“Ayers Rock”, known as Uluru by the aboriginal people in the area, is a huge sandstone monolith that’s the centerpiece of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The name ‘Uluru’ is the name given by the aboriginal people, however, it has no specific meaning. Uluru is just what they call it. This massive sandstone monument rises over 1,100 feet above the surrounding land and is almost six miles in circumference. So, you might ask, how does a huge sandstone monolith like this just appear in the middle of the desert? That’s a good question.
Geologists told us that a while back (we’re talking a couple of hundred million years ago) the center of current day Australia was a huge inland sea. Over time, sediments were compressed by the weight of the water and the sediments themselves and turned into a layer of sandstone.
Then, during a period of tectonic movement, the land folded like a ‘U’. The exposed ends of the ‘U’ eventually eroded away, leaving a stub of the sandstone layer sticking up out of the ground. The other leg of the ‘U’ is the Kata Tjuta (“The Olgas”) formation about 25km away. You can find more information at Austraila National Parks website.
We explored several different sections of the rock. I want to make it clear that we did our exploring in the mornings because the afternoon temperature hit 106 while we were there. Fortunately, in the late mornings, it was still a relatively cool 92. After noon, we made a bee-line for the resort and spent the afternoon relaxing in the lounge and swimming in the pool. We consider ourselves to be smart travelers!
The most interesting walk that we took was the Kuniya Walk on the southwest side. The distance is no more than 2km round trip and has a great deal to offer. We saw cave paintings under a broad overhang and heard aboriginal stories of how the rock was formed and how various marking and formations came to be. Walking along the well-marked trails we made our way to the Mutitjula waterhole, home to an ancestral wanampi water snake.
Not being a bird-watcher, I can’t tell you the names of all the interesting birds we saw, but there were many and they were all new to me. However, as an amateur photographer, I can tell you that the colors, shadows and bright contrasts made the entire experience wonderful.
For more pictures take a look at the Uluru Photo Album