Uluru II - Kata Tjuta

My second day in the outback started early with a 6:15 am shuttle pickup to head out to Kata Tjuta in the western part of the park to see the other more disjointed rock formation and hike around a bit.  As most experiences go in this park, we stopped first at a sunrise viewing area where loads of other people made their way up a dune to a viewing platform to take in the views as the sun came up.  We could see Uluru clearly in the distance and everyone marked the occasion by taking a picture every 2 minutes to masterfully record every change in the light as the sun came up and hit the rocks in front of us.  It really was beautiful, and I took my share of photos but at a certain point just put the camera away to enjoy the experience and take it in with my full attention.  My strategy had been devised the evening before to find a spot off to the side of the throngs, establish my space along the railing, and try to enjoy a bit of quiet and calm.  It seems like people would pick up on this, wonder if my vantage point that was offering me this calm moment to myself might make better pictures for their experience, then quickly fill in around and lean around me to try to capture the view that I was obviously so quietly enthralled with.  By the time the sun came up I was pretty excited to get out to the trailhead and find some space away from everyone else, and our shuttle guide wanted that for us too as we all made our way back and he zipped us off to be some of the first there to enjoy the hike in peace!

Sunrise viewing platform near Kata Tjuta.

The many heads of Kata Tjuta waking up to first light.

I liked this head the best as it reminded me of a nice old turtle.

The hike we were doing was called the "Valley of the Winds" as the rocks tend to absorb and give off heat and create very localized winds nearby.  The Anangu saw this area as the source of all the winds in the continent which I found to be a pretty awesome concept, though obviously climatically incorrect.  The hike led us around the back side of the largest "head", Mt. Gee, and up in between a few of them to an awesome view of the valley formed behind them, then through the valley and back again as we came.  It was a beautiful hike on a warm sunny morning, with streams full of water from recent winter rains, many desert flowers in bloom, and just view after awesome view of the various red rock formations.  The following pictures are some of the highlights.

View of Mt. Gee from the outset of the hike; it really reminded me of scenery from the Disney movie "Cars" which was set in the Southwest of America.

View of the heads from behind from within the valley that they form.

Shadow of a bush-walker on the trail.

Pretty stream on the valley floor below.

Farther upstream at a crossing you can really see the conglomerate stone here that forms Kata Tjuta from ancient mountain erosion and subsequent compaction by the overlain inland sea.

Looking down on the valley below from a pass high within the heads.

Looking out on the valley from the pass between two red walls..

The author taking a PB&J break between those same red walls.

Kata Tjuta from behind as I ascended a ridge in the valley.

Desert blooms and red rocks abound!

I really enjoyed this hike and the views that we took in on the bus ride back to the resort.  The Uluru Express company is smaller than the main tour company in the area but I am glad I booked with them, as their buses are not packed with people and they have HUGE windows so you can kick back and really enjoy the views.  The other tour buses were large motor coaches, and they were packed to the gills with other folks.  It's not that I don't like other people, but the beauty of a place like this is really a quiet thing for me, and I like to enjoy it with reverence and reflection.  I had planned to go see an outdoor art exhibition later in the night called "Field of Light" where you walk through a field just full of lights and sculpture with Uluru in the background, but I decided to pass on it as I was not keen on another bus ride and a million other folks scrambling over each other to all take the same photograph!

I had lunch in the Town Square (a really decent kangaroo burger!) and then checked out what I thought was going to just be a film on cultural aspects of the Anangu people that was running in a Theatre at the resort.  What it was was this AWESOME multimedia presentation of an Anangu myth, presented with video, holograms, live actors, and 3D graphics.  It was really interesting, completely unique, and such an awesome surprise to me how cool this was!  The story followed Walaru, the watty eagle, on his quest to find a mate, running into trouble with Conka, the crow, and finally finding his soulmate, Colquatilla, the cockatoo, who Conka then killed.  Brutal story, but it depicted the roles that each of these animals play in the ecosystem and was really super fascinating!

I headed back to camp to shower then decided to take in the Uluru sunset from a distance at the main dune in the heart of the resort.  I arrived early but failed to establish myself at a spot on a hard boundary, and as sunset grew dramatic, I found myself with 5 cutthroat photographers madly taking pictures directly in front of me, sure that my radiating peace would give their photos just the polish they needed to generate a few extra "likes" on facebook.  I'd had enough and picked up early and moved myself to the Outback Pioneer House Hotel for some Aussie barbecue and a few beers.

