feldmanlarry

October 25-27, 2017 – Australian Central Standard Time (13.5 hours ahead of EDT, -1 hour from Cairns). Uluru / Ayers Rock is in the center of Australia (see #3 on the map).

I was really happy that Margaret wrote about our experiences in the Outback. This is her entry.

What a wonderful walk around Ayers Rock (Uluru), a huge rock in the middle of the Australian Outback. It is so much more than a huge rock once you see it close up – complete with holes, striations, streaks of black from rainfall and chemical reactions, crevices, caves, and a water hole. The walk is a guided sunrise hike, of about 8.5 miles all the way around the mountain. Eight of us, plus the guide, began our walk at 5:45 a.m. (70 degrees), and finished at 11:00 a.m. (91 degrees). We were given packs with breakfast and a thermos of hot water, that we carried until 8:00 a.m. when we sat down to eat. Larry was not with me. Instead, he chose a much shorter hike and drive around, given his injury. If I were to have run and walked this trail on my own, I would have completed it in a couple hours, and avoided the heat. But I would have missed out on the explanations of the rock, and the stories of the Anangu people – how they viewed the sacred rock, how they found food in this harsh environment, how they saw the creation of the world. Our guide was not only knowledgeable but she was passionate in how she embraced the native culture. She explained the meanings of the cave paintings, and is adamant that no climbing should be allowed. When you look at the environment without the knowledge, it is easy to see just shrubs, small trees, grasses, insects, lizards, and birds. But the native people know how use every bit of this for sustenance.

Uluru in red, early morning

Railing for climbers, now heavily discouraged

Weathered surface of Uluru

A waterhole at Uluru

Deep holes show up as you are close

More pockets and holes

Your imagination can create stories, as is true for the Anangu

After my return to the hotel, and some down time, Larry and I took a guided tour to Kata Tjuta (many heads, because of the 36 dome-like rocks) – a different rock formation in the Outback. This is about a 1.5 mile hike, but the temperature was 101 degrees. We managed just fine, which surprised me. Larry copes with the heat far better than I do. Both Kata Tjuta and Uluru are amazing geologic formations – some of the geology is the same, some different. Because of the folding of the rock millions of years ago, the time layers of Uluru are actually perpendicular to the earth’s surface, so my morning hike around Uluru was actually a hike through millions of years of formation. I think this is similar to the Grand Canyon, as you walk the rim from one end to another. There are some similarities in the colors and rocks of Uluru and Kata Tjuta to the rocks we have seen in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, and yet very different.

Our guide in the afternoon explains the geology of Kata Tjuta and Uluru

Kata Tjuta, in the early morning sun, not the afternoon when we hiked it

So, what am I doing in the middle of Australia in these hot temperatures? I don’t like heat! And I hate these flies that swarm around your face. Give me cold places almost anytime! Larry has always wanted to visit Australia – in particular, the Outback. Now that I am retired, I don’t have an excuse not to go. I can’t say that I was excited about the trip.

Larry wears a net to protect against relentless flies

I am not a good traveler. I’m not like Larry, who gets excited about seeing the world, and embraces everything new that other parts of the world have to offer. Mind you, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to experience new things, but while Larry prefers new environments, I try to make things like home. I want to feel safe, and I like the comforts of home. I worry about everything – will I understand people with different languages or accents? Will I get my morning coffee as soon as I get up? Will I get motion sickness? Will taking Dramamine make me drowsy for days? Will we lose our luggage? Did I pack too much? Were there things I should have packed? Will the heat get to me? Will I find safe places to run and walk in the pre-dawn hours? Are there insects or wildlife that I need protection from? Can I eat raw vegetables and drink the tap water? Will we have medical emergencies in a foreign country? When we travel – whether in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, London, Paris, etc., I try to fall into certain routines. On one hand, running and walking in the early morning hours in strange places can be scary. On the other hand, it makes me feel at home because it’s such a part of me.

I’m not sure where all this worry comes from. And certainly I’ve done my share of not-so-safe and not-so-comfortable travel in the past. For example, hitchhiking from Buffalo to New York City with a friend, and with only $20 in my pocket, sleeping on the floor of an apartment of someone we barely knew, with cockroaches running around, wasn’t fun. Or maybe it was fun? Perhaps it’s because I felt unsafe after losing a parent when I was 8 years old. Maybe I just don’t want to be that uncomfortable or unsafe anymore. I guess it’s a good thing that Larry encourages me to do things I wouldn’t normally do. He often remarks that he is the gas pedal and I am the brakes. I guess that’s a good thing.

Larry on his early morning trek at Uluru

More of Uluru

Cave paintings

Kata Tjuta in the hot afternoon sun

At the end of my morning hike

Uluru cave

So, here I am on our second morning in the Outback, at 5:00 a.m., at the top of an overlook, after a 20-minute walk from the hotel room. I had no idea where I was going – I just figured it out as I went along. There’s a glimmer of dawn, but it’s very dark. Who knows what creatures will come out from the shrubs and attack me? But somehow at the top of this overlook, the moment feels just right – it is special to be here, and there’s nowhere else I would rather be at this moment.