Gooooooood morning, Uluru!
We debated back and forth, and as much as the morning isn't my friend, decided to come out to see the sunrise over Uluru. So we got up at like 0430.
We might only ever be here once, so why not?
Unfortunately, it was cloudy.
But it was still pretty and I'm glad we did it.
There are viewing areas over on the south-east side at the Minymaku platform.
We were there!
Uluru is about 3.6 km (2.2 miles) long and about 1.9 km (1.2 miles) wide.
A nest of some sort?
It's an anthill, only...there's no hill. An ant hole?
We decided to go hike around Uluru now, since it would only get hotter as the day went on.
This is the trail we are going to take around the monolith.
Uluru is 348m (1,141 feet) tall.
We're off!
Walking up to Uluru we hear this weird noise. It's frogs!
I think this is Mulla Mulla.
A slightly saturation enhanced photo from Dan.
Tiny little purple flowers.
Ruffles have ridges, and so does Uluru.
The monolith is covered in what look like scales.
It's made of layers and layers of arkose, a type of sandstone.
This section of Uluru looks windswept.
Om, nom, nom!
There are black waterfall streaks around Uluru.
These are created from residue from water and deposits from the rainy season.
It's a bit swampy in places.
I think this is a pair of Willy Wagtails, which is a great bird name.
I zoomed in on one of the crevasses and it's full of little swallow-like animals.
A type of pussytail.
I was intrigued by the coloring and texture of this bark.
Possibly a Black-faced cuckoo-shrike.
Everlasting daisy, a type of strawflower.
Jim and Sherrie getting their photo taken by Dan.
We were there!
Little yellow puffs.
There's actually a ton of color here. Reds in Uluru, blacks and silver in the trees, green in the leaves and shrubbery, and pops of color from flowers and birds.
Walking around the narrow end. We're probably 1/3 of the way around.
This side looks like it has a skull etched into it.
Yeah, definitely a skull.
The limestone erodes in an interesting way.
This tree has super thick chunky bark.
The trail is wide and red.
Wind whipped shrubs wrap around trees.
Two lonely seed pods.
A bright yellow bird.
Possibly the mate to the one in the tree.
The sun started to peek through the clouds.
This is a moment where I can see why the Anangu find Uluru sacred.
A different windswept looking crevasse.
Full of swallow-like birds.
I found one of those noisy frogs! It was being particularly not noisy at this moment.
Hello little yellow bird! I've discovered it's a Grey-headed honeyeater.
I love how the sky is reflected in the black streaks.
The swallows all came down to drink.
So, you CAN climb Uluru, but it is asked that you don't as a sign of respect.
A Wanari, or common mulga tree.
Around the side of the climbing path are these memorial plaques to 5 climbers who lost their lives on Uluru.
It's beautiful.
Look at this elegant bird.
It's interesting how much the landscape changed as we walked around.
Little red flower things.
Uluru is red because of the oxidation of its iron content, i.e. it's rusty.
I liked this part of the trail. It was all ensconced in trees.
I think this is a mulga berry.
Gradation in iron streaks.
We made it all around Uluru!
Onto Kata Tjuta, the other rock formation here in the park.
There's Uluru off in the distance.
Kata Tjuta is made up of 36 domes.
Look at these punks.
My parking lot mohawk pigeon is a Crested pigeon. So I was close.
I found a delicate purple wildflower.
And a very triangular shaped cloud.
Kata Tjuta's tallest dome, Mt. Olga, is 1,066m (3,497 ft) tall.
Another view from the road. It almost looks like a painting.
Ilykuwara or Witchetty bush.
It's funny how the sun/clouds can have one cluster of domes so shaded and one set so well lit.
Dan's artsy photo.
There are many Dreamtime legends associated with this place.
We're going to do part of the Walpa Gorge Walk.
Unfortunately, the Valley of the Winds walk was closed.
Gorge.
It had become quite warm by this point in the day.
There was a slight stream running through the gorge.
This feels like walking next to a big battle ship or something similar.
This dome looks like a submarine.
Bye Kata Tjuta!
Uluru is famous for its color-changing act. Here it is a strawberry orange.
Also there's this almost frost green plant.
We came back to the viewing area from last night to watch the sunset.
We got orange.
And a lovely mauve.
Enjoy the sunset with us (photo timelapse).
This concludes our adventures for today.
This concludes our adventures for today.