My closing Uluru sunset from the dune in the heart of the Red Rock resort.  The resort has several hotels, the campground, and Town Square situated around a circular road, inside of which is all native desert scrub with trails connecting across it and a large dune in the middle with a great view.  Cool place!

Cool old car advertising the camel tours (these are real, camels became a common form of desert transit in the Australian outback many years ago and they now have feral populations much like the horses in America) outside of the Outback Pioneer House Hotel

I revisited the Pioneer House outdoor barbecue again this night because I wanted to try my hand at barbecueing my own Aussie meats!  They have these griddle-top grill stations and you order your meats of choice from a counter, and then you barbecue them yourself and fill your plate out from the sides & salad bar.  This was a really fun concept that might never fly in the States, but I was excited to have a go at it!  I really liked this place, having visited the night before, as it was a wide-open outdoor complex with various seating areas, bars, pool tables, music playing, people coming and going, and just a convivial, fun atmosphere.  I grabbed the Outback Pack (emu sausage, kangaroo loin, and croc tail) and grilled them to perfection then filled my plate with roasted potatoes, spoon bread, corn on-the-cob, cole slaw, and spinach salad.  I also finally had a "XXXX" beer (referred to as 4X), which is the most popular beer of the state of Queensland because, as they say in more civilized areas of Australia, it's the only one the bogans (rednecks) up there can spell!  A good crisp lager as is the Aussie style.  So in Australia, to barbecue is to grill meats and is not, itself, a word for pulled pork or the meat itself as it is in the South in America.  I will say though that people in Melbourne are aware of Southern barbecue for sure as I ate at a place specializing in it and saw others around.  The Southern food trend has gone world-wide!

The Outback Pack before barbecuing: emu sausage, kangaroo loin, croc tail.

Meats on the barbie.

Finished products.  Delicious!

Pioneer House entertainment complete with didgeridoos.

S the meats were delicious!  Croc tail tasted exactly like gator, mostly like chicken with a saltwater note in the background and firm but slightly flaky texture.  Kangaroo loin was delicious and great to taste in a very naked form, as I realized how similar to steak it really is.  I am surprised it has not made it's way to the States and the only reason I could come up with is that production would be frowned upon because it is very hard to contain kangaroos without allowing them to spread, in an agrarian production type model.  Emu sausage was awesome, with a very fine grind that made it similar to boudin in texture and a delicious seasoning.  The whole experience made me really feel like I was in the bush, and I am so happy I had made the trip!  I ended the evening watching the resident singer-songwriter, who played mostly his own music that told stories of different beautiful Aussie places he has traveled around, and he accompanied his tunes occasionally with didgeridoo.  He even played "Land Down Under" by Men At Work (PS - NO ONE eats vegemite sandwiches.  But old-timers do lightly spread it on buttered toast.) and I felt as if my trip came right there to completion!  He ended with a beautiful song that made me happy I was there and also excited to go home soon, having experienced wonderful times in Australia, but really starting to miss the great things I have waiting for me at home.  I walked off as this number was closing, enjoying the stars for one more evening before I headed back to Melbourne the next day.

"'Cause it's raining on a rock,
In a beautiful country,
And I'm glad to travel this land,
Like an aborigine,

Cause it's raining on a rock,
And it's coming down on me,
And I'm wishing on this postcard,
That you were here with me......"

Uluru I

After talking with some people I have worked with here about things in Australia I need to see, the real outback kept coming up.  Kara and I had originally planned to cut a swath across the bush of eastern Australia, which I thought would be a decent substitute, but our plans kind of changed a bit to a more coastal experience so we wouldn't spend long days in the car.  Because of this, I knew what I had to do, so I booked a flight on the budget domestic carrier (Jetstar...no frills but decent service, similar to Allegiant in the States, with limited destinations and charges for everything but the seat) for two nights to the heart of the outback to see Uluru (known to some as Ayers Rock, but more recently as the original ancestral name).  I grabbed a campsite at the Red Rock Resort campground, secured passage on sunset, sunrise, and hiking shuttle tours, packed the pack and headed off to warmer weather and a peaceful escape from the big city!

