For our last day camping out in Central Australia, we went to Uluru to do the base walk. But first, we woke up pretty early again, but this time to go and see the sunrise at Uluru. We had breakfast at the sunrise viewing location, and when it finally began, it was a pretty amazing sight. With the moon behind us, and the place we were watching at, we had a good sighting of the sunrise. We caught a small glimpse of the rock changing color because of the sunlight and the direction the sun was heading, but it was still great to watch happen.
After sunrise hit, we headed out to the Cultural Center for a bathroom break, and then drove to the base of Uluru. When up close, you get to see just how massive the rock really is. It took around two hours for us to complete most of the walk, as we started a little past where we were for the Mala Walk the day before. Throughout the walk, you could see many different formations on the rock itself. Apparently, in recent years, the walk was altered so that it went around the smaller rock by Uluru. The Aboriginals have obtained more control over the walk, which is why this occurred. They were upset that so many people were climbing this rock, as it is a culturally sensitive area for them. So this was done to keep people away from it. It does hurt the walk a little, as you don't get to see as much from a distance. It really gets interesting when you get to the other side though. You get to see much more detail and can try to interpret the meanings of some of these formations after some time. Along the way, I got to look at some cave paintings, but I did not really understand what was happening.
When we made it back to the start of the Mala Walk, we noticed that there were several people trying to climb up Uluru. There were also others that arrived on a bus, and immediately started to climb it. The lack of hesitation from these people really surprised me. And after everything I learned throughout the tour, I feel like they were being disrespectful and only treating Uluru as a challenge instead of a cultural site. I do hope one day that nobody tries to climb Uluru, but it seems like that will only happen after a long time.
So after the walk, we had another bathroom break at the Cultural Center, and started heading back to Alice Springs. Along the way, we dropped someone off at the airport, and then had lunch at the roadhouse we went to the first day heading toward King's Canyon. After a few hours, we returned, and for dinner, we went to the Rock Bar near the Todd Mall. It was a great meal to have after the time we spent out for the past few days.
And this marked the second to last fully planned day of our trip in Alice Springs. It's near the end of our trip at this point, so I hope the rest of the time here is a fun conclusion to this month-long trip.
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