Bike riding today. All, apart from the senior Browns, headed off on a three hour ride around the base of Uluru. Senior Browns were in control of the support vehicle and followed them around the circuit.

There are a number of places to stop along the way and explore the Rock up close. One of these is the Kuniya walk that ends at the Mutitjulu Waterhole, a permanent pool of water at the base of the Rock. It is the home of Wanampi, an ancestral watersnake. Various markings on the side of Uluru here are explained in terms of a creation story about a battle between two powerful creation ancestors Minyma Kuniya and Wati Liru, (python woman and venomous snake man). ‘Minyma’ means woman and ‘Wati’ is man.

If one stares at Uluru long enough you can see all sorts of shapes emerging from its surface. The imagination can run wild here and you can clearly see things others can’t see. The First Nations people have clearly been quite adept at developing cultural/law ideas from landscape features.

The bike riders completed the circuit in good time. After some ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch and a look see at the Cultural Centre we returned to the village to put the feet up for a short time.

An hour or so before sunset we gathered at the Outback Uluru lookout for our canvas painting effort of the Rock. Homealone had arranged the art boards and paints. Most set to work with the creative juices freely flowing. Only a couple of other people intruded into our space at the lookout, so that was good!

Each of the efforts were quite OK, a couple were not finished and will hopefully be completed back home.

At dinner that evening we celebrated Alyssa’s 15th birthday at the Outback Bar and Grill. There were no takers for the Emu kebabs or the Camel sausages. Stuck to steak, fish, chicken nuggets and burgers. Conservative lot.

Next morning our last day at Uluru started sluggishly, breaky completed around 9.30. Allthego and the McConochies headed back to Uluru for a last look at the Rock from a different lookout. This is one is unique in that you get a view of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta in the same scene.

Kata Tjuta appears small, being someway back on the horizon. There are a couple of short walks here through the sandhills with sign boards that inform about the cultural and domestic roles and responsibilities of the indigenous men and women. Done quite well, informative but not overwhelming as some of this sort of stuff can be.

We managed to get back to the village to join the others at a Bush Tucker talk, short but sweet and a promo for products on sale in the local shop. Allthego got some tasty saltbush dukka, ground wattle seeds and some bush tomato chutney. This stuff might be good on a pizza.

After a late hurried lunch the airport beckoned for the flight back home to Brisbane.

All enjoyed the time away.

Palya Uluru.

We were back in the village around 8am following the Field of Light and sunrise on the Rock experience. After a little breakfast we went off and picked up the 8 seater car that had been prearranged so that we could get around. Uluru is about 20km away from the village and Katu Tjuta 55km.

The morning had been set aside for some cultural involvement. First up was animal painting for kids. Not real animals but small wooden cut outs. Although, I suspect Nomads could participate if there was room. But they were set up for 60 and had to turn away some kids. So oldies didn’t get a look in. Alyssa and Piper joined in enthusiastically and managed to each complete two animals/birds. Dot paintings. They are both quite good art wise and seem to know what they are doing painting wise.

Following the painting a didgeridoo demonstration beckoned. Again a full house. The guy had the audience set up with clap sticks and had us clapping along as he explained the breathing and blowing techniques involved in playing the instrument. It is apparently a bit like bag pipes. Allthego struggled a bit in keeping the different beats going, not great tune wise. Allthego was unaware that ‘didgeridoo’ is not an indigenous word. It is a European onomatopoetic invention the guy explained, being the ‘sound’ of the noise we hear when the instrument is played. Aborigines from various parts of the country have different names for it, in the north it is known as a ‘yidaki’. It is also not culturally played throughout Australia, it is a creature it seems of an arc across the north of Australia, from the Broome area to the western side of Cape York. And not elsewhere. This is all a rough remembering of what we were told, could be some inaccuracies in my recall.

We had prearranged lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, made up from stuff from the village IGA. We took these out to Kuta Tjuta and enjoyed them at the picnic ground at the western end of the domes. They look totally different from this angle compared to the side on view from the road on the southern side.

The Walpa Gorge walk starts here and runs between two of the domes for about 1.3km on a steadily rising up and down path to the end of the gorge. The track weaves over the same conglomerate rocks that comprise the domes.

The conglomerate a real mixture of widely varying size smooth river worn rocks. Great hunks of it lying around having fallen from the gorge walls. A creek runs down from the end of the gorge with small pools along the way. Plenty of vegetation.

It was a pleasant hour and half walk there and back through the ancient landscape that was home to our First Nations peoples. Homealone had remained back at the car reading one of the Ramses ‘historical novel’ books. An interesting contrast of civilisations!

We returned to the village late in the day to put the feet up after a long day.

Allthego has been experiencing blog hassles. It seems software issues have mucked things up and he has had to resort to the Ap to post. We are a couple of days behind.

We were last here at the Rock back in 2017 and there doesn’t seem to have been much change in the shape of the Rock since then. I suppose this is not surprising.

The next morning we faced an early 5 am start to do the Field of Light and Rock sunrise experience. In the early morning it is quite chilly, not far off zero. The sun rises circa 7.30am and we have 45 minutes or so wandering through the lights before heading back to the top of the sand dune to watch the sun rise and light up Uluru.

There are some 50,000 solar powered ball shaped like lights installed in a depression behind sands dunes. Down among the lights Uluru is obscured but up on the sand dune there is a great view across the plain.

Away behind us Kata Tjuta also catches the sun’s early rays. It is a quite an amazing sight!

The coach gets us back to the village for a well earned breakfast around 8 am, providing fuel for the days activities. The next post will cover off on these.

By the way Palya, ‘Phal-yah’, means ‘Hello, Goodbye, Thank you, Welcome.’ If you think about it, it is a big word! Quite suscinct.