Map of Australia showing my flightpath from Melbourne to Uluru, deep in the center of the continent in the Northern Territory.

Overhead map of Uluru at the lower right and Kata Tjuta on the left, with the resort located at Yulara and the airport visible at the upper right....lots of red desert out there.

The flight was about 3 hours out there so I got a little work done, finished a book I was reading, and caught a nap.  They have shuttles from the airport to the resort as there is NOTHING else out there except the resort, so it was all pretty convenient.  I quickly set up camp on the fringe out there on my own for solitude, headed up one of the dunes in the campground to a viewing platform to take it all in, and then grabbed my first shuttle on the Uluru Express out to the National Park to take in the big red rock up close.

Campsite on the edge of the bush.

Signage in the campground warning you of dingoes.  I REALLY wanted to see some but never did.

Mohawked pigeon checking me at close distance. No food for you buddy, but I dig the 'do!

Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park was originally run by the Australian government, but in the 70s the land was ceded back to the original ancestral descendants that lived here, the Anangu aboriginal people.  They then leased it back to the government as a National Park but established control over how it is operated.  Because of this, the prominence of the site as one of high cultural significance is very clear.  I found this refreshing considering some of the things I have learned about the treatment of native peoples here and I honestly see it as a really good thing because the stories were so much more rich than just a recount of which white men first found it, etc.  Every feature on Uluru has an accompanying story it seems as the Anangu developed much of their own mythology (sometimes referred to as "dreaming") from the shapes they saw in the rock.  These stories reflect the nature surrounding them and that they were a part of and it is really truly fascinating.  Seeing Uluru for the first time from a dune in the campground I was really struck by how, in the midst of a large desert stretching in all directions, everything things to both lead to and emanate from the big red rock.  It's easy to see how it is such a fixture for the people that have lived here for thousands of years.

First view of Uluru from a dune in the campground.  The rock as a focus of life really became immediately clear to me.

The Anangu people request, in various places throughout the park, that you not climb the rock because it holds such a sacred place for them and because they themselves never climbed it because of this.

Despite this cultural request, politicians in Parliament have refused to officially close the route to the top, and countless people still sadly ignore this request.

Views of the rock change with every turn and the hiking is really enjoyable, especially in warmer weather I have not felt in months!  It was highs in the upper 60s and lows around 40 while I was there.  Awesome and sunny.

Black algae indicates the course of water when it rains. This is the largest drop on the rock, 93 m (~ 300 ft) into a pool below that was used as a source of water by the people living here.

Caves around the rock provided shelter from the elements as well as gathering places.  Most were segregated between men, women, elders, and "bush boys", the male children, who were taught in classroom caves by elder men.

View of desert blooms and Uluru from a peaceful trail I found, away from the crowds.

I hopped on my first shuttle trip over to the park to walk around Uluru for a few hours and then head to the designated sunset viewing locations for the day's close.  I was a bit limited on time, but I managed to take in the Mala trail which highlighted several places the indigenous peoples used to use and gave me a good background on their way of life, stories, and why they hold this rock so highly.  I took a less popular trail back to the Cultural Center and enjoyed a really nice peaceful walk through outback desert scrub that was full of blooming wildflowers with new smells to me, as well as great views of Uluru from between the trees.  The Cultural Center was pretty great, with some awesome background displays and videos highlighting the Anangu experience both yesterday and today.  I hopped on the shuttle again at the prescribed time and we were taken to the sunset viewing area, which was thankfully huge, as there was about 300 other people there for the same, some with dinner spreads and wine, etc.  I found a quiet spot up a trail a ways and really dug the sunset as it came down to the west with far off views of Kata Tjuta, the other rock formations out there, and the changing colors of Uluru as the sun came down on a good day.

Formations on the walls of a cave that was used by the men of the Anangu.  There is a story that these are the ghosts of the men killed in an attack of a devil-dog that had been surmised from neighboring peoples after an invitation to party was declined because the Anangu had already started their own cermony and could not stop to go to that of their neighbors.

Drawings on the walls of a cave used by tribal elders.  "Listen to the silent trees..."

Looking out on the bush from the safety of a cave.

A succession of plunge pools where runoff falls down the rock face of Uluru.

Kata Tjuta, 30 km to the west, at sunset.  The tallest dome is actually considerably taller than Uluru (~ 650 ft taller).

