Uluru

A long road to Uluru.  Fortunately for us, the grader was making great headway on the road out of Rainbow Valley, and we made up the bit of time that it took us to get going this morning.  On the way Ben and I had a great amount of time to ponder on life back at home, and what it will be like when we return.  With around 40 km to go, Ben spotted our first sighting of Uluru.  Great excitement flooded the car.  (Thankfully Cassie had warned us about mount Connor – a huge rock 100 or so km east of Uluru - so we were wised up not to make the mistake of thinking that it was Uluru – thanks Cassie, we felt really clever, as opposed to the other tourists who didn’t know!)

Uluru was amazing.  Despite me feeling under the weather, we managed to do a 2 hour ranger guided walk, which explained some of the culture, rock art, bush tucker and significance of the rock to the indigenous peoples.  In the afternoon, Ben was the best husband ever, and left me to peace, taking the kids to the resort square to learn about weapons and stories.  Jim and Margaret treated them with ice cream’s too, which they did not complain about!

Sam with Ritchie the Ranger

 

Day two – Kata Tjuta – The Olgas.  Here we walked the gorge with our substitute grandparents, taking in the huge walls of rock.  We drove back out to Uluru for sunset and joined the crowds trying to snap that perfect picture of the rock glowing as the sun goes down.  Nick and Sam watched from the comfort of the car, while listening to more “folk of the faraway tree”.  (they just can’t get enough!)  Needless to say, it was a peaceful sunset!

Our final day at Uluru did at last include the very anticipated base walk – a 10.6 km walk around the rock.  Larina, our little trouper did an amazing job, yet again spurred on by thoughts of Francesca having walked this ground before her.  She not only walked most of the way herself, but also carried a loaf of bread in her little pink backpack.  Jim and Margaret were of course by our sides encouraging the children all the way, finding ways to make it all feel so much more fun.  At the start of the morning we had been a little concerned – Nick was having a day of halves, ie, only wanted to eat half his porridge, and determined only to walk “half” way around the rock.  Luckily, by the time we were half way around, Nick was enjoying it all enough to finish the walk.  In fact he even took the opportunity when we sat down to rest to become our guide and teach us about how to catch small animals.  He was a good teacher, giving us all the chance to join him out the front and practice our new skill under his leadership, one at a time.  He was most encouraging of Jim, who seemed to keep dropping the spear!

Olgas

Larina being our little trouper - carrying lunch

Nick teaching us all bush hunting skills

 In the end – we made it!  Our longest walk yet as a family.  As we arrived back at the car park, Sam suggested that we now climb it.  Yeah right Sam.  (he didn’t look too disappointed when we suggested a rest at home…)  Now that it has been accomplished, we can move on.

We made it around Uluru!

Ps.  This week Nick has hit a bit of a wall – with a recent but reoccurring complaint that all of his little possessions in his back pack no longer are of any interest to him, and he may as well give them away and start again with some “cool stuff”.  So he has spent so much time looking at the same few toys, they no longer thrill him, and he is ready to move on.  Is this our opportunity to give our son the skill to rise above the drive of our society to constantly update and toss everything just because we lose the thrill of it?  Or do we feel for our son who has been playing with the same couple of objects for 6 months, and buy him something new?