Kata Tjuta

Our van departed the hotel at 4:45 a.m. Only six of the ten group members were aboard. The idea was to see Uluru at sunrise, when the changing angle of the sun causes the rock to seem to change colors by the minute. There were hundreds of people out there in the dark, disgorged from dozens of giant tour buses. But, alas, the sky was cloudy and the rock remained grey.

We had set no alarm, but I was awake anyway after a restless night, so I decided to go. Mary slept in. She got the better deal.

Upon return, I cleaned up a bit and then we both went to breakfast. The van left again at 8 a.m., this time with a full group. We drove to Kata Tjuta, which in the native language is supposed to mean, "Many Heads." European settlers sometimes called it "The Olgas," but that name is rarely heard anymore. 

Kata Tjuta is about 16 miles from Uluru, and consists of 36 domes clustered together. Its tallest dome is actually a bit taller than Uluru, rising 1,790 feet above the surrounding plain.

The aboriginal people consider this a sacred site, also. But unlike Uluru, where ceremonies were held for men, women, girls, and boys, Kata Tjuta was a ceremonial site reserved only for men.

We took the short version of the Valley of the Winds walk. It's between two of the large domes, and the wind comes whistling between. The good thing is that the wind keeps the flies away. The bad thing is that there is almost no shade. It's a bit up hill going in, thus downhill coming out, and very rocky. One has to watch one's step.

The walk was supposed to take a bout an hour, but again, we were dogged by big tour buses and the crowds slowed things down. Most of the other tourists were French-speaking and German-speaking.

Mary and I finished in the hour, along with a couple of others. A few turned back part way, and the rest took a little longer to finish. As we waited in the shade for the others, we chatted with a woman from the German-speaking group. She was Swedish, and when we told her we were from Minnesota, she said, "Oh you have Gustavus Adolphus College there!"

Once everyone was back aboard the van, we drove to the Cultural Center where we looked as aboriginal art and watched a film about how the indigenous people survived in the bush for thousands of years. The hunting and cooking of kangaroo and rabbit was pretty straightforward. The digging of the grub worms in the roots of certain shrubs was less appealing.

The afternoon was free. We went to the local theater where a ranger was giving a talk about foods and medicines in the bush. Grub worms came up again. The central message was, "Don't eat anything out here. Unless you know what you're doing, it can kill you." We weren't planning to make salad from the local plants anyway, so I think we're safe.

Desert dessert with cotton candy

We spent the rest of the afternoon in and around the swimming pool. There were lots of French and German speakers here, too. At 6 p.m. we joined the group for an included dinner at the hotel restaurant. We've decided that the Outback is one of those places we're glad to have seen, but we really don't have any desire to see it again. We fly to Sydney in the morning.