I was looking into my old diaries and found the write up on my trip to Uluru. Flew to Alice Springs from Melbourne
on a cool day in July 2005. Alice Springs is the closest airport to Uluru or Ayer’s Rock in the Red center of the Outback. Alice Springs became famous during the WWII when Australia and USA set up a communication hub.Another fun part is one can find camels roaming in the wild. These animals were brought from Afghanistan to carry loads for military and rail road construction. They were abandoned in the wild to become happy campers!
My first stop is to visit the Anzac hill a monument for the soldiers. Next day went on a day trip to the Emily Gap and the National park. Our guide is from the Arrernte tribe the original inhabitants of this region. The Arrernte art is now World famous with its unique colors and dots.
After familiarizing with Northern Territory, I headed off to Uluru Kata Tjuṯa National Park in a tourist van equipped to handle the red dust of the desert. Uluru has a circumference of 9.4km and 348 meters high. This monolithic sandstone rock is about half a billion years old. The Anangu people who live around this area consider Uluru as their most sacred place and they do not like people climbing on it. Hiking around the circumference is ok for them. The name”Anangu” sounded very familiar to me as it is a Tamil word. Also the tradition of not climbing or walking on something which is considered sacred whichever religion or belief is also part of the Sanatan Dharma. Hence I decided to hike even though some people from my tour group chose to climb.
The hike around the rock showed its hidden treasures like the rock art and the impression of the wave with fish preserved in the fossilized rock.
The rock changed its color from orange to crimson red along with the sun slowly getting ready to set. I just watched with awe and wonder. I heard the Nature whispering “Everything is dynamic. Once I was a shallow sea in the Gondwana stretch” Now I aam a desert and the hidden rock emerged as Uluru”.
