Day 14 Uluru to King’s Canyon
A great night’s sleep [Rob claims so too – he must have been
VERY tired]….and I say ‘night’ but we were up at 4am for a quick breakfast and
drive to Uluru to catch the sunrise…. We then walked ¾ of the way around Uluru
– had a break for oranges and cake – and went around the last ¼ with an Anangu
guide and interpreter.
The temperature at half past six was perfect….indicating
that the day was going to again get very hot indeed…..
Uluru is quite fascinating – one can sense that it is a
spiritual place….and understand the Anangu
people’s feelings for it. The
rock is central to their ‘Tjukurpa’ – the foundation of their culture. In the words of the Anangu people, who can
explain it much better than I…
“Tjukurpa refers to the creation period when ancestral
beings created the world. From this
came our religious heritage, explaining our existence and guiding our daily
life….Tjukurpa tells of the relationships between people, plants, animals and
the physical features of the land…Knowledge of how these relationships came to
be, what they mean and how they must be carried on is explained in
Tjukurpa. [It] refers to the past, the
present and the future at the same time. This knowledge never changes, it
always stays the same.”
Many features of the rock relate to their creation stories –
but also to the way they lived until the arrival of the white man. There are caves for the women – where
gathered food was prepared - , the old people, the men and the boys – each with
rock formations illustrating parts of the story such as the devil dog’s paw
print and forms of the ancestors killed by it. There are also features that illustrate stories about how to behave such
as the strips of burnt flesh of a man who stole and ate another group’s emu.
Our
Anangu guide, Sarah, explained some of the stories, showed us some of the
features – and the watering hole - and pointed out animal tracks that we
otherwise would have missed. Like
everyone who cares about this place, she also spoke about the damage that
tourists have done by climbing the rock.
In order to get their lands back in 1985, the Anangu people had to agree
to continue to allow people to climb - - but they do their best to discourage
it as do the guides, the rangers, the signs,……
As we headed back to the bus – only 9:30 but the heat
building fast – and viewed the Anangu’s ceremonial pole – flung against the
rock in creation times and now a part of it – we saw a walleroo (the
alternative – and according to Brook, again citing Steve Irwin, correct name
for the euro we saw in Western Australia) – hopping across the road to the
watering hole we had just left.
We also saw a number of different birds this morning – a
funny crested pigeon with red eyes, some friendly little finches, a tree full
of colourful galahs – and a ‘mickey’ bird or minah. Brook and Cindy have rescued a baby mickey bird that fell from
its nest yesterday – and it is with us on the bus. Rob helped to nurse it last
night, with drops of water from a strip of tissue paper. It seems to be doing quite well today!
We next visited the Anangu Cultural Centre – and actually I
wish we had gone there first…. There were exhibitions on the Uluru stories and
on the impact that the white man has had on the local people and landscape – as
well as souvenir shops, art galleries and a café for a much needed ice
cream!
After lunch, we broke camp and left for the second part of
our trip – around the salt lake to Watarrka National Park. Watarrka apparently means ‘Weeping Emu
Bush’….hmmm…there are actually fewer bushes and trees here. There was a terrible bush fire in 1995….the
result of the white man not understanding the area again…. Bush fires have always been a regular
feature of this area – started by lightning strikes and necessary for the regeneration
of many of the desert plants – but they were historically quite small because
of the aboriginal practice of ‘patch burning’ to create fire breaks by setting
controlled fires in areas in need of regeneration. The Australian government outlawed patch burning…the result was a
huge inferno – too hot for even the desert plants that rely on fire for
germination - that spread out of
control. Guess what….patch burning is
now government policy….
We had a break in a bar called the ‘Thirsty Dingo’ while Brook
and Cindy set up our camp….down a narrow dirt track, quite far into the
desert. It still had ‘luxury’ tents,
powered by solar energy – and we all slept inside as there was an amazing
thunderstorm….it was actually quite scary at one point – quite close, lighting
up the sky…..and lighting can mean bush fires….. Once the storm was over, I slept quite well….only woken once by
some dingoes who came into our camp and made all sorts of strange noises
outside the tent.
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