Australia 8/19/2022 - 9/6/2022 |
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Monday 8/29/2022 - Desert Awakenings, Kata Tjuta Walpa Gorge HikeAfter a short sleep, we got up bright and early. We were ready and waiting outside the lobby when our guide Leon picked us up in a bush vehicle for our "Desert Awakenings" excursion at 5:30 a.m. on the dot.We were in awe of his vehicle. So far, we had traveled around Yulara/Uluru on coach buses. This was a whole other experience altogether. The vehicle was, for lack of a better word, extreme. It was white, with a cab and a separate passenger capsule. The two compartments were connected by a rubber accordion pass-through gasket. I felt like we were going for an expedition on the moon. This looked like some sort of NASA vehicle. We boarded and got settled.  Desert Awakenings vehicle After picking up guests at other hotels in Yulara, we trundled off into the dark desert. We really felt like we were out in the middle of nowhere. Our eyes searched the darkness for any wildlife we might see. It was around this time of morning when we had seen a dingo in the road on our previous visit to Uluru. We could see the stars out the windows of the vehicle, and they were spectacular. The roads were dirt tracks, but well-maintained. We got to our destination while the sky was still dark. We walked up a path to a patio situated on top of a sand dune, which offered 360 degree views of the surrounding desert. There were tables, chairs, and propane heaters. It was chilly, and we used the propane heaters for warmth as well as light as we ate breakfast: coffee, hot chocolate, damper, danishes, egg and bacon rolls, and vegetarian breakfast sandwiches. There was plenty of food and we ate our fill. It was so peaceful. The sky got a purplish pink and orange glow on the horizon. We could see Uluru's silhouette in one direction, and Kata Tjuta's in another. As the sky brightened, our view of each improved. We could also start to see the various vegetation (spinifex, desert oaks, some flowering bushes) surrounding our dune. We could see our vehicle (affectionately called the "garbage truck") parked down below the dune. The orb of the sun breached the horizon and the sky turned bright orange. After sunrise, Leon drove us to Uluru to show us the highlights. Our first stop was the Mala carpark, so that we could do a self-guided Mala walk. Since we had already done this as a part of our base walk yesterday, it was a nice chance to revisit some of our favorite sites, such as the Guru Rinpoche footprint and Kantju Gorge. There was a very cool bench made of gnarled tree branches just outside of Kantju Gorge. We sat there for a short rest and photo op. The early morning light was gorgeous on Uluru, making the rock absolutely glow. The sky was bright blue, and the contrast between the rock and the sky was striking. We met back at the vehicle at the appointed time. A couple of members of the group were a few minutes late, as they had to use the rest room. Once everyone was back in the vehicle, Leon drove us to the Mutitjulu carpark. Here, he gave us a guided walk to the Mutitjulu water hole area. He recounted some of the Tjukurpa associated with this area. At this time of morning, there are many tour groups in these popular areas at Uluru. Some of the groups seemed to be queued up, and actually let us enter the Mutitjulu water hole gorge first. They must have a schedule, and even though we were a little late, they honored our place in the queue. After the Mutitjulu water hole, Leon showed us cave paintings in the Kulpi Mutitjulu (family cave), and talked about hunting and gathering of bush tucker. After spending time at Uluru, we got back into the vehicle and drove to the Cultural Centre. We watched Anangu ladies making painstaking dot paintings. We have a small dot painting which we bought on our previous trip, and it was very cool to see how they are made, especially since the paintings which were being made here were absolutely huge; a much bigger scale than our small painting at home. It must take so much patience to decorate an enormous canvas with nothing but dots! No photos were allowed inside the Cultural Centre. We decided to eat lunch at the Ininti Cafe at the Cultural Centre, as we didn't know how much time we would have in between this excursion and the hike we had planned for this afternoon. We definitely needed to fuel up! Craig and I got steak and pepper pies with chips. They were delicious, but the temperature was so hot that we had to let them cool quite a bit for fear of burning ourselves. By the time they were cool enough to eat, it was time to go, so we scarfed them down. After leaving the Cultural Centre, Leon had one final stop on our tour: the Uluru sunset viewing spot. Though it was mid-day and a long time from sunset, this was still a great place to get an expansive view of Uluru. It was a nice place to take photos. And we even saw a cute little lizard sunning himself. Sonam Choki had no interest in seeing him, as she does not like reptiles of any kind. We highly recommend the Desert Awakenings excursion. It would be the perfect introduction to the area for someone with limited time, as it gives you a sunrise experience with breakfast included, some time at the most interesting parts of Uluru itself, a visit to the Cultural Centre, and some gorgeous views of Uluru from a distance. It was basically a 7 hour excursion, and yet we were done by midday. There was a lot of bang for the buck here. We got back to the hotel at 12:15 p.m., and took a short rest in our rooms. Craig was feeling particularly tired...it had been a busy few days without much sleep and without much time in between activities. Even now, we only had 90 minutes before we had to go to our afternoon hike. I asked Craig if he was ok to do the hike or if he wanted to just skip it and rest instead, while the rest of us went on the excursion. He was adamant that he wanted to do the Kata Tjuta hike. We hadn't had enough time to fully complete the hike during our previous visit, and it had been weighing on him ever since. Craig was relying on coffee to keep his