Ayers Rock - Uluru

Yeah man!

We got out of Cairns alright, fricken early if you ask me (4.45 am) to catch the flight to Ayers Rock. It was awesome when we could see the rock from the air – man that's big!!

And man it's hot!!

Around 38 degrees celsius and the wind was two times warmer than that – or so it seemed anyway...

And I would now like to give a little speech, although I'm not much of a speaker – patati patata, blabla – anyone going out to the south of the Northern Territory to visit the rock, you should be aware of the flying devils consuming everything in sight – by that I mean every sane thought you once believed you had and every ounce of patient you've collected over the years.

Of course I'm talking about flies, what did you think dumbass??!!

Bring a headnet, or be prepared to do some serious waving around until you get to the store to buy one – they can, and they will, ruin a trip to the rock, and since it's not a cheap place to visit (neither get there nor stay the night), you would like to get your moneys worth once you're at the rock – we saw loads of people that couldn't enjoy the moment at all because they were all competing for the I-can-wave-so-hard-my-arm-will-fall-off-trofé...

Here I'm enjoying a glass of champagne under my beloved headnet, and above mama and I are trying to hide from the mother f*ckers...

Alrighty roo – back to our trip,

we got to our accommodation – the cheapest there is, and that means one bunk in a 20 people room for AUD 36 per night per person (around 180 SEK) – the Outback Pioneer Lodge. Nice place to sleep but that's about it.

We took a sunset tour to Uluru – the indigenous name for Ayers Rock – and learnt a lot from our crazy guides (they talked more to each other in the microphones than to us so they could barely keep the car on the road).

Just like Sahara, this part of Australia was once an inland ocean, and when the water then disappeared – well, somehow this darned big rock was left there standing alone. Ayers Rock, from now on called Uluru, or the rock, is a monolith (don't ask me what it stands for, it's just the correct term for this kind of rock) – one of the greatest ones in the world. Apparently there's an even bigger one up in northen oz somewhere, but that one is completely covered in trees and bushes, so it's not so impressive – it's more like an overgrown hill – whereas Uluru is majestic as hell as it stands alone in the desert. (okey, not all alone, we have the Kata Tjutas, another rock formation, a bit further off, but that's not the same thing).

This is the Kata Tjutas seen from our hostel, they look a little bit like Home Simpson lying down on his back actually...

The Anangu people, who has lived in this land for more than 22 000 years, are now the 'owners' of Uluru and the 'Uluru and Kata Tjuta National Park'. For them, this site is sacred and they have different areas around the rock where they perform different ceremonies and therefore we can't take any photographs there. They named the rock Uluru – and in their language Pitjantjatjara (they speak four languages, this being one of them) it means nothing particular, it's just a name for the big red/brown rock you can see in the pictures, nothing more nothing less.

The name Ayers Rock comes from the invaders, us that is, the white people. An explorer named, William Gosse, came upon the rock in 1873 and named it after the then-Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. Now the Australian authorities has gone back to calling it Uluru, in honour of the indigenous people.

Uluru is 3,4 kilometers long, and it's almost 10 kilometers if you walk around it at the base. The highest point is 348 meters above ground, and 863 meters above sea level. You can climb the rock if you want to, but it'll cost you quite a few dublones, and if you do it even if the climb is closed (like two people did when we were there for the sunrise tour) the rangers will wait for you when you get down with an AUD 5000 fine (around 25 000 SEK), making it a really expensive adventure.
They've seen many kinds of people climbing Uluru, some people in kilts, or in kimonos or other national costumes. One man climbed the rock although he's in a wheel chair, he used his knuckles to get to the top! Another guy climbed it whit his bike on his back – he sayed that his bike had carried him all around Australia, so it wasn't more than fair for him to carry the bike up and down Uluru... =)

The rock is also old – very old.
But the funny thing is that what we can see is not even half of it. We have another 5 kilometers of rock beneath the ground – so it's just like the tip of an iceberg.
One of the guides sayed that if people ask you how old the rock is, you can say that one side of it is 30 000 years older than the other side.

The question is, which side? =)

Anyhow, we did the sunset and the sunrise, and then we pretty much left (the flies were eating us alive and we had a plane to catch). The picture here is at 4.30 am.

After landing in Sydney, we had some luck with the train to Newcastle – again we stand up for the name ”The Family von-in-a-hurry and Always-in-the-last-minute”.
We nearly ended up on a train to Melbourne, but we got of in time and jumped on the train to Newcastle =) Once here, we didn't have any accommodation booked, so we walked around getting a bit yelled at from all the hostels that ”at this time of year you should book ahead!” and ”it doesn't matter if you didn't know when you were going to arrive, at this time of year you should know!”.

Finally, the Crown and Anchor Hotel put us up – we were delighted at first, until we saw the room, it was worse than all the hostels and backpackers I've ever seen (including China, Vietnam, Cambodia and India) but ten times the price. No need to say that we quickly changed hotels the morning after.

Now we are comfortably accommodated in The Grand Hotel – we have two rooms with bathrooms, showers, fridges, Tvs and fans – all to the price of one lousy room at the Crown and Anchor. And since we've got two rooms, les parents have now got a little bit of privacy – longed for I am sure, judging which way the jokes were heading these last couple of days.. =P

We've been taking it easy down at the beach, and today we checked out Callaghan Campus where I'll be living later on this semester – seems really nice, especially the sports facilities – I'll be the feminine version of the Hulk when I come back, I assure you!

'Right, gotta go – Sydney tomorrow!!

Take care!!