Uluru

Uluru, also know as Ayer's Rock, is located in the center of Australia. Uluru is a sacred site of the local people, the Anaga, the historical custodians who received ownership of it and the surrounding land from the Australia government 1982, and now jointly manage it with the National Park Service.
A nearby site, Tata-Tjuta, is also quite spectacular. The original land surface was 350 m above the present desert. The formations on the left and Uluru were created by a buckling of the earth's crust and subsequent erosion that smoothed and shaped the surfaces.
The trail up Uluru can be seen, and was closed today because of high winds. About 40 people have died in the last 20 years in falls. During the summer temperatures at the base, in the shade, can reach 130. The Anaga consider Uluru to be sacred and will close it to climbers within the next decade..in the meantime it is a big tourist draw and source of income.



The area is plagued by flies. When I asked if they were like this year round, the answer was, "oh they can be much, much worse".

The salvation is head netting. While Nan looks quite unhappy in this photo, she actually really liked Uluru. We had an excellent ranger-guided tour around part of the base, that covered the geology, flora and fauna, aboriginal creation mythology, food gathering and preparation, which inlcuded a discussion of gathering and preparation of witchetty grubs, 4" long and as thick as a thumb, and asserted to be highly nutritious and quite tasty.


The Anaga, as well as all aborigine groups, are very commited to maintaining their historical culture and practices. Each aborigine inherits from his father the responsibility to be custodian of an area of land, which is then to be maintained using practices established over 1000s of years. Since the outback is such a harsh, unforgiving environment, great care is needed to preserve the existing flora and fauna, which historically were the only souces of sustenance. The people now teach the National Park service rangers these same practices.

This afternoon (Oct 6) we catch a plane to the Northeast coast, about 1500 miles from Uluru, where we will be for 9 days. The northeast coast is very tropical, humid, high 80's this time of year. The major attractions are beautiful beaches (deadly box jellies don't show-up until the end of october), the Great Barrier Reef, and Daintree National Park.