Another pre-hike granola and yogurt breakfast, plus a little sweet chia cup offering from one of the chefs. Dawn was breaking as we left the lodge (once again with Julia)…
maybe Venus overhead? 40+ minute ride to our destination, Kata Tjuta, with the sun slowly emerging. Odd experience in this big sky country, with the deep nature roots of its people: The presence of the sun just below the horizon is more poignant somehow – same feeling after it sets.
The rocks of Kata Tjuta that we’ve been seeing from afar grew as we approached.
We started with a hike up into its Walpa Gorge.
Note the Druid cloaks. Actually fleece parkas that Julia offered, after warning of strong, cold head winds coming out of the Gorge.
Once again Julia had a lot to say, most of it about plants that the local indigenous folks have gathered and used for millennia.
There was a waterhole that afforded a reflection shot…
and Julia demonstrated a trick pano shot of the Gorge cliffs that we all had to try, leaning over backwards as far as we could and shooting up.
Julia did a bit of a “gotcha” by asking us to guess the number of domes. Quite surprising to learn that there are 36…
the catch being that, unlike Uluru, Kata Tjuta is sort of L shaped, with a string of mounds perpendicular to those in the previous photo…
and we went to a viewpoint where those were the main feature.
Note a tiny Uluru in the upper left background of this photo.
From a modern, scientific perspective, it’s not difficult to imagine how the indigenous folks developed strong beliefs around these two imposing natural prominences, with their life-sustaining resources, both in visual proximity.
I need to add that when we finally got to the viewpoint late morning, the lighting on the mounds was not as colorful as we’d seen it in sunsets, as below…
and it was, no doubt, much less colorful than it had been at sunrise. Longitude 131 makes a choice to do the Gorge first, while all of the other tours go first to the viewpoint. When we came out of the Gorge, throngs of people were arriving. I believe the purpose is to enable the 131 guides like Julia to spend more time with their small groups on the cultural stories in a calmer, less crowded and less distracting environment. It worked for me.
We finished the morning at the Cultural Center, which had an excellent set of displays, taped interviews, written testimonials, artwork etc. that allow one to gain an understanding and appreciation of the community’s ancient existence (one of the oldest on the planet) in an accepting and respectful way. We got absorbed in it and were the last back to the van.
We went back to another gourmet lunch – did I mention the kangaroo tartar entree (pre-main course here) I had last night? For lunch we had Atlantic Salmon on a thick little jumble of several tiny vegetable samples, that, with the salmon, created a flavor I really could not get enough of. No embarrassment as I painstakingly found a way to eat every last speck.
We whiled away the afternoon, me catching up with the blog, Dana washing clothes, playing Words etc. We had thought about a bike ride but the flies are just too much of a deterrent. We also eschewed the scheduled sunset viewing and outdoor dinner at Table 131. I didn’t need more Uluru photos, and neither of us needed to shiver under failing heaters when the food in the regular dining room would be enough of an attraction by itself.
And, our thoughts are turning to our next destination where we will fly and transfer to tomorrow am – the Silky Oaks Lodge in the Daintree Rainforest, that may be on a par with Longitude 131 for excellence. The weather may be a little damp, but we’re looking forward to it.
Dana and Roger Travels 