Uluru and Kata Tjuta

Tues., Oct. 29 -

In addition to sunset viewing of Uluru, another popular activity here is sunrise viewing. This meant getting up at 4:30 a.m. and driving to the sunrise viewing area. We walked down a short path to a platform from where we had a great view of the big red rock as the sun came over the horizon, and different hues of red emerged on the rock, almost by the minute. Afterward, we drove closer to Uluru, took a few short strolls, and were able to actually walk right up to the rock and touch it.

Another geological phenomenon in this area is what is called "The Olgas", or in aboriginal language, Kata Tjuta (pronounced Kata Juta - the T is silent). While Uluru is one big monolith, Kata Tjuta consists of several vast, solid, round blocks of red conglomerate rock that are all interconnected.

The name, Kata Tjuta, means "many heads". Kata Tjuta is located 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) from Uluru, so after we finished exploring Uluru, we drove to Kata Tjuta. We again took a couple of short walks to get an up-close look at the rocks.

One of these walks was along a path called the "Valley of the Winds" - aptly named, as it was extremely windy. During our visits to Uluru and Kata Tjuta, we continued to be pestered by the previously mentioned annoying flies that are particularly bad everywhere in the outback. In fact, a popular hat here is a "cork hat" - a hat that has corks hanging an inch or so from the brim all around, the purpose of which is to keep flies away from the face. (More than one of us have unexpectedly swallowed flies while merely talking.) After taking more pictures than we could possibly know what to do with - but doing it anyway because Uluru and Kata Tjuta are just that impressive - we headed back to Ayers Rock where we boarded a coach (bus) to travel back to Alice Springs.