Ulurhu - Ayres Rock

Wow - great drive from the Alice to Ulurhu. Damn near 5 hours and, for the last two, a gradual uphill climb. Open country. There was so much road kill that I started a tally: 25 kangaroos, 4 steers, and 1 horse. Hard country for man and beast. I was happy that my hero took it easy. Once here, we did the usual "stop and ask" then found our place. We went immediately to Uluhru and the Park's Cultural Center. Since 1985, the land has been owned by the "First Australians" (there was even a "hand back" ceremony) who lease it back to the governtment. The park is run jointly by the Aborigines and the National Park Service. We took the Kuniya Walk at the park with an Aborigine guide. They are called Ananju in this area. There was also an intrepreter since the guide spoke in her native language and we laughed because the intrepreter was Japanese with heavily accented English. It was very interesting to hear her speak effortlessly the language of the native guide and then report to us in really well-spoken English. When I talked with her, she said she's been working with these native peoples for less than a year, but see seemed quite fluent to me. Our walk featured discussions of Tjukurpa (chool-orr-pa) the people's religious heritage, and stories surrounding Kunya Piti, a woman python who is very sacred to the people. We learned about her legend and saw cave paintings which are done to instruct future people about important life skills - finding water holes, etc. We learned how the woman gather bush tucker (boosh tukka) but didn't try any that were displayed! The Arnangu people do not want tourists to record their voices or to photograph them without their permission. Our native guide (and her visiting sister) wer fine with photos when they were finished speaking. They also kindly posed for us at the end of our walk. They were obviously fond of our Japanese guide and talked easily with her throughout the walk. Note: I wore hiking boots while our guide, Alice, was barefooted. I liked seeing the native people here, on their own land, where they seemed at home and comfortable. They have homes with modern conveniences fairly near the park buildings, but not within sight of anything else. We caught a ride on the tour bus back to our car so got a nice narration from the bus driver and a ride around the rock. We stopped once at the climbing area which is maintained for those who feel compelled to scale to the top. That day, the rangers had closed the climb because of high temperatures. After Kakadu, we were unfazed by the hot dry heat. Plus, we got mosquito netting to fit over our hats before we even started our walk. Smarties. We were not exactly styin', but we felt pretty darn proud of ourselves for conquering the invasion of the crazy-making fly swarms. The Park people practically beg the tourists not to climb Ulurhu as do the Aborigines, but, of course, many do climb. It's a sacred place for the natives, as are many of the areas around the rock. These they ask you not to photograph. A little respect here, people! We drove on to the sunset viewing are but didn't find any of the dramatic color changes we'd seen in the guidebooks, perhaps because there was no dust and no clouds to make things spectacular. For dinner at the lodge, we opted to barbeque our own dinners and yes, to have all that heat fly up in our faces. No wonder Ron told me to grill my own veggie burger! I ended up with a rather soggy patty but ate it anyway. We talked to some interesting people who'd just visited her sister who taught the Aborigines and kept at it until our weariness led us to bed.