The Red Centre

My goodness how time flies when you are in the presence of one of the most extraordinary, mystical, and outrageously beautiful geological monuments on the planet. There is nothing even remotely similar to Uluru….you can photograph it a hundred times and get a different tone, color, feel out of each image. It rises up out of a thousand miles of flat Outback scrub, a towering, glowing orange boulder that looks like an alien spaceship bursting through the surface of the earth and carrying a message of truth and wonder for all of us who see it. Can’t get enough of it, the place completely blew me away. Elizabeth and I flew up to Uluru/Ayers Rock from Sydney on Tuesday, dumped our bags at the Pioneer Outback Lodge and flung ourselves onto a bus for Uluru within minutes. We spent the afternoon with our jaws hanging open, wandering around the base of the rock and not even making it a quarter of the way before we had to turn back to meet the bus after two hours. Its really, really, big and despite all my hyperbole I cannot explain how overwhelmingly huge and gorgeous it is. Then we bussed over to the Sunset Viewing area (both sunset and sunrise are big business here) and watched the amazing light show. The pictures for this post include two photos of the rock taken within about five minutes of each other. The colors just keep changing until the red fades completely to mauve/brown and the rock goes to sleep until the sun rises and lights it up again. On Wednesday we were there for sunrise, and then went on a wonderful interpretive walk with a senior member of the Anangu, the Aboriginal people who live at Uluru. It was fascinating, a real window into how people have lived off this desolate landscape. In the afternoon we took a bus ride to Kata Tjuta, another huge rock formation about 30 miles away, very interesting but for me not as magical as Uluru. Then back for another sunset, a backpackers dinner, and stargazing – its so clear out in the desert. The accommodations were….um… cold, cramped, and very weird as we had to share with couples we didn’t know but that was not the point. The Ayers Rock Resort has a stranglehold on all accommodations, and we were lucky to get a bed for $44 instead of the $300-400 you have to pay if the dorms are full. Then yesterday it was off to Alice Springs where we met up with Moira and went on a field trip out to the Hermannsburg Mission to see the workshop of a group of famous Aboriginal potters who we met at the conference, then back to the truly incredible indigenous art galleries in Alice, a lovely dinner out (they ate kangaroo steak), more galleries this morning and then Moira and I jumped on a plane for Darwin. We are now ensconced at an oddball ‘suites’ hotel with the bathroom in the bedroom (can’t really explain it) but it has a lovely pool which is nice since its mighty hot outside. It’s the tropics up here in northern Australia, which is weird because it was about 35 degrees at night in Uluru. Tomorrow we’re off to see lots more indigenous art, this time the styles of the Tiwi and other northern peoples. On Sunday we’re going on an epic bus trip to Kakadu (a World Heritage site), and then on Monday I start my journey to New Zealand. There’s so much to take in; I’m a bit tired but a few good nights of sleep should fix me right up. I’ll try to tune in from Sydney on my way through on Monday.

Lotsa love to all,
Tricia