NT Trip Day 2

Well, I'm stuck at home sick today, with the nasty cough that is doing the rounds, so I thought I might as well get back into blogging about my trip.

On the second day, I drove down to Uluru, and joined a Ranger guided tour along the Mala Walk (the first section of the Uluru basewalk). The walk included discussions of some rock paintings. The paintings are very faint these days. The ranger said that during the early days of Uluru tourism, guides used to throw water over the paintings, to make them stand out more clearly. Sadly, this has washed away a lot of the paint. The ranger also told us about the geology of the rock.

Warning: my non-expert interpretation follows: Uluru is made up of a "conglomerate" of different types of rock. A long time ago, there was an inland sea in the centre of the landmass, and different types of rock were washed down by rivers. The rock settled in locations where it became compacted. Once the sea drained, the surface was gradually worn away. Three large sections were left raised. These are now Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Mount Connor. At some point an earthquake was involved, which tilted Uluru to an angle. Hence the lines of sediment are no longer horizontal.

Up close, Uluru is very irregular, with obvious color changes in different sections, particularly in the areas where depressions have been worn into the rock. Overall there is an orange coating over the whole rock, which is apparently rust.

The Mala walk splits off from the base walk towards the end, and heads in closer to the rock for a view of an area where a waterfall from the top of the rock (only active when there is rain) feeds a waterhole. The waterhole is the second most reliable source of water at Uluru, but is currently dry.

After viewing the waterhole, we returned along the Mala walk to the carpark. I stopped by the cultural centre to have lunch. I then drove back to Uluru to do the base walk (9.4 km accoding to the maps). The first part of the base walk involved retracing my steps along the Mala walk, to the point where the trail splits off. This time I continued around the base of Uluru.

What can I say about the base walk? It was exhausting. The surface of the track was sand, varying from soft packed to hard packed. The soft packed sections were very hard to walk on. It was beautiful. The different views of the rock from different angles were fascinating. The color of the soil (orange) against Uluru (dark orange) against the vegetation (gray green) against the sky (deep blue) made for an amazing color palette. I had always seen paintings of Uluru and wondered if the colors were exaggerated. They aren't. If anything, the colors in real life are even more vivid.

The rock looks very different from different angles. In some places it is very serene, in others almost threatening. The surrounding terrain is very flat, with low lying vegetation. Closer to the rock there are taller trees, and in a few places the vegetation is almost lush.

The air temperature was in the mid teens, which was perfect for the walk. The sun was fierce, and I was very glad of my sunscreen, long sleeves and hat. I had water and trail mix with me, and I was glad of both. Along the trail I was mostly by myself, although every now and then I passed another walker, or was passed by someone else. There were enough people to make me feel confident that if I got into trouble someone would find me and go for help, but few enough not to interfere with my enjoyment of Uluru. I was very glad not to be walking in summer.

The round trip took me about three and a half hours (including several stops to rest). I was exhausted by the end of it, but very satisfied. I headed back to the resort for dinner, and then fell into bed.