Menoreturnagain; The Boomerang Posts; 14

Picking up from the bus exchange at Erldunda and headed for Yulara... (see TBP12) As an addendum today, let me share this image and a link to the relevant website... it has grown somewhat since our visit nearly four decades ago!

aerial-credit-Ayers-rock-resort

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The Pimple's Pimples

We arrived late morning, got settled then did the little walking reconnaissance of the 'village'.  Post Office, clothes shops, eateries, souvenirs shops.  It was sitting enjoying a quiet drinky-poo in the square that we liked as much as anything. 

Our accommodation at Yulara village was of the hostel kind, two bunk-beds to a cubicle room.  It was clean, comfy and more than adequate for our immediate needs.  One or two of the better-heeled travellers stayed in the hotel block.  There were sail-like canopies set up in the village centre, designed not just to keep the sun off, but maximise any drift of draught which might arrive from the desert hills.

image copyrighted to Ms HMR

As flat as the land looks from certain angles when you are down amongst it, it is surprisingly undulating.  Some of the hills would be as high as 50 feet I suppose.  Certainly, a lot of the time one could walk on one side of a hillock and not know if a fella was on the other!  As mentioned in respect to the Nullarbor, the 'desert' is quite alive with shrubs and grasses and is truly, hauntingly, beautiful.

Sceptical Tourist Fishy (STF) was in love.

The not-so-minibus which had brought us from Erldunda, with driver 'WHAN', was our tour bus for the duration.  In the morning, before dawn, it was all-aboard for the great Sunrise Climb.  (Yes, well.  That needs a separate post. Come back tomorrow .)  Once I was safely back down, it was drawing close to lunch, which was eaten back at the resort.  We had a couple of hours R&R before boarding once more to go out to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas).

STF was stunned by the weight of the silence there.  Something deep was singing within.

image copyrighted to Ms HMR

This group of outcroppings had an even more profound effect and, despite three subsequent visits to the Red Centre, STF still feels that Kata Tjuta holds the greatest secrets.  The group traipsed off the bus and in through a gulley, into a hidden valley and along for quite some distance. Here there were actual trees!!  Also a stream - rather a dry one at that point in the year, but not totally. No wonder it is considered a gift of the Great Serpent.

During this walk, STF fell behind a bit.  Partly due to taking piccies, but also because I wanted so much to "feel" the place.  It was several years later, when I had emigrated, that I read about 'songlines'.  Have often wondered if that was what I was picking up on.  There was certainly something more than just lumps of red rock going on.

image copyrighted to Ms HMR
STF surveys the scenery

At one point there was a steep climb that was going to be too difficult for STF to negotiate (arthritic hip playing up after all the morning fiasco).  So she just sat and mused, then felt and touched the rocks and the earth and the plants. and …!  Budgerigars!!!

Of course, one was aware they are Aussie Natives.  There had been no warning, however, so a sense of total amazement came over.  So much so, forgot to use the camera.  Tsk.

By the time we got back to the parking spot, the sun hung low in the west and we moved over to the picnic area.  Now was time for the night barbecue, complete with champagne, 'snags' (sausages) and 'chook' (chicken) and salads galore.  The dingos lurked in the scrub.  There was strict instruction NOT to throw food.  All the scraps were bundled together and tightly canistered in the bus-hold before the next part of the party ensued… a tour of the stars. 

Till now I have not mentioned the night sky to you.  STF found this to be another tick in the growing-to-love-it list.  As a keen amateur astronomer, it was true Heaven.  Here in The Centre, the atmosphere so pure and of course cloudless, it felt like one could just reach up and pick a star from the canvas.  WHAN had brought a local ranger with him to help us identify unfamiliar constellations and individual items.  Using a hi-beam torch, it was a true guided tour.  STF could have stayed there all night, but we had to be back and sleeping for in the morning we were to head off for the next part of the Great Oz Adventure.

A place of intrigue and fascination for generations of readers.  A Town Called Alice.

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