Tuesday – April 1, 2025
Today’s featured image was taken on our walk to Walpa Gorge. We were reluctant to walk on the stones leading up the hill because it had been raining, but they turned out to be fairly dry. It was, however, very windy as we reached the crest of the hill. Kata Tjuṯa is “men’s business” where Uluru is “women’s businesss”. This means there are images at each location that should not be seen by the other sex as a part of the Anangu rituals.
We thought we might get a break today and the rain would stop. That didn’t happen. We boarded our bus and began the drive to Kata Tjuṯa. Along the way we stopped for a couple minutes to take a look at Uluru. As you can see in the media, there was a cloud surrounding the top so not very conducive to photographing. You will find a couple photos in the media which show the layout of the domes of Kata Tjuta. We drove to an area on the South of the domes to view the group as a whole. It was spitting rain when we arrived and continued as we left for a closer look. In the media you can see that clouds were also obscuring the tops of Kata Tjuṯa’s domes.
We stopped at an area used for sunset viewing on the West side of the domes. There was a trail we followed to get a better view – fewer trees between us and the domes. The trail was littered with rain puddles which assured that everyone’s shoes were coated in red dirt by the time we walked to and from observation points. I ended up using the toilet brush back at the hotel to get the red color off my shoes.
We returned to the bus and drove to the Walpa Gorge parking lot for a short walk to the stones I mentioned in the first paragraph. By this time the rain had let up and the low clouds were beginning to disperse. We walked the couple hundred yards to the hill with stones and climbed nearly to the peak. At that point the wind was fairly strong. Because the stones were wet we didn’t want to risk slipping and banging up our bodies so we turned around and came back down the stone hill. The coloring of the domes was muted (not strong red) due to the water which had not yet evaporated or been absorbed.
On our way back to the parking area we noticed someone had brushed together dirt on the floor of a pavilion to spell “Palay a”. We aren’t sure what that means – Palay is a person’s name and Palya is a word with multiple meanings (hello, goodbye, thank you, finish). This will remain as one of life’s unsolved mysteries.
Heading back to the hotel for breakfast Simon gave me a “thumbs up” but he was far from feeling that way at the time. We were originally scheduled to have an outdoor BBQ dinner this evening followed by a light show using drones with Uluru in the background. The venue that provides that program had just advised us that the event was being cancelled due to weather.
Sandra and Giulio were able to coordinate something for us that didn’t come close to the dinner and show, but at least showed they understood our disappointment. Later in the day we drove out to the sunset viewing area for Uluru and had champagne/orange juice with cheese, crackers and meats. We took another group photo (less Simon – he was still upset). Didn’t stay for sunset because you really couldn’t see the sun. Had a nice buffet dinner and went to bed early because tomorrow we were going to view Uluru at sunrise (which means leaving for the viewing area around 5:00 am.
You can find video and photos from our second day at Uluru here.
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