Ayer's Rock - ULURU

11/28/2002

The most amazing thing about Uluru is not that it's the symbolic red center of Australia, or that it is 9 kilometer around its base and 867m above tall, or even that another 2-3 more kilometers deep of it is beneath the well-beaten desert. It is the amazing geologic history of a rock that stood still for 500 million years as the continent eroded down around and away from it.

900 million years ago in a vast inland sea in the Australian continent Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) began their formation when Australia was still part of Antarctica and a tropical paradise. Now I stand at its base, in a dry scrubby desert plain, looking up its slopes and marvel at the brief and transigent nature of human history compared to this vast monolith. From up close, standing at its base and touching it with both my hands as though I'm holding up this giant of the earth, it seems to fill up the whole world.

In the early 1800's the Australian explorer Gosse stumbled upon, and named the Three Torrs, which is a line of monstrous rises in the otherwise flat plains of the Simpson Desert - Mt Connor, The Olgas, and Ayers Rock. Imagine his surprise when hot, thirsty, tired, and covered with festering sores, he looked up from his equally hot, thirsty, tired horse and saw Uluru looming over him. He must have had the same shock I had when we flew over the Rock in a tiny twin engine plane at sunset - like a sleeping dream, where you accept the impossible (such as flying without wings) but KNOW that it must be impossible. Uluru is an impossibility that I had to accept because it is real and here I am flying over it and standing under it and touching it and marveling it.

In 1985 the Australian government handed over ownership to the traditional Anangu people who have lived around Uluru for thousands of years, who lived under Uluru's shadow and its history, indeed live Uluru as a living Law of their lives. Ayer's Rock and the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) received their old name back, and the traditional owners lease the national park land back to the government for tourism. However, since these sites are sacred to the Anangu, visitors are prohibited from entering or photographing certain areas of Uluru and most of Kata Tjuta. We enjoyed ourselves as much as we could, getting up at 4am to catch the sun rise over Uluru and walk on its well-maintained trails, carefully avoiding the sacred sites except to look with our eyes.

It was lucky we were there that early - a storm brewed up in the late morning and we had to drive through some very large raindrops back to our hotel.

The Ayers Rock Resort was built by the Aus government, backed by private investors, and it is very tastefully built to not clash with its environment, as well as being consciously conservative to its resources. Water is recycled and none of the buildings rise higher than its surrounding sane dunes. What a difference from the Casino in Alice Springs - that, was a sad, self-conscious, glittery pile of pretension. This is a part of the landscape and very comfortable for the thousands of visitors who come every year to have that same experience of being impossibly awed.

p.s. Contrary to my geographically challenged view of Australia, Yulara (Ayers Rock Resort) is 500 km more from the nearest town of Alice Springs, which meant a 4 hour drive - but we were treated to a diversion in the way of a camel farm where I was allowed to ride a camel at a trot. Our camel's name was Eddie and he is supposed to the 2nd fastest camel in Northern Territory. However much I wanted Eddie to trot faster for my amusement I still declined the offer to try to ride the farm's 'bucking camel' rodeo style. Eddie's handlers looked visibly disappointed.