"At no time in history, human respect not shined a very bright Flash." Charlie Chaplin

We are on the way to the most famous rock of Australia, If the world, Some will tell you that this is precisely what a banal rock, others that it is notable to the Sunrise. But if the national park of Uluru - Kata Tjutis one of the two only pay parks in Northern Territory- 25$ (~ €18) per person for three days - I think that it is for a reason and so we decided to travel the hundreds of kilometers leading there to form our own opinion – no Uluru is not just outside Alice Springs, but at least four hours away.

Start of Mala Walk

Lessons of the past

So yes of course it’s touristy, the town of Yulara just before the park entrance is just a gigantic dormitory with basic services. But what a rock ! It's a rock, it's a hill, it’s a massive, what did I say, it’s a massive ? It's an inselberg ! Visible almost fifty kilometers before the entrance to the park – and not one hundred and sixty as we first thought, mais c’était le Mont Conner – non c’est à côté ! 😀 ; hum, which is also a inselberg, “mountain-island” - it made us the same effect as the Sydney Opera House, see photo this is something, see them for real is completely different.

Power walk around a new perspective at every step, especially for some sensitive sites that Anpolenta - descendants of Mala who lived in Uluru and traditional owners of which are now officially the 26 October 1985 - ask us to respect and not to film or take pictures. Is that all visitors respect their wishes is a little when some Homo climb Stupidus observed Uluru while messages asking not to the registered everywhere : on the guides, entrance tickets, the information center, on all panels of the site itself ... Now white man do you run and scream in the churches where you are asked to respect the peace of the place ?

Thank you not to climb

Remains of Tjukurpa ?

After a tour of the cultural center we are committed on the road that goes around the rock - it is also possible to do this walk on a trail ten kilometers six - and we stop to browse the short but very interesting Mala Walk two kilometers that is punctuated many sites used by the ancestors of Anpercent. The wall of "school" where wati - Men - taught the nterms - boys - the art of hunting and survival ; Mala Puta and kitchen cave where minyma - women - taught their gibbon - girls - how to find and prepare more, bush tucker ; the cave of the old and the Ka waterholentju Gorge. We leave this place after an interesting discussion with a professor of Aboriginal History observing the air we grieved the tourists come and go on one side of Uluru no respect for the place. We discuss the film we saw yesterday - Rabbit-Proof Fence or Rabbit-Proof Fence - which traces the life 1930 three girls from the "stolen generation" : over one hundred thousand Métis children taken from their families and placed in white in order to ulterior half to remove the "color". It tells us that these abductions lasted into the 1970s…

Uluru... 15H59

Uluru... 17h41

Uluru... 18H03

Uluru... 18h09

We follow the drive side of the rock, which is never in the sun and we stop for another short walk to the water hole Mutitjulu whose reliefs are the result of activities Minyma Kuniya - python woman - and Wati Liru - the poisonous snake man - for Tjukurpa - dream time. It is still early when we settle the point of view for the sunset that we are obviously surrounded by other tourists. We eat while the rusty brown Uluru gently browns to burst bright orange blush before in the last rays then be tinted with a pink-purple as the sun disappears behind the horizon. Camping is not allowed in the park, we travel a few kilometers back to find a place in the bush.

The next day we stand before the sun to just go see it rise over Uluru ... If we first find that the view is not well located, we understand after moving further east would put the rock culturally sensitive site Kuniya Piti in thousands of photos to the dismay of Anpolenta - I