Eating noodles at Ayres Wok

We were following a crazy route - from the Top End to the Centre then towards the North of Queensland. We had avoided doing many very long drives up until now but certainly covered some kms down the Stuart Highway to Alice. We knew it wasn't sensible but we particularly wanted to show the kids Uluru and Alice Springs and to spend some time in the glorious central Australian desert.

So now we were actually getting to Uluru and we all felt pretty excited. The kids even looked up from their books and wordsearches to get momentarily excited at the first view of 'The Rock' - although of course it was actually Mt Conner, the trick-rock that gets most first-time visitors. Shameful really that on my 4th visit to Uluru I should briefly make the same mistake... But when the real rock loomed in the distance it was just as magic as ever. Funny thing about Uluru - you can never actually get enough of it. It's just the colours, the light, the angles and the sheer immensity of it. However it is easy to tire of the tourist madness at the Ayres Rock Resort. It was one of the quietest time of the year so it wasn't so much the crowds as the packaged-up feeling of the whole experience. The resort is kind of like a pretend city - with lots of Aboriginal culture on display for the tourists, but apparently no Aboriginal people working there. We did, however, hear about a scheme to get Aboriginal people from all around Australia to come there for training in all aspects of the resort. Hard to tell whether the traditional owners get much from the hoards.

There are polite but passionae requests everywhere from the traditional owners for visitors not to climb the rock, but apparently 30% of people still do. Seems incredible that people can be so disrespectful. The local people have put up with ridiculous self-righteous white tourists scurrying like ants all over their sacred space for 30 years now, but the fact that people are going to the toilet and dropping rubbish on the top of the rock and all the sewage is running down the rock and polluting the group around it is the last straw for them. Supposedly Tourism Australia (who are on the Board of Management for Uluru) are reluctant to close the climb altogether, however it looks like they may agree to close the climb once it has been proven that only 20% or less of visitors actually want to 'master the rock'. I remember climbing it twice as a teenager and it was pretty cool - but really we need to learn that we can't always do exactly what we want. Anyway the base hike gives visitors an excellent view of the rock from all angles and really good information about the cultural significance of the rock to its traditional owners. The climb was closed when we were there due to heat and wind. Good thing because Bill made me promise not to yell at the climbers but I'm not sure whether I would have been able to control myself...

We hauled ourselves out of bed at 5.20am in order to go and see the sunrise. Of course, we should have left a bit earlier but enjoyed the best of the light from the car as we drove into the park. It was just lovely to be out there so early. Zara and I had set off on the 10km base walk by 6.30am while Bill and Sash grabbed a coffee before joining a ranger-guided tour around one of the more culturally significant parts of the rock. 

I am ashamed to say that we ate noodles at the 'Ayres Wok' restaurant... Not bad noodles but the worst name ever for any eating establishment! On the last morning, the kids and I did a dot painting workshop run by one of the Aboriginal art studios. We worked with a local artist, Rebecca, who showed us the various symbols and techniques. A friendly girl called Karri gave us all the paints and canvases and talked us about local art. It was great fun - especially the dots which were addictive to do. The kids got right into it and created masterpieces. Of course they ended up finger-painting and putting sand on the canvas etc. Fair enough really - dot painting is possibly a bit disciplined for young kids... Karri and Rebecca were kind enough to give us some of the paints and a symbol sheet to take away with us so we can keep dotting away wherever we are.

We watched a couple of sunsets over the rock but the conditions weren't perfect so we couldn't see that really stark colour change that we remember from previous visits. Still, it is a beautiful time of the day to sit on the bonnet of the car and watch the light on the rock.

We drove out to Kata Tjuta one afternoon but it was so hot that the Valley of the Winds walk was closed. So we wandered the short walk into Walpa Gorge which was hot and exposed but still very beautiful. Then we drove around the domes and admired them from all angles.

A special part of the world, and despite the tourist craziness I am sure we will be back.