Sunset really sets off the deep red colors of the Uluru sandstone.

The coming darkness just after sunset.

Yours truly, kind of excited by it all.

SO after sunset I headed back fro camp, stopping at the supermarket in Town Square for a few snacks, and making for camp where I laid back on the grass with my head on my pack and just stared at the awesome night sky that you get in the middle of nowhere.  The Milky Way was in full glow, shooting stars were popping off every few minutes, and I tracked satellites across the sky as well before hopping into the sleeping bag and nodding off before the cold desert night fully set in.

Great Ocean Road

This past weekend, a few folks from the EAPSI program living in Sydney all traveled to Melbourne for the weekend to take it in and as I had been working non-stop since returning from Tasmania, I decided to take a break and play both host and fellow traveler to see some things I had yet to see.  Cam had taken in Tassie with me and with him came Megan from Idaho and Katie from Michigan.  I met up with Amelia (California) and Ben (Chicago), my fellow Melbournians, and we walked through St. Kilda and all met at the pier there for the nightly penguin return.

St Kilda Beach amusements and scares

St. Kilda Pier and Breakwater, home of the penguins

Boats at the pier marina with Melbourne in the distance

So Melbourne is located at the northern end of the Port Phillip Bay, very well protected from the ocean that it leads to (see map below).  There is a large pier/jetty in the bay near St. Kilda that is home to a colony of little penguins (literally and scientifically, that is their species name and they are the smallest type of penguins in the world) that nest in the protection of the rocks on the jetty and are subjected to quite a bit of tourism (so much so that half of the jetty is locked off by gates from people so that they can nest undisturbed).  I had seen these guys last time I was in Australia, though that was on a weeknight.  This being Friday, there were MANY people present to see them come in from feeding/hunting and not nearly as many penguins came to the public viewing area as I had seen previously.  Nonetheless, while we were all catching up and waiting, one did swim right up to shore in front of us, and MAN are these little guys quick in the water!  We watched a few more exploring around the rocks (they hop around from rock  to rock and it is so great to watch), listened to the friendly local volunteer caretakers spew us facts, and listened to the calls of all of the penguins out on the jetty past the gates before heading back in to town for dinner.  Ben took us to the Lucky Coq in his neighborhood of Prahran, an eclectic bar with super good $4 pizzas during the happiest hour, easily the best food deal I have come across in Melbourne!

Map of Melbourne in relation to the large protected bay it is on.

Beers and goofs at the Lucky Coq.

We called it a night early as the travelers were beat and had a big day ahead on the Great Ocean Road.  This road runs the coast along the southern edge of Victoria and is home to beautiful cliffs and beaches, rock formations, wildlife, and nice little towns in between.  I will let the picture captions lead the narration from here!

Map of our route from Melbourne to Torquay, Aireys Inlet, Lorne, Apollo Bay, and the 12 Apostles at Port Campbell then back through the interior to Geelong and a return to Melbourne.

First view of the ocean and the unofficial gateway to the Great Ocean Road at Torquay

View of the break at Bells Beach, Australia's most popular surfing spot; featured in Endless Summer and headquarters to several well-known surfing companies (Rip Curl, Quiksilver).  There were probably 100 surfers out on this chilly day.

Lighthouse at Split Point near Aireys Inlet

Awesome cliffs and rock formations at Split Point, home to an ocean reserve of pretty great biodiversity (under the sea!)

Waves and dramatic far-off rolling headlands.  The coast is really beautiful and reminds me of Oregon or Northern California but also even Hawaii (though lacking the tropicality in winter)

Limestone castle; waves pound these things at the base and will eventually erode them as new formations are formed at the more inland coastal cliffs.  The ocean wins eventually until more rock is laid down by volcanic flows (darker basalts at the bottom) or by sedimentary rock when oceans rise and lay down layers of sandstone or limestone underwater.

Dramatic entrance to Jurassic P...I mean the Great Ocean Road.  Taken by yours truly whilst driving on the left-hand side of the road!

A flcok of hungry cockatoos, wild and normal to spot here in Australia, in the town of Lorne where we stopped for fish and chips and ice cream!

Loner.

Birds of a feather.

Beautiful view of hills and the Kennett River just upstream of the ocean.  I wanted to jump in so badly!

