29 June - a day in Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park

No travelling today.  We went to the Cultural Centre at Uluru, where the Aboriginal way of life & their beliefs were explained & illustrated.  We watched a husband & wife, Millie & Brian, painting in the traditional style, using the tips of sticks to produce hundreds of tiny dots.  We found one of Millie's pictures particularly attractive & so we bought it.

We paid a second visit to the Rock & watched people doing the climb, which is not popular with the Aboriginals, but reluctantly tolerated to promote tourism.  It looked really challenging, not to mention somewhat dangerous!  In fact, one of the climbers snapped his Achilles Tendon & had to be brought down by helicopter.



See climbers at top, right of picture.

We did a short walk around the base of Uluru & were surprised at how the elements had carved out wierd & wonderful shapes, some of which we were allowed to photograph.  Others were regarded as too sacred & so we could not take pictures of them.
On leaving Uluru, we moved on to Kata Tjuta (the Bungle Bungles), which are also fascinating structures that make an impressive outline on the horizon.  Unlike Uluru, they are made up of several massive rock formations with huge crevices & valleys between.  We saw four wild camels grazing nearby (apparently, Australia has an enormous number of them, roaming freely).