A bit of background history
For those of you who don't know. 17 years or so ago a lady (Natalie) joined the school I was working at as a maths teacher. Very quickly we became firm friends and she ended up helping me run the bridge club at the school for the boys. 5 years later her family - husband Rob, daughters - Georgia (now 22) and Madison (now 20) decided it was time to go home to Australia. We stayed in touch and we did come out and see them in 2019 with Iona for a month. David and I both loved the country and decided then we needed to go back - hence this trip. As a lot of photos will have these 4 special people in I thought I had better explain who they are.
The one aboriginal word we used a lot is Palya which means - hello, welcome, thank you and goodbye.
Sunday 24th cont...
Unfortunately the night sky decided to be covered in cloud but we could see Saturn which was so cool. I have had it pointed out to me many times in the sky but to see all the rings around it was quite spectacular.
However, the evening was not a complete write off as we had a wonderful meal together in their restaurant beforehand.
Monday, 25th September
It has been a long time since our alarm has gone off at 4am but we needed to be on the coach for 4:50 to go to Uluru itself and watch the sunrise. Surprisingly for both David and I this event was the best we did in our entire trip so far. If any of you are planning a trip to Uluru I could not recommend the Desert Awakenings Trip highly enough. David went a little mad and took over 400 photographs which I have not copied here but we were in awe for most of the morning.
Once the sun rose we travelled to Uluru and our guide walked us into the Mutitjulu waterhole, which does not have the waterfall running at the moment. After which we continued around the base whilst our guide told us the creation stories of the local Anangu people. It was very special. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos relating to some of the sides as it is so sacred to them.
Photos relating to the stories:
Other aspects of the rock and waterhole area. The photo top left shows where the "invaders" used to climb up the rock and you can still see the damage/track they left. They have not been allowed to climb onto the rock since 26/10/2019.
The whole place was such an amazing experience and we are both so grateful we got to go. Next time, however, we would love to go to King's Canyon and see more of Kata Tjuta.
In the afternoon we attended a didgeridoo lesson. It was really interesting. Women are not meant to play the didgeridoo nor do any aboriginal people call the instrument a didgeridoo!
As we walked back to our room they were doing some controlled burns of the underbrush. Fascinating to know that a high percentage of plants natural to the Northern Territories need smoke and/or fire to germinate. Several years ago some SA cattle ranchers introduced some South African grass (forgotten the name) to help prevent soil erosion. This has meant the land looks lovely and green but unfortunately lights up like a tinder box and burns hotter than native grass.
Tuesday 26th September
We had to sadly say goodbye to the Northern Territories and fly back to Brisbane. We will be in Brisbane until Sunday when we begin our tour of Queensland.
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