To Climb Uluru (Ayers Rock) Or Not

After a 440km drive from Alice Springs, we arrive at Yulara, which is home to the Ayers Rock Resort and the camp ground, our base for three nights to explore Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Being school holidays, the camp ground is the busiest place ever with a procession of cars and caravans lined up to check in or to try and get a spot. Every spot is pretty much taken with caravans and tents claiming there patch of land.

Before we arrived, I kept trying the resorts website which was full, looking for an upgrade from our one night in an unpowered van site and two nights in our freezing cold tent. Voila, three nights powered site came up so I grabbed it and at least we can put the heater on. Winter daytime temperatures here can still be warm and always sunny but it can drop to 0 degrees at night.

We finally get to visit Uluru (Ayres Rock), up close and personal. We are both excited and the rock just draws you in as it’s such an awe inspiring and spiritual place.

Uluru is a massive 550 million year old sandstone monolith in the heart of the Northern Territory’s arid red centre. It’s a sacred place to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara cultures collectively known as the Anangu people who are the traditional owners. Uluru sits within Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, which also includes the 36 red-rock domes of the Kata Tjuta (The Olgas).

Now jointly named Ayres Rock, Uluru since 1985, the British surveyor William Gosse was the first European to discover the monolith in 1872. He named it Ayers Rock after the former South Australia Premier, Sir Henry Ayers. The name is iconic but like many other places of interest and cultural significance in Australia, Ayres Rock is named after someone’s surname just because of their nobility. William Goose must have owed him a favour or two, big time!

Many places however are slowly acknowledging the aboriginal heritage and are either being renamed their rightful aboriginal name or have dual names like Ayers Rock Uluru. I suppose Goose Rock doesn’t have the same ring to it but if the Premier of South Australia’s name would have been Walsh, I guess I would be proudly calling it Walsh Rock instead.

As we drive the road in, the rock is even bigger and more amazing than we had ever imagined and we are still 13km away from the base. We reach the entrance to the National Park and pay the $50 for a three day pass.

The dirt is real red out here and such a contrast to the spinifex and the bush flora. Jen has been collecting dirt on our travels so she adds a handful to her collection. I have plenty of dirt on my clothes she can have!

The colours of the rock change constantly and stand out imposingly against the blue sky with sections of contrasting sun and shade from every angle. It feels like the rock is alive. You just get the sense that this is a special place and being desert country, we are remote as can be in the middle of Australia.

I have been thinking about the climbing of Ayres Rock and whether or not I should do it. Jen had made up her mind not to climb a long time ago out of respect for the wishes of the Anangu People. I however wanted to first dig a bit deeper and understand the reasons why people choose to climb it or not.

From 26th October 2019 the climb to the top of Uluru will be banned once and for all to respect the Anangu people’s wishes. So during this peak holiday season, everyone is turning up with FOMO (fear of missing out) to climb the rock. It’s apparently a high priority bucket list item and the procession of climbers are like a colony of ants making their way up the rock face. It makes for one busy resort too and the line for the showers is almost as long as the line to climb the rock.

The Anangu people have long requested that visitors not clamber over their sacred site and the signs at the base of Uluru urge visitors to do the right thing, show respect and don’t climb the rock. People read the signs, then do it anyway. More than 30 people have passed away whilst climbing Ayers Rock and the Anangu people get extremely sad when a death occurs on their sacred land.

The story of Wati Lungkata teaches not to disrespect the rock. (Wati Lungkata the blue-tongue lizard man was greedy and dishonest. He camped in a cave on the rock and stole a wounded emu from hunters. The hunters set a fire that burned Wati Lungkata up. Gulp, we don’t want to be burnt alive!!!

Increasingly, travellers have been paying attention and in 2015, only 16 per cent of visitors climbed the rock. That is a significant change from the 1990s, when 75 per cent of visitors took it on. We are experiencing a surge at the moment as it seems most people are going up as the last chance to climb it comes to an end. We all have our choices and in the end, it’s a test of respect vs self fulfilment.

So I turned to the 2013 film “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and a scene that captured my imagination. You need to check out the scene or even the movie to better get the idea.

https://youtu.be/JfjkiTB1fHQ

Now Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is a Negative Asset Manager For LIFE magazine and is searching for a missing photographic negative for the front cover of the magazine. He eventually tracks down the photographer Sean O'Connell (SEAN Penn) in the Himalayas, and finds him quietly waiting for days for a chance to see and photograph an extremely rare snow leopard.

On finally sighting the leopard in his zoom lens, this rare moment in life has arrived, but he doesn’t take the shot and simply appreciates the beauty of the animal in the moment.

That’s kinda how I feel about climbing Ayres rock
and why in the end I am happy not to do it.

Its a good thing to Respect the Anangu People’s wishes. So I sit quietly away from the tourist lines, take in the energy and beauty of the rock and appreciate Uluru in the moment. Not everything in life needs to be conquered just because we can.

Well what does all this mean? It means we’re bloody walking around Uluru instead and its a long 10km hike but we enjoy seeing the many aspects of the rock including the sacred cultural sites. Hey there goes a segway group riding past. That looks a fun way to do it.

As we start in a clockwise direction, we find a rock overhang that displays rock art on the wall like a chalkboard in a clasroom. Its a place for learning where the aboriginal children essentially went to school to learn about their culture. Now that an old school!

Close by, there’s different cave like formations that provided separate areas for the aboriginal men, women, elders and children. Although the Aboriginal culture is integrated though traditions and culture, the different gender and age groups have important distinctive roles within their tribe.

It takes a couple of hours to walk the base of the Uluru but it’s peaceful especially on the back side of the rock where the cooler shade and shadows on the rock dominate. There are fewer tourists here too.

We are back at the camp ground and whilst everyone is queuing up to climb the rock, we take advantage of no queues at the showers. Apparently last night there were queues for the showers at 11.30pm.Read more