The Magic of Uluru

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Uluru or Ayers Rock as it was once known is a very sacred and spiritual place to the traditional owners of the land in that area. They were understandably upset when tourists started pouring into the area and climbing all over their sacred rock. Many years later, the land is now managed by a group made up of indigenous and Government representatives. Tourists are asked not to climb the rock but are not forbidden to do so. Our indigenous guide likened it to having all and sundry climbing all over cathedrals with, sometimes, little respect for where they are going. I know there are tours through cathedrals but I'm just passing on the way the 'owners' of the rock see it. We were told that sensors along the rope guide count the number who make the climb. When the number of climbers drops to 20% or less than those entering the National Park, then they may decide to make climbing the rock illegal. Uluru is the second largest monolith in Australia. The largest, Mt Augusta, is in Western Australia. There are several water-holes around the edges of Uluru along with canyons, caves, rock art and weathered and eroded sections. One section is used by the local people for various ceremonies and photography was not permitted in that area. Everyone has to stay, if they're staying, at Yulara which is some 30kms away. This has a variety of accommodation from 5-star hotels down to tent-camping and caravan parks. It is a completely functional town which has sprung up purely and simply to cater for the tourists who come to visit the attractions in the region. On the way out to the rock we saw a variety of flowers and three wild camels. One photo of small, insignificant white flowers is there because I like the shadows the plant made. There is a fee for entry into the National Park where Uluru is situated. The Park closes at 8pm. We spent the whole afternoon there and stayed to take sunset photos. We were there again by 6am next morning to take sunrise photos. Two nights later we took more sunset photos. Because there was no cloud we didn't get anything spectacular other than the standard type of photo.