Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

In Australia, Oceania On  20/03/2012  One comment

Uluru is a place in Australia I always wanted to visit. It is my second reason to visit the country, right after the Great Barrier Reef. At the same time, this place wins in fascination, even before I learnt scuba dive, this huge rock fascinated me, when I saw in photos and movies. Deserts in general fascinates me, I believe what attracts me it is the immensity, like the sea, they are a dry version o the sea, it makes us feel small, to respect the nature. Movies as Rabbit-Proof Fence, A Cry in the Dark, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, showed me the Australian Outback, this enigmatic desert.

On my arrival at Yulara I got I little disappointed because there was no village, it was only a resort, and I don’t like big resorts, they are the same everywhere, even airports can have more personality. However, the 4 days there seduced me and I changed my mind.  On my first day I met Star and he invited me to see Allison for a talk on aboriginal’s culture (See Star post on that). On the evening we were photographing the stars of a long time until the moon showed up around midnight. The desert sky was amazing.

On my second day, Star and I went to the Valley of the Winds walk at Kata Tjuta (Olgas). In the bus, we met the friendly Sanami who accompanied us during the whole walk. I was relatively long, about 8km, and if we add the heat, it can get to 42° C in the afternoon. We laughed a lot during the journey, speaking words in Japanese, German, Spanish, Italian…  It was a fun walk.

Kata Tjuta is a sacred place to local communities and means “many heads”. The curves of the rocks and the ups and downs made the journey smooth and attractive. In one of the rock alley, Star creamed a Tibetan mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum” in order to hear the eco. By surprise, someone away answered us after the eco sound. Right after a man approached us asking if we also had been to Tibet, we said no. He said they had been there before Australia and it was his son who answered us. The just came from there and in every trekking, the local people there would sing those mantras. We chatted a bit with him, it was interesting the connection: Star teaches yoga in Bali, I learn the same mantra in Salvador, Brazil, the German man had met his son’s mother in Bali, and they were singing the mantras on Tibet trekking. Interesting… After the long walk I spend the rest of the day by the pool in the hotel, listening to Australian country music, after all, I was in the Australian outback.

On my third day I went for a helicopter tour. It was my first time in a helicopter, it was small and looked like a giant inset. The flight was smooth, it seemed we were very light floating the sky. Seeing the rocks from above it was incredible. First we flew above Kata Tjuta, it was interesting to be able to see the whole rock formation and try to guess where I had been the day before. After we went to Uluru, fascinating the rock, it is impossible not to stare at it. We could also see from far way aborigines community near Uluru and the resort complex, from above it looks more friendly, like a little town.

The same afternoon I got a bus in order to do some of the walks in Uluru and to see the sunset. I stared at Liru walk, it was a bit cloudy, the heat was not that strong and I was alone, I love the feeling of being alone in the desert. Well, not that alone, during the whole walk flies were accompanying me. They liked to go into my mouth, nose and ears, it was unbearable. Soon I arrived to the rock to do the Mala walk  (Kantju Gorge) where I saw many people, tour groups. I could not stay with the groups, I did the right choice of not getting a tour, I was not in the mood to be surrounded by so many people. I tried, whenever it was possible, to be away from them, to be by myself. The end of the day was on a lookout to see the sunset. It was beautiful, incredible the colors and different tonalities.

The 4 days I spent at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park were among the best of the trip. More and more I see how nature is important to me and how this kind of places fascinate me.

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