky that I don’t pay attention to the sun’s light itself.

But I noticed something a couple years ago while watching the sunset in Death Valley, sitting at the top of a sand dune, surrounded by a large field of sand dunes. The transition between light and dark at sunset is not instantaneous. Sure, the shadows get longer and longer as the sun sets, and the areas with sun get smaller and smaller. But once the sun begins dipping below the horizon, the size of the shade and sunny areas stays the same. It is the intensity of the light that changes. Gradually, the light all around you just fades, getting dimmer and dimmer, until the sun finally sets and there is no distinction between light and dark. Everything is shade.

So, at Uluru, this was the second time I watched sunrise/sunset while focusing on something other than the sun itself. And I noticed the very same thing. Everything was completely in the shade at first. And when the sun began rising, it was like someone gradually turned up a dimmer switch that slowly illuminated the rock with more and more sunlight. And by the time the light fully switched to “on”, the rock was like a beacon of light in the still-dark desert. And Uluru was the most beautiful bright, deep, reddish-brown color.

We stayed for a bit longer, and gradually noticed more and more of the dessert floor being bathed in the sunlight, spreading from the base of Uluru towards our viewing spot. When it finally reached us, we decided to head for our next destination. We had big plans for the morning.

Base Walk around Uluru

I believe I also mentioned that it had been very hot at Uluru the day before. It had gotten up to about 95 F, and was expected to be hotter today. And it’s really dangerous to be out hiking in the desert when the temperature gets this hot. We had read multiple times that you should plan to finish any hiking by 11 am, to avoid dehydration, or worse. But we really wanted to hike the trail that goes around the entire base of Uluru, which is 10.6 km or about 6 miles. And this is the main reason we didn’t linger at the sunrise spot very long. We needed to get started on the base walk!

So Uluru from above is shaped kinda like a wide triangular arrowhead,with the tip pointing east. We had gotten a recommendation at the hotel yesterday to start our trek at the southwestern point of the triangle. There was water at the eastern tip, roughly 1/3 of the way through the hike, so that would give us an opportunity to fill up our water bottles, and should leave us in the shade by the time we finished the loop.

We drove to the Kuniya carpark, named for the first 1/3 of the loop, called the Kuniya walk. We were each carrying at least 2 liters of water (one liter per hour is recommended for hikes in this kind of heat). I also had a 600 ml Power Ade.

According to my Mom’s blog, we started the hike at 7:03 am. It was already quite warm. And we were already quite close to the base of the rock. First we had to get even closer, to join up with the loop trail, and there was immediately a short side trail to the Mutitjulu Waterhole. There were several waterholes scattered around the base of Uluru, where water gathers after it rains. It was almost like a mini-lake right at the base of the rocks, and was extremely beautiful, although not very photographic.

The really nice thing about the waterhole was that it was still in the shade at that point. But that was basically the last time we’d see any shade for quite a while. I should also mention that we were all wearing our fly netting over our heads. We had all bought them the night before, after getting annoyed with flies landing on our faces at sunset. I hadn’t taken mine to the sunrise viewing, and I regretted it. It was fine before sunrise, but as soon as the light was shining, so were the flies a-buzzing. And having the nets was mostly great. It was like there were no flies anymore. And I’d been worried about looking through the net, but as long as it was bright and sun-shiny, my vision didn’t seem obstructed at all. The only downsides were that it was harder to see in the shade, and it was hard to see my camera’s viewscreen. So whenever I took pictures, I had to lift up the net. Which meant I did that a lot. It was still totally worth having the nets, though.

Anyway, we were soon marching our away around Uluru. My first impression of the rock itself was that it was very tall! And all the books were right that the rock was so much more interesting up close. So far we’d only had distant views, where the rock looked relatively uniform, with some ridges and a few pockmarks, but what appeared to be fairly straight walls around the outside. But that was an illusion. Up close the walls were sometimes steeply vertical, but sometimes a more gradual slope. And there were mini-valleys and caves scattered along the edge, kind of like the coves and headlands of a coastline or island. Actually, that’s exactly what it was like. An island of rock in the midst of a sea of desert.

