BIG ULURU

 
 
 
 

On the way to Ayers Rock we saw another big rock called Mount Connor. I wondered why it was called Mount Connor – I will have to look it up sometime, because I still don’t know!

On to Yulara (the town where Uluru is). When we got there, we were put on a site with no power, but Daddy sweet talked the lady into giving us a powered site. Then we set up and put on our sunscreen and hat in order to go and climb Ayres Rock.

The drive to the Rock is about 17 km and we had to pay to enter the park. We parked at the bottom of the Rock and started to walk up. I was a bit scared because I didn’t want to hurt myself. The first bit of the climb was very steep – about 30 metres with just rocks on the side to cling to, and then another 30 metres of very steep, slippery rock without any chains. That’s where I slipped and cried!

Mum climbed up first and then waited for each of us to get to the beginning of the chains. The chains were quite low, even for me! I was still scared, so Mum suggested that we go 10 chains at a time and then have a rest. We did that for a while and got up about ¾ of the way. We didn’t go all the way in case one of us got hurt.

It was a long way down… it was much easier going down as we turned around backwards and used our arms on the chains. We saw lots of people struggling with the climb, especially older people. Thirty five people have died on the Rock and our Prado friend Barb, broke her wrist and is having it operated on today to have a plate and screws put in!

We spent some time in the afternoon walking around the cultural centre looking for gifts and souvenirs. An ice block was a cool treat after a big day.

DAY 2:
We had a quiet day and planned what to do on our extra day. We had brunch with our Prado friends and then in the afternoon we had a big photo taken with all the Prado people and then another photo of just the cars in a row.

That evening we had dinner at a restaurant, named the Outback Pioneer. The kids had chips, nuggets and pizza. For dessert we had an icy pole. Then we went outside and played with our friends for the last time  .

DAY 3:
In the morning we went to the Olgas. From a distance they look like balls, but up close they are big smooth rocks. We went on the Walpa Gorge self guided tour and hear lots of birds calling to each other – their noise echoed in the gorge. There was a little creek which we got to touch – it was freezing. There are some animals living in the gorge because we saw Kangaroo poo.

We went back to the van for a quick lunch and then Mum and I went back to the Cultural centre to do Dot Painting.

An Aboriginal lady had an interpreter. An interpreter is someone who explains what people are saying who speak a different language. They sat down on the ground and smoothed out the sand. The lady didn’t have any shoes. She showed us some symbols and told us the stories of what they meant. The interpreted told us what she said and we then could ask questions.

After this, we were given a piece of canvas and we started to dot paint. I did my background red, but when I finished my first one I accidently dropped it in the sand. My second attempt rolled up because I painted on the wrong side of the canvas, but my third was great. I painted a snake in white and black dots and gave the snake gold and brown stripes. On either side of the snake I painted a water hole. In the sky I painted a sun and a bush and grass on the ground. I enjoyed this experience as it was fun to paint with Mum and learn from the Aboriginal lady.