The Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park was our destination for the day. After we paid the $25 per person entry fee which lasts for three days, we decided to do Uluru today and Kata Tjuta tomorrow.
Our first stop was the Cultural Centre which is 13 kms inside the park near the base of Uluru.
The Cultural Centre was a great introduction to the Anangu culture in a very special and natural environment, it gave us the opportunity to add depth to our experience before we took off on any of the walks.
We decided to do two of the walks The Kuniya Walk to the Mutitjulu Waterhole, and The Mala Walk to the Kantju Gorge.
The Kuniya Walk is a short walk (1km) to the waterhole, home of the Wanampi, an ancestoral watersnake. Along the way you learn how Kuniya and Liru (the woma python woman and poisonous snake man) helped create Uluru. This is a living cultural landscape, and the Anangu people believe Kuniya is still here. Her spirit is here. The Art Caves ( with rock paintings) are still used by the Anungu today for ceremonies. This is a very special place.
The Mala Walk is a longer walk (2kms) to the gorge. This is where the Mala (Rufus Hare Wallaby) people camped when they arrived at Uluru in the beginning. There are examples of Anangu rock art along this walk as well, and you can experience the sheer vertical walls and profound peacefullness of Kantju Gorge.
The different views of Uluru along both of these walks were truly amazing. You can really appreciate why Uluru is so sacred to the Anangu people. There are sections of these walks that are so sensitive/spiritual that you are asked not to photograph these areas.
Uluru was closed for climbing today due to high winds at the summit. There are signs everywhere asking you NOT to climb out of respect to the Anangu. We had no intention of climbing anyway.
Back to the caravan park to get ready to go out to our dinner engagement.
Sounds of Silence Dinner.
The bus picked us up for the 15-20 minute drive out to our destination. When we arrived we had a short walk to the top of a sand dune where we were greeted by our host with a glass of bubbly, we were then served canapes of crocodile, kangaroo, barramundi, chicken pate and some other little morsels of delicousness, while an indigenous man was playing the didgeridoo all this was happening while we watched the sunset over Uluru with Kata Tjuta behind us in the distance, a truly magical
setting.
After the sun had set we were guided down the other side of the dune to a spectacular setting in front of us. There were several round tables set up with starched white table cloths, silvery cutlery and sparkling glassware and glowing candles. Another magical setting.
We were very fortunate as we were seated with a fantastic group of people, another nomad couple, Janine and George from Launceston, an unusual couple of guys Andrew from Camberwell and Richard from Portsea who were about to head down The Canning Stock Route, they had only known each other for 5 weeks and had decided to do that trip together, a lovely Italian couple Vito and Rafaela who were here on their honeymoon and had just arrived, and of course our little party of four, making up the table of ten.
We enjoyed a big buffet dinner with wines and dessert with a port.
We were entertained by Wakagetti Cultural Dancers and had a 'Star talker' explaining about the stars and relating the positions of the stars to Aboriginal Cultural stories.
There was a big open fire pit to warm us, and it was such a good fun night we didn't really mind the cold. We were sorry when the night was over, but we are going to meet up with our new friends tomorrow night for dinner.
We are picking the honeymoon couple up in the morning to take them out to Kata Tjuta with us, as they were very glad to have found Laurie, a fellow Italian as they had very little English.
Going home on the bus everyone was very jolly and noisy, quite different to when we started the night off, I wonder why that was?
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