You can see the awe inspiring rock when you fly into Ayers Rock Airport, which is just a few km from the great red monolith.
Evening at the Rock is a very sociable occasion, sparkling Aussie wine, chats with other visitors but above all else, the immensity of the Rock, the largest monolith on the planet. When you look at it the jaw drops slightly open and you temporarily lose the power of speech. It dominates all else around it, the desert and the sky. The changes in Uluru's colour as the sun sets are almost other worldly, bright red through darker shades of the same, then a rich brown and finally blackness.
Pre-dawn at the rock in July is extremely cold - take a fleece and some gloves! We are there before 0700hrs in the silence, which is broken only by the strong, cold wind. Up close, the rock is immense, hypnotic and you cannot look away. Our intention is to walk around the perimeter, which is just over 12km. The path is well marked and flat. At various points there are sacred sites which we must keep off, though there are plenty of other opportunities to explore the very lowest slopes, to see cave paintings which tell dreamtime stories and to marvel at the range of flora around the Rock and beside its water holes. We have a shivery stand up breakfast and then get warm as we walk, all the time admiring the changing colours as the Sun breaks over Uluru.
Evening at the Rock is a very sociable occasion, sparkling Aussie wine, chats with other visitors but above all else, the immensity of the Rock, the largest monolith on the planet. When you look at it the jaw drops slightly open and you temporarily lose the power of speech. It dominates all else around it, the desert and the sky. The changes in Uluru's colour as the sun sets are almost other worldly, bright red through darker shades of the same, then a rich brown and finally blackness.
Pre-dawn at the rock in July is extremely cold - take a fleece and some gloves! We are there before 0700hrs in the silence, which is broken only by the strong, cold wind. Up close, the rock is immense, hypnotic and you cannot look away. Our intention is to walk around the perimeter, which is just over 12km. The path is well marked and flat. At various points there are sacred sites which we must keep off, though there are plenty of other opportunities to explore the very lowest slopes, to see cave paintings which tell dreamtime stories and to marvel at the range of flora around the Rock and beside its water holes. We have a shivery stand up breakfast and then get warm as we walk, all the time admiring the changing colours as the Sun breaks over Uluru.
Some people are climbing Uluru and I can see the attraction because the view from the top must be incredible. To me, climbing Uluru is an enormous temptation but it would also be a slight to the local aboriginal people, the Anangu and their beliefs and law (Tjukurpa). It is estmiated that aborigines have been in the area for 22 000 years.
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