Here’s a few observations from the first leg of the loop (the Kuniya walk):

We saw our first “pockmarks” near the Mutitjulu Waterhole, scattered in a vertical line from the top to bottom of a rock wall. And one looked exactly the shape of a heart! We thought that was a good omen for the walk.

There were a lot more trees than I was expecting in the desert. They weren’t that tall, and very whispy. So not very shady. But surprising nonetheless.
At one point there was a huge gash in the side of the rock. It reminded me of two things: (1) big lips, and (2) a clamshell. It was jaw-dropingly other-worldy.

On the second half of this leg, there were lots of vertical ridges on the rock. It was fascinating to watch the patterns change as we walked along. There were also quite a few small caves at various heights on the rock walls.

We’d learned the day before that the aboriginees didn’t want us walking on Uluru at all. But when we neared the eastern tip, the trail went right next to the base of the rock. I’d also learned about how the aboriginees view the rock as a spiritual being, and that it is connected to the Earth deep underground. I got to this part of the trail before everyone else, so I decided to bend down and just touch the rock. I could almost feel the spiritual energy flowing out of me and into the rock, down into the depths of the Earth. And I could feel the Earth’s energy coming right back up, through my arm, and into the deepest parts of myself. I felt completely connected to the Earth, like we were one being. It made me realize why Uluru is such a sacred place.
Shortly after that, we actually had to walk on the rock for a little bit, so I didn’t feel too bad about touching it.

At the eastern tip of the “arrowhead”, the trail got really close to the road, where there was another parking lot and a water stop! It was a big tank underneath a little picnic-like shelter that was very colorfully painted. It hadn’t gotten too hot yet, but I still drained one my water bottles and filled it up. I also got out a new strategy to keep cool. I had learned from my experience of the insane heat at the Australian Open, and brought with me a washcloth from the hotel room. I soaked it with water from the tank and then put it over my neck for the rest of the hike. That was an amazingly good decision. Very quickly after that it started to get very warm. Not just warm, but hot. Blazingly hot. Uncomfortably hot. But only in an annoying way. Having that cool cloth on my neck was plenty to keep my body temperature down, and I never got close to feeling as uncomfortable as I did at the Australian Open. And amazingly, the cloth actually stayed damp for the rest of the hike.

The next section of the loop went along the northern third of the “triangle” and was officially named the “base walk.” This section was also the most uninteresting because it was well away from the base the entire time. That was because there were a couple of aboriginee sacred sites that the the trail was avoiding. There were even signs along the trail telling us not to take any pictures. But the sacred sites were only on the eastern half of this section, so once we got past that we could start taking photos. I was glad, because that’s where there were tons of pockmarks in the side of the rock walls. I also remembered how much I enjoy discovering and naming rock shapes.

We saw:

A bear claw
A little piggy
Frogger

Shortly after the half-way point of this leg, there was a first aide shelter which had an emergency phone and a bench in the shade. We took advantage and rested for quite a while. Even though we were trying not to take too long on the hike, to make sure we finished within our deadline of 11 am, it was still extremely helpful in keeping us cool. And greatly worth the added time.

This was the most brutal section of the hike, because there was basically zero shade, no wind, and the view didn’t change too much. So there wasn’t much to distract us from the heat. But finally we made it to the western end of the “triangle” and we had interesting views again. There was another sacred site there with no pictures allowed, and then the trail went along the road for a while before getting to another waterhole at the Kantju Gorge. It really was like a gorge, where two “headlands” of the rock formed a long narrow canyon with rock walls rising high overhead on both sides. The waterhole was much smaller this time, but it was fed by a high, narrow waterfall that forms from striaght overhead when it rains. The waterhole was slightly full, but the waterfall was dry. But there was a tall narrow black streak on the rock to show us where it forms.