A brilliant two-tone blue jobber.  Apparently it is a Superb Fairy-wren.  Beautiful little bird!

We stopped at Kafe Koala near the Kennett River on suggestion from Amelia and there were loads of awesome birds as well as some free-ranging wild koalas in the trees!  This was my first time seeing them outside of a sanctuary, and to see them just hanging out, untethered or contained, renewed my interest in them.  I am back on Team Koala after this (we saw 4 of them!)

So much COLOR!

A random tourist having his picture taken with the friendly birds.

A kookaburra I had just heard laughing at me.  These guys are super cool stout little birds with a mighty joyful cackle!

Beautoful valley and rolling hills just inland of Apollo Bay.  My kind of place.  SO pretty!

A peak of the ocean from this roadsie turnoff that we could not pass up!

View of the so-dubbed 12 Apostles, our western-most destination.  These limestone stacks are beautiful and dramatic, though there are only 8, despite the name.  A ninth fell only just in 2003 or 2005, I can't remember.  This place was LOADED with tourists despite it's peaceful feel in the pictures.

Cool temple-like formation.

Two apostles looking east from the main trail and vantage.

The apostles as seen artfully through some native vegetation.

We staked out a spot facing west a bit before sunset and just hung out front row while others scrambled behind us, cursing us in several foreign languages.  This was my favorite shot.

Sun going down on a beautiful scene closing a wonderful day.

We had been talking quite a bit but at a certain truly beautiful point, we all just kind of became silent.

After sunset we raced the darkness to head a bit east to the Gibson steps to get down to the beach level to comprehend the size of the columns.  Cameron snapped this pic of me, Megan, and Katie heading back towards the stairs with the moon aglow, and I really like it.

So after we left the 12 Apostles, we headed inland to bypass the coastal roads and head straight for Geelong for some evening supper.  The drive was much faster and we found ourselves in a large stream of cars all heading back after their day trips away from the city!  Our destination in Geelong was a restaurant I had discovered in an airplane magazine on my way to Tassie called the Hot Chicken Project.  A local chef had traveled to Nashville to live for a year and learn how to do the hot chicken that has become so popular there.  I have been to Nashville several times and have yet to try this stuff but I figured why not try it in Australia!  It's basically just fried chicken with a spicy dry rub incorporated into the batter and it is GOOD!  I got the dark meat meal at the "So Damn Hot" heat level with greens, white bread, and pickles.  My favorite bite was honestly a piece of the skin wrapped around a pickle, it was seriously AWESOME!  With comfort food from home and a really great day with good people, I was feeling a lot less homesick, that's for sure!

On Sunday we all slept in then met up for coffee and I took the Sydney folks to see the flying foxes in my neighborhood, which they loved.  Then we hit up the Queen Victoria Market for lunch and shopping, meeting up again with Amelia and Ben before we all headed to an AFL game together, a matchup between the St. Kilda Saints and my MFC (Melbourne Football Club) Demons.

Me, Cam, Amelia, and Katie at the AFL game.

Australian Rules football has it's origins here in the state of Victoria, and while it is a largely regional game with about 8 teams all from Melbourne, it has become Australia's most popular sporting league (despite grumblings from the rugby crowd who have an affectionate term for it that I will leave to your imagination) with teams all over the country now.  Games are played weekly on Thursday - Sunday, much like the NFL, and it is a pretty exciting sport.  Players wear no padding and move the ball down the field by kicking it in the air, catching those kicked balls, passing it by bopping it off their hand, or running with it and occasionally bouncing it off the ground every few strides like dribbling.  There are three posts in each teams goal area and a 6-point goal is scored by kicking it through the midlle ones while 1-point is awarded for the outer two.  The contact is rough and these guys run for 4 quarters of 30 minutes each, so they are INTENSE athletes.

The Australian crowd goes NUTS for big hits and hard-nosed attitudes.  I consider the game like a cross between basketball, soccer, football, and hockey.  It really has elements of all of them.  I really kind of love it and wish I could follow it home a bit.  I am hoping to go to one more game while I am here as my thirst was not quenched by just this one.  Mostly because the Demons played kind of bad after a fast start and Kilda really poured it on at the end despite an exciting third quarter.  I want to see a WIN!!!  Anyways, we enjoyed the game and then all headed home to our respective places, fully satisfied after a really great weekend!