Uluru – the red heart of Australia

And now for a blog entry about our last trip in Australia, to a place that is most likely my favorite of all of our travels in the country….

You’ve seen the image, that iconic one of Australia … a big red rock. You think to yourself, yea, must be nice to see it … not sure I want to spend more than one night there – because after all once you’ve seen the rock, what else is there to do in the middle of all that nothingness. 

That’s what I thought originally. But then we decided we wanted to do a camel ride out into the desert and we wanted to see the ‘other’ rock formation (originally called the Olgas and now referred to by its true name: Kata-Tjuta) and the hotel does a deal on 3 nights that makes it almost dumb to stay 2 nights, so we booked 3 nights

We flew up to Alice Springs since the flights worked better for us than the ones into Uluru. Qantas sort of owns the Alice runs and Virgin Australia does the non-stop to Uluru from Melbourne.  We were intrigued by the idea of seeing Alice (locals refer to it as “the Alice”) and we definitely wanted to do the drive to Uluru. We had read about Kings Canyon and decided to spend the first night in the area ‘glamping’, which is basically evocative of camping in that you are out in the bush and have a tent over your head, but the commonalities end there. There is a real floor, a king sized bed, air conditioning, electricity and even doors. We had a large separate bathroom (robes are provided so you can walk the few steps between your sleeping room and the bathroom) with a huge tub, big shower and very nice amenities. It sort of hurt to think of filling that tub out in the middle of the desert – so we took showers.

Glamping - morning light

  We stayed at the Kings Canyon Wilderness Resort (do those two words really go together?), which includes dinner and breakfast in their package. Dinner is a grand affair, set out under the stars with tables near a large open pit fire. The temps drop quite radically in the desert, so a wrap is definitely necessary and the flames and warmth from the fire are very welcome. We shared the table with a lovely family from Belgium, and in good European fashion all of them (parents, two sons in early 20s, and in-laws) were of course fluent in English and also spoke Flemish and French.  I’m not normally one who enjoys sharing a table on vacation since I relish time with my husband, but this family was so delightful, well traveled and well educated, it was a pleasure to chat with them. The food was quite good (and I'm a harsh critic) with a first course of risotto al funghi, and a couple of choices for the main course, which is good since I don’t eat meat. The desert is what the chef called a date cake with caramel sauce, served with a frozen vanilla cream. Really delicious and enjoyable in spite of the fact we were quite full by the time dessert arrived.

Camel on Kings Canyon station

All in all I highly recommend this resort, although we were less than overwhelmed with the Canyon itself. Most people hike the rim which is about a 3 hour hike, but since we were eager to get to Uluru, we opted to hike just into the canyon which is only about an hour. Perhaps the rim hike is the way to go, since I would not recommend the Canyon hike. It was pretty and the sight of the red cliffs above us were picturesque, but if you are short on time you may want to make other choices.

Red cliffs of Kings Canyon

  We got to Uluru in the early afternoon and were eager to check in and get over to the Park to buy our passes and secure our spot at the sunset viewing area.  Of the four hotel choices (all owned by the same resort company) we chose Sails in the Desert, which is the top of their line. We had been told to be prepared to pay for a five-star resort but stay in a facility that we would think of more like a motel, but the resort must have sunk some money into the place since it was certainly very nice. Rather on the expensive side, but they do have a captive audience since your alternative is to drive 4 hours if you want to stay someplace else. We were thankful that they had phone signal and wifi,  since we had lost signal about 5 minutes outside of Alice and had not seen it since.

Checking the official time for sunset, which they have posted at the front desk when you check in, we jumped in the car and drove the 15 minutes to the park entrance. The minimum they sell is a 3 day pass, so there’s yet another reason to spend at least 3 nights in the area.   

All the postcards and travel guide images that you have seen of Uluru do not prepare you for its jaw dropping majesty when you come upon it.  You drive a bit in the park before you get your first view of it, and then suddenly it is there. Amazingly powerful. The sun was already low on the horizon, creating crevasses and nuances in the rock, and the best word that comes to mind is majestic. I completely understand why it is a sacred place. Believed to be about 700 million years old the rock has a power and presence that has to be experienced to be understood. We leapt out of the car to take our first shots of it, and nothing could have compelled us not to stop immediately and (try to) capture its beauty. But knowing that the magic hour was nearing we got back in and made our way to the sunset viewing area

First sight

Now think Burning Man, or some other large populous event. Cars everywhere, many of them camper vans, people sitting on top of their vans, others with chairs on the dirt by the edge of the parking lot, some with barbeques set up. It was truly a ‘scene’. All the bus tours have to go to a different viewing area (thankfully) and I understand that gets jammed as well. We fortunately found a spot to park that was mostly legitimate, and hurried over to find a place to watch the show.

And what a show it was. Like a huge glowing mass rising up out of the flat of the desert, Uluru lights up bright red when the sun hits a certain angle. The sand is red there naturally, and Uluru is sandstone, thus when combined with setting light create a stunning combination. 

Red light

The many different colors of Uluru depending on time of day

The next morning we hiked around the base of Uluru. It is about 6 miles and it took us close to 4 hours because my husband is a photographer and I think he stopped to shoot photos as often as he put one foot in front of the other. Because of its scale, it is hard to capture any single image of Uluru that conveys what it is really like.  We of course have a hundred images. The landscape changes depending on which side of the rock you are on, and we even shared the path briefly with a dingo. He appeared very serious and on a mission - and he had no interest in us. Because there were two of us and we are bigger than him, he trotted right by and worked hard to avoid eye contact.

A photo with husband to show scale of the rock

Up close Uluru is full of crevasses

Even though we were there in the winter, which is considered peak season since you avoid the heat and there are far fewer flies (yes, in the bush you will definitely want a hat with a fly screen on it) we could walk for an hour at a time without running into a single person. At times the silence was complete - no bird call, no sound of wind in the trees, no human. Just the rock, the sky and the vast empty land  around you. On several occasions during the course of those 4 hours I tried to see and feel the the place from the eyes of an indigenous person and imagine what it feels like for them  to have this land be their home; to walk comfortably on bare feet across this very terrain, secure in the knowledge that the land would provide for them, that they are supported by the other members of their clan, as well as the strength of the sacred stories of how everything came to be. But I am too far removed from that life for me to imagine it with any semblance of truth, and I would fall back to the sound of my Nikes crunching on the path, the warmth of my husband's hand in mine, and the simple joy of being able to share in this experience for a just short while.

Perth and the Margaret River region

Western Australian Museum - Maritime

As we get ready for the big trip home (yes, our assignment is coming to an end) we felt strongly that we should not leave the country without having visited the western coast. 

All of our lovely meanderings have been on the east coast – from as far south as Tasmania, to all the way up north - (practically the northern tip of Australia), with great times spent in between those two points. Preparing for a short get-away to the state of Western Australia (WA), we talked to colleagues about the pros and cons of Perth. They spoke to us of a ‘country town’, not to be confused with a big city, and we were somehow left with the impression that it would be less cosmopolitan than the foodie city of Melbourne. However this was far from the case. We only had two nights in Perth, and on both occasions were treated to a really exceptional quality of sophistication in the cooking. 

First sight - the Indian Ocean

One of the big draws for me for going to WA was the Indian Ocean, and while my husband had never seen it, I used to swim in it all the time when we lived in Mauritius.  I have burned into my retinal memory the image from the movie Tracks, when she first emerges from the desert to wade into the Indian Ocean (btw if you have not seen that movie, I highly recommend it. It is the true story of a woman who walked from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean with just her camels). 

Truthfully, while Perth is a lovely town, there is not a ton of things to do there. We went to the WA Museum, which has several branches and a wonderful show on Aboriginal artists. We also went on both days down to Fremantle, the hipper beach area of Perth. While there we visited the Number 1 TripAdvisor rated destination: the FremantlePrison. Sound like an odd thing to do? We agree. An interesting twist is that this prison was operational until the 1990s. 


 

Convicts' area

The original quarters for the ‘convicts’ – yes, the ones that were shipped there in boats – were quite appalling, and the tour details all types of things such as the fact that they had to plaster the walls at some point to cut down on the population of fleas and other blood-sucking vermin that lived in the walls and came out to feed on the prisoners. Our tour guide seemed delighted to share with us the fact that they did not have toilets, and each prisoner was given a bucket … and no he was not referring to the old times when the ‘convicts’ were there. Anyway, we found the tour bizarre and somewhat depressing, and seeing the gallows as the grand finale for the tour was just a bit too much for me. 

Busselton Jetty - with tracks visible

We headed out early in the morning for our drive down to the Margaret River region, which is about 3 hours south of Perth.  Along the way we stopped at the famed Busselton jetty. How could we resist stopping to visit the “longest jetty in the southern hemisphere”. Well, yes, it is long. Very long. So long that they hook tourists into paying to sit on a little train to ride out to the end of the jetty. We felt that sort of defeated the purpose, so we walked … almost to the end of it. And then deciding that once you have walked one kilometer of it, the next kilometer really just looks the same, we turned around. We had a nice, but very overpriced, lunch at one of the two restaurants next to the jetty. With hindsight I would have skipped the stop at Busselton and headed straight down to Yalingup, which is where we were staying, since it is so much more interesting and beautiful.

Yallingup - most western view in AU

 

We booked at the Windmills Break. They were offering a nice package that included lodging and breakfast, which turned out to be terrific. I expect that these types of deals are only available in the ‘winter’ months, since in the other seasons they tell us that they “have more people down there than they have places to put them”. Since the winter weather consists of days mostly in the high 60s or low 70s, we were fine with that. 

The Margaret River area is just plain gorgeous. A wine country that is still very undeveloped with wild calla lilies growing in lush abundance and great mobs of kangaroos lolling around in the fields during the day. We saw mobs of both big reds and western greys. 

'Roos' - big reds

There are so many wonderful things to do in the Margaret River region, I will only attempt a short list. The Caves are a must .... we went to Lake Cave, which has a free floating table structure (see image below) that weighs a couple of tons. It is at least 1.5 million years old and is one of two table structures in the world (the other one is in a cave in France that is not open to the public). Our guide told us that Jewel Cave (not to be confused with the Jewel Cave that is in the US) is petitioning to be the 8th wonder of the world. Not sure they stand much of a chance, but it must be a special place.

Lake Cave free floating table structure

Of course there are the wineries (we had a fabulous lunch at Will's Domain) restaurants (I highly recommend Cape Lodge for dinner) and the beaches, which are jaw-dropping beautiful.

One of the courses at Wills Domain

Meelup Beach - Indian Ocean

Sailing the Whitsunday Islands

As we came in for landing

My sisters and I starting talking about a girls’ reunion at the Great Barrier Reef pretty much the day I agreed to move to Australia. Time flew by as it always does, and during that time I had the opportunity to travel up to Port Douglas with my husband to both dive and snorkel the reef. Reporting on the degradation of the reef to my sisters resulted in the decision to move the destination for their visit elsewhere. Seeking something near the reef but uniquely Australian, we came up with the idea of sailing the Whitsunday Islands. Certainly I had never heard of them when living Stateside, but here it is quite the thing to do.

The Whitsundays are a group of 74 islands, most of them uninhabited parkland. There are quite a few wild goats, as it turns out. I suppose sailing the Whitsundays became such a thing because there is no other way to get between the islands, and the wind is fairly reliable in the area – as in, it is usually blowing. It was up to 24 knots when we were there, which means nothing to me, but I can tell you it was windy at times. Wikipedia describes the Whitsundays as “one of the most popular yachting destinations in the Southern Hemisphere”.  Bare-boating is fairly popular, but when we heard about the 12 foot tides and considered the responsibility of a 30 foot catamaran, we opted to bring aboard a skipper as well. This was a great decision, because not only did he allow us to benefit from his 25 years of experience sailing the area, but it also allowed us to sip wine and admire the sunset while he kept us safe and headed in the right direction. Our captain Chris was truly great: fabulous company, great stories and a terrific skipper. I highly recommend him if you rent with Whitsunday Escape. We chose the Seawind 1000 XL which was the right size for the 4 of us plus Chris.

First night in port

Because we really only had one time window where we could make all the calendars work, we headed up the coast of Queensland in mid-april. The major advantage of that timeframe is much of the heat has worn off and the rainy season is past; the major disadvantage is that it is still not safe to jump in the water without a stinger suit. Early june would have been much better temperature wise (it was still pretty hot in april) and the waters would have been ok for suit-free swimming. We spent the first night in the port aboard the Lulu, having flown up that day and done all the provision shopping. While the port was beautiful and peaceful, there was not a breeze to be found, and sleeping consisted of getting used to the fact that you were dripping with sweat. 

Lulu galley and view to my 'stateroom'

Yes, that tiny cubbyhole-looking-thing you see on the other side of the galley was where I slept. I never could decide if the narrow part was supposed to be for your feet or your head, and tried both on different occasions. Neither worked very well. The advantage to putting your feet in the narrow space, is that just above your head is a porthole. This is lovely for viewing the stars at night, but can also result in the moon shining straight in your eyes during the wee hours.

Dining area and main room

I slept little for any of the 4 nights we were on-board. The bed is simply too uncomfortable and the temperature too hot. Note the tiny plastic fan in the corner of the galley area. That's it when it comes to 'air conditioning' on the boat. Keep that in mind when picking dates. However, lack of sleep mattered little in the face of the beauty of the islands and the wonder of being out there with no access to 'civilization' for days.

Sunset - sitting docked for the night offshore

We had thought we would be able to stop in at stores and replenish ice, or maybe even take the dingy to shore and have dinner at a restaurant one night. Not so. Whatever provisions you put on the boat when you sail away, is what you've got while you are away. Fortunately, my younger sister had meal planning down to a science, and had exactly the right amount of food. This, even though that dinner of 'freshly caught fish'  never materialized. We enjoyed watching Chris fish, and he was a pro at it, but we never ended up with one that was right for eating. Nor did the mud-crab traps yield any of those tasty fellows, but it was great fun taking the dingy into the mangroves to set and retrieve the traps. We felt like real explorers and were completely alone, with just a few oyster-catchers to watch us motor slowly by. We surprised a big lovely green turtle when we were in the shallow water, and she moved so quickly she startled me. (I'm used to seeing them swim by at their leisurely, serene pace). 

We named this one butterfly island

One of the many deserted beaches we visited

Sunrise with the Lulu at anchor

We had a blast when Chris dropped us off on a spit of land called 'one foot island' for an hour (we were on our way to moor for the night at a different island). Nothing but us, seashells, the turtles swimming slowly by, and the gulls. 

In the long list of fabulous times (did I mention that I celebrated my birthday on the Lulu, sitting on the netting at the front of the boat, looking at the stars and drinking a wonderful champagne, or that we hiked up a deserted island to look at aboriginal cave paintings) my favorite has to have been when the dolphins swam into the cove where we were anchored.  Since it was completely dark except for the light from the stars, our first alert was a swooshing breath sound. (Here is an example of what it sounds like.) We wondered if perhaps a rarely seen dugong had decided to pay us visit. But actually the dolphins were so much better. They were hunting and must have been drawn to the small fish congregating near the boat. We ran off for flashlights and made a bunch of noise in our excitement, but this did not deter them. Since we could only spot them when they surfaced, we kept shining the lights on the water waiting to catch a glimpse of them. We saw many magical sightings, somehow made more special because of the dark and how they would appear out of nowhere. In the end, one of them gave us a clear message of annoyance at how he felt about the light shining in his eyes, and he smacked his tail on the water with a splash in our direction. Then slowly and quietly, one by one they vanished, swimming invisibly out of the dark waters of the cove and back to open water - leaving us with only the sound of water lapping gently on the hull and the glow of the stars.