Day 91 – The Rock

I’d barely gotten to sleep, for the thunder, before my alarm woke me at 4.15 am. I immediately noticed the heavy rain and felt my hopes of seeing the famous sunset disappear. Our immediate thoughts were that the tour would be cancelled.

We were picked up before 5 and headed into the darkness towards Uluru. Getting close I could begin to make out its silhouette against the dark and angry sky. Parking up at the sunset car park we joined the throngs starring at the rock. It was pretty apparent though that nothing spectacular was going to happen so we joined other for a coffee as we watched the light increase. Apparently it lucky to see Uluru in the rain as its quite rare. I was beginning to see their point as it looked like non of the pictures I’d ever seen.

Heading to the main car park the real beauty of rain on the rock became apparent as we saw the water streaming and falling down its sides. The ridges and undulations in the dark surface now seemed perfectly natural as water filled them. I had expected to see the rock as a burning fire in the sun rise instead I saw a rock that connected the clouds and falling rain with the ground. I could see why the Aboriginals revere it.

The first path we took led us to Kantju Gorge. Being this close to the rock for the first time its surface texture stood out; I’d thought it to be a lot smoother. I expect that the viewing area of the watering hole at the end of the gorge doesn’t usually grab visitors as a must see spot but with the water came a huge water fall. It flowed over a ridge and down the smooth vertical wall like a horses tail.

Heading back we picked up the base walk and set off in a clockwise direction. It was raining but not enough to bother us. I felt glad to be undertaking the 9.4km walk in the cool rain rather than than under the hot sun I’d expected. The walked started out easy enough but around half way round the path started to get flooded. It soon turned into another one Rob and Tom’s adventure walks as we dodged the flood water. Its hard to describe all the features but most notably are large holes and valleys on the south side that you don’t see on the tourist photos; probably because most of the south side has sacred spots where photography isn’t permitted.

We complete the the circumnavigation in around three hours, all before 9.30 am! We’d hoped to get the next shuttle back but the scheduled one never arrived. To ensure we didn’t miss another we trekked the muddy 2km path to the Cultural Centre. I didn’t think it much of an attraction but welcomed a hot meat pie from the cafe.

Back at Yalara we relaxed for the afternoon then had a cook it yourself BBQ dinner. We wandered up to a viewing point to catch the sunset on the rock but once again the cloud came over at the last minute.

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