energy up. It might not have been the greatest coffee in the world (instant packets), but it did the job! We had run out of milk to go with the coffee, but the Sonams weren't using theirs, so they donated it to our cause. After coffee, Craig got his second wind. We were picked up at 1:45 by Mel for our Kata Tjuta Walpa Gorge hike. Kata Tjuta means "many heads," a reference to the 36 dome-shaped rocks rising from the desert. It is a traditional place for men's business of the Aboriginal Anangu people. The Anangu have been in this area for 22,000 years. European colonists named the formations the Olgas. Both Kata Tjuta and Uluru were formed by the sediment deposited by an alluvial fan around half a billion years ago. In contrast to Uluru, which is made of arkose sandstone, Kata Tjuta's domes are composed of conglomerate. According to Wikipedia: The highest dome, Mount Olga, is 1,066 m (3,497 ft) above sea level, or approximately 546 m (1,791 ft) above the surrounding plain (198 m (650 ft) higher than Uluru)We stopped at a Kata Tjuta viewing spot at around 2:30 p.m. There we got a great view of some of the domes and took some photos. Then we drove to Walpa Gorge. We had visited this place back in 2019, but had not had enough time to complete the hike. Our flight had been late arriving, and we had limited time before we had to get to the sunset viewing area. We were determined to make it to the gorge this time, despite the midday heat. As Mel gave us an introduction to the place, we were champing at the bit to get going, as we knew we once again had limited time. According to Fodor's Travel Essential Australia, Walpa Gorge is a 2-km walk...the gorge is a desert refuge for plants and animals. The rocky track gently rises along a moisture-rich gully, passing inconspicuous rare plants and ending in a grove of flourishing spearwood.The canyon walls towered above us as we hiked into the gorge. Before we knew it, we were at the terminus of the trail, where there was an observation platform, benches for sitting, and a sign saying that proceeding any further was prohibited. It turned out that we had been very close to the end of the hike 3 years ago; we just hadn't realized it. This is definitely a hike which is more about the journey than the destination, and it is a little bit anticlimactic when you actually get to the end, as you are just staring into the crotch of the rock, with some vegetation. On our hike back out of the gorge, we stopped at a pool of water which reflected the image of the gorge. Mel took photos of us there. The entire hike took about an hour. On the ride back to Yulara, Mel told us some interesting facts about the flora and fauna of the area. There are no longer many dingoes or kangaroos in the area. Wild camels are somewhat to blame. Emus tend to eat weeping emu bushes and poop out the seeds. The seeds regrow and can support other wildlife. However, when camels eat the same bush, they chomp up the seeds to the extent that they are no longer viable to grow when they are excreted. Fewer weeping emu bushes result in there not being enough food to support the smaller animals, and therefore predators like dingoes go hungry as well. This is one of the reasons that wild camels are considered to be pests in Australia. We were lucky enough to have seen a wild dingo in the early morning on our way to Uluru sunrise in 2019, though we didn't capture it on camera. Mel explained that South African buffel grass was introduced to stabilize sand dunes, but then it became invasive. Spinifex gets to a certain point in its life cycle where it indicates that a controlled burn is necessary. Aboriginal people have done controlled burns forever to manage the land. The government is now starting to heed the recommendations of Aboriginal land management. Mel also explained that there are plants which act as natural firebreaks in the case of wildfires, though they sacrifice their lives in the process. We got back to the hotel at around 5 p.m. We took showers and met the Sonams at 6 p.m. to go to one of the hotel restaurants for dinner. We had some time to wander through the hotel gardens, and we saw the pool for the first time. It was too cool at this time of year for swimming, not that we would have had any time for hanging out by the pool anyway, with our busy schedule! We chose the more casual restaurant, which didn't require reservations. This was the Mangata Bistro & Bar. Sonam Tshering and I each got a 5 Seeds Cider, and Craig got a Sobah pepper-berry IPA beer ("an indigenous twist on a beer - hoppy, citrusy with a spicy kick"). Craig loves IPA's, and he loves anything locally brewed, so this sounded perfect. Except we had misread the menu, and this was actually a non-alcoholic beer! He enjoyed the taste, but followed it up with an alcoholic choice: James Squire 150 Lashes. Craig and I shared native peppered kangaroo kebabs on toasted pita bread with smoked paprika yogurt and coriander as an appetizer. It was absolutely delicious! I got haloumi sliders with red onion, tomato, spinach, mushroom, and herbed mayonnaise (I had discovered haloumi cheese on our previous trip to Australia, and I absolutely love it!) Craig got a peri-peri chicken burger with red onion, tomato, cheddar cheese, siracha mayonnaise, and cos letttuce. Each of our meals were served with fries. The Sonams each got vegetarian options which they enjoyed very much. We got a "chocolate pebble" for dessert. It was very artfully presented on the plate. It was a lovely meal, and a great way to unwind with Sonam and Sonam after an action-packed three days at Uluru. We didn't feel rushed at all, there were plenty of tables available. Nefore we knew it, we had spent three hours at the restaurant, and had a lot of laughs. Then we went back to our rooms. Craig and I were in bed by 9:30 p.m. Desert Awakenings Sunset Viewing Area Walpa Gorge |
 Desert Awakenings  Desert Awakenings: Uluru  Desert Awakenings  Desert Awakenings  Uluru  Uluru  Uluru  Kata Tjuta  Walpa Gorge  Walpa Gorge  Dinner See all photos from August 29 |
 Desert Awakenings  Uluru |
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