The best thing about Kantju Gorge was that it was completely in the shade! It was our first real shade since the beginning of the hike. So we took advantage and just rested on a bench for a while. And once again the extra time was totally worth it. We were able to truly cool down and started the next leg of the hike refreshed.

Speaking of the next leg, it was called the Mala Walk, which started off going by several caves that were traditionally used by the aborigine people. There was a woman’s cave, a man’s cave, and a teaching cave that included aborigine drawings on the rock. And probably a few caves I don’t remember.

The Mala Walk was pretty short, and ended at the Mala carpark. This is where we’d stopped the day before, with the trail to the top of Uluru (with huge signs asking you not to climb). We were highly surprised to see people on the trail, on their way down from the top. I chose to assume that they must not have known any better.

The next leg of the loop was the last, and it was called the lungkata walk. It was extremely interesting again, with lots of ridges, pockmarks, large boulders, and caves. Although, there never was any more shade.

And while the hike had been incredibly amazing, and will probably be one of my most memorable ever, we were all very thankful to finally make it back to the kuniya carpark and our SUV! We had almost made our deadline, and got back shortly after 11 am. Four hours total. We all completely understood that deadline because we were wiped of energy, and none of us wanted to stay out in the heat any longer.

Pool Time!

We blasted the air conditioning on the drive back to the hotel, and it felt wonderful!! We had taken lunches of sandwiches, apples, and carrots on the hike, but we waited until we got back to the hotel to eat them. We just hung out in one of our rooms, watching the Australian Open on TV, and munching away. We also tried an Australian treat I had picked up while shopping at the grocery store the night before. I had noticed some chocolate-covered cookie bars called Tim Tams that I vaguely remembered hearing about. So I tried the caramel variety, and they were delicious.

We didn’t really have anything planned for the rest of the afternoon. It was too hot to really do anything, and we’d already used up enough energy for the day. So that was a perfect recipe for some relaxing pool time! We stayed at the pool for a while, enjoying the coolness of the water, and just relaxing for once. The whole vacation so far had been very exciting, so this was a much-needed rest.

Barbie Time!

No, I’m not talking about dolls. “Barbie” is what Australians call a BBQ. We went back to the Bough House restaurant for dinner. We all decided we’d earned the right to get all three courses tonight (salad bar, main course, dessert bar). For the main course I ordered barbecued ribs, and I think they were seriously the best I’ve ever had. The meat was so tender it just slid completely off the ribs. And it wasn’t slathered in BBQ sauce like most American BBQ I’ve had. Just thinking about it two months later makes me want to go back and eat more Australian BBQ! I was also very excited by the dessert bar tonight, because they had normal-sized pieces of cheesecake, not the teeny-tiny ones. And it was delicious again.

When we left the restaurant, there was a gorgeously-pink sunset overhead, but the color was gone by the time we got back to the hotel.

I’ve no idea what we did the rest of the night, but probably just watched more tennis. Mom also discovered she got heat rash on her legs. She is extremely sensitive to the sun, and had issues the day before with sunburn on her ankles even though she had on long pants and socks. So today she put sunscreen on her legs and then high socks, considering how long we’d be out in the sun. And it turns out that was a bad idea. Wearing sunscreen underneath clothes, or just wearing tight clothes, in the heat, can cause your sweat glands to clog up. And if you can’t sweat, your skin overheats, causing heat rash. Thank you Google, for helping us to diagnose that ourselves. But unfortunately it meant Mom would need to stay out of the sun for a while, until it felt better. And we had another 1.5 days at Uluru.

Oh, I almost forgot about my damaged bag. When we got back to our rooms, the porters had somehow managed to get the handle back inside my bag. And it wouldn’t even budge when I tentatively tried to slide it out. I’ve no idea how they managed to do that, but I was extremely thankful I’d be able to take the bag on a plane. And I finally figured out why my bag has a cloth strap by the handle. It makes a decent temporary handle if the real one is broken. There was no word yet on my “compensation” for damages, and I didn’t feel like bugging anyone about it yet.

Well. I guess I’m not very good at keeping things short. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing?