DAY 9 : ULURU & KATA TJUTA

6 April 2010. Went out at dawn to watch sunrise on The Rock. Hundreds and hundreds of tourists of every nationality were lined up along the fence taking photographs.

Afterwards hundreds climbed The Rock. The local elders request respect by not climbing the rock both for cultural, environmental and safety reasons. (It costs $7,000 to call a rescue helicopter to land on The Rock). On this particular day the temperature was predicted to rise above 36 degrees and the walk was closed after 8am. The temperature on the rock surface that day would have been much higher than that on the ground.

Also, because there are no toilets on The Rock, there is a lot of pollution to the water run off because of the thousands of tourists who climb each year!
Click to enlarge this picture to see the hundreds of ants (tourists!) climbing The Rock!! Took this picture while on the Mala Walk with one of the Park Rangers. He took us to Kantju Gorge and another waterhole at the bottom of a sheer, plunging rock. From him we learnt a lot about the geology, culture, flora and fauna of the area

All around the park - here and at The Olgas - were these beautifully crafted wooden benches.

In the afternoon drove 50kms west to Kata Tjuta ("Catta-jaw-tah") or The Olgas. The aboriginal name means "many heads" which aptly describes the 36 dome-like outcrops.

The highest dome is 546 metres high - almost 200 metres higher than Uluru!! The rock formation here is quite different being made of a conglomerate of boulders, gravel and pebbles cemented together by sand and mud. Fallen pieces here had the appearance of a plum pudding.

Kata Tjuta is very sacred to Anangu men's law and tourists are only permitted two walks and are not allowed to climb. Because of the high temperature the Valley of the Winds Walk was closed so we did the Walpa Gorge walk. Here the track leads gently upwards into the gorge and becomes breezy where the air is funneled between the two domes ("Walpa" means windy).

The gorge is a desert refuge for plants and animals. Close to the end is a stream and rocky pools and rare plants.