8 July - Camel Farm and Bush Yarns

8 July 2016 – 178 019

Camel Farm, Bush Yarns and School Work

Today was again a school day for Hayden, however we took a break in the middle of the day to do some activities.  We headed to the Yulara town square to listen to “Leroy” talk about the men’s weapons of the Central Desert Region and why and how each is used.  He also explained why items such as the returning boomerang are not used locally – these are used by coastal peoples for hunting water birds and are made of light wood.  The boomerangs used in the Central Desert are made of hard, heavy mulga for breaking the legs of emu or kangaroo; if it was to return it would injure the thrower, so these are not designed to return. https://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/experiences/detail/free-daily-activities

After this, we headed to the camel farm – we saw lots of camels saddled up, some in a train, and watched them sit down.  This looks like it would be very jerky.  I was surprised by how much variation in colour there was between animals and how continuous the colour range was with each shade represented. https://www.ulurucameltours.com.au/

I caught up on my journal, photo sorting and blog posting!! Ta Da! 

This evening we went to a different lookout to watch the sun set on Uluru – again it was beautiful but completely different – going from purple to velvety brown, the sun was behind some low cloud so we didn’t get the burst of orange we have had on other nights.  It has been quite amazing how much colour variation there is in the rock under different light and weather conditions.

7 July - Astro Hub and Blackholes

7 July 2016 – 178 015

School Day and Astro Hub

Sleep in this morning after our very busy last few days. Washing, car cleaning, school work this morning.  This afternoon we headed to the Astro Hub where we learnt about supermassive black holes from a Canadian Astonomer working with CAASTRO at the Narrabri radar telescope.
 https://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/events/detail/astronomer-in-residence-program  
http://caastro.org/
She also showed us a website where normal individuals can look at some of the data being generated and match up radio wave images and infra-red optical images to identify the locations of black holes.  The radio wave images show the rays coming out from the centre of the black hole. http://radio.galaxyzoo.org

This is really cool!! After dinner we headed up to one of the lookouts within Yulara campground to watch the sunset on Uluru.

Mum

6 July - Uluru Again

6 July 2016 – 177 956

Uluru Again

This morning we all had a sleep in and leisurely breakfast, showers etc.  Caught up on my journal writing, just need to catch up on photo downloading and blog posting.  Mid-morning we headed out to Uluru again, this time to run a lap around the base.  It was 9.75km which took 1:06:29 with the most amazing view!!  Fantastic to actually not be cold for a while.

After lunch the Cultural Centre was our next stop – we watched a video on Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park produced by the Anangu people.
https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/do/cultural-centre/  This was followed by a talk presented by one of the Rangers on the management of the park; endangered, threatened or locally extinct animals, as well as the Mala reintroduction program. Mala are extinct in the wild on mainland Australia, but have been reintroduced to Uluru in a predator free enclosure (58Ha).  The Mala have gone from an original release population of 24 in 2005, to 250 ten years on. Home again for showers and dinner – Hayden played footy with a group of boys while I was cooking and appeared to have a great time.  Tried to book in for a Dot painting class, but booked out for the next four days.  Unfortunately Drew and Hayden’s Astro Tour for this evening was cancelled due to weather – too much cloud to see the stars.

Mum

5 July - Kata Tjuta!!

5 July 2016 – 177 854

Kata Tjuta!!

Again, up at 5:30am and away. 
https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/do/walks/ 
Straight through the gates this morning, before opening time and off to Kata Tjuta dune sunrise viewing area.  Once again we were foiled by the clouds, but still beautiful to see the detail appear out of the darkness, with the cloud coming and going from the tops of the highest domes. From the Kata Tjuta sunrise viewing point you can also see Uluru, which was in cloud and being rained upon.  I wore hiking socks and boots, thermal long pants, jeans, tank top, black thermal long sleeved top, blue thermal long sleeved top, long sleeved blouse, windproof jacket zipped all the way up the neck, scarf, beanie and gloves – and was still freezing!!  

Picnic breakfast was held inside the car this morning due to the cold. Valley of the Winds full circuit was the plan for today (12.5km) – it was very obvious how it got its name as the wind pours through this gap in the rocks.  The view from Karu lookout was good, but the one from Karingana lookout was amazing.  To walk through the domes gave me a much greater idea of the scale and grandeur of these rocks. 

Again we were fortunate enough to see water in places that only infrequently have water – there were lots of wildflowers, plenty of tadpoles in the streams – the area responds to rain here more than temperature in deciding when life should proceed.

We headed to the sunset viewing area to have a picnic meal and investigate the sunset options. Walpa Gorge walk was our next stop (4.4km), this goes deep between two rocks and is partially in shade and partially in full sun – not surprisingly this involved taking layers on and off as the temperature varies enormously. Once again, the size and height of these domes was on a grand scale.  The rock itself is very very different to the sandstone of Uluru – Kata Tjuta reminded me of rocky road, with all the various size, shape and coloured chunks held together by a silty mudstone; even where rocks have broken, you have the pieces sticking out or holes remaining from where the chunks stay whole and the mudstone cracking keeps some and loses some.

Sunset was very cold again, despite all the clothes we were wearing and the heavy cloud cover.  At times we thought we might get some amazing cloud colour, but the cloud was too thick.  And just when everyone was ready to give up and go home, the sun broke below the clouds and lit the domes a brilliant orange that glowed.  Truly beautiful – definitely worth the wait. Back to camp for hot food and sleep.  What an amazing last two days!!!

Mum

4 July - Uluru

4 July 2016 – 177 758

Uluru!!

Up at 5:30am and away!  We were lined up to buy our entry passes to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park at opening time – 6:30am at this time of year.
https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/ This took quite a while, but we were soon at the Uluru Sunrise Viewing Point of Talinguru Nyakunytjaku with hundreds and hundreds of other visitors.  Before the sun rose the sandstone of Uluru had a texture of velvet.  Unfortunately, the clouds prevented the sun lighting up the rock, but rather it gradually got light.  We enjoyed a picnic breakfast in the car park and then headed to the Cultural Centre – this had lots of good information, as well as a documentary video that seemed to engage children and adults alike.  There was also a “I chose not to climb” register, which we will complete when we have done all the other activities at the National Park.  I had decided not to climb as requested by the owners of the land, however the climb was closed due to forecast rain anyway. 

The base walk was a flat easy walking track; however, some areas were slightly more difficult due to large puddles on the track – I am sure that drainage of the track is not often an issue in the desert. The walk was really interesting, the levels of erosion of the sandstone varied greatly in degree and pattern.  There were also noticeable differences in the microclimate as we moved in and out of gorges.  We got rained on!!, twice and had the sun come out beautifully, all in the space of 4 hours. Some of the waterfalls flowed from the rain – amazing to see.  When Uluru was rained on, the way the sun reflected off the surface it looked like snow! The colours of the striations in the sandstone from the layers varied with the light.  After our walk we headed back to Yulara to cook up a stir fry for our main meal.  We then took this with us back out to the Uluru sunset viewing area where we selected our spot and had a picnic dinner. 

Sunset on Uluru was worth the cold – and it certainly was cold – the colours changed as the sun angle changed, we were blessed with a completely clear sky for sunset. After the sun had set the rock appeared to glow with retained light.  Home for a hot shower, then sleep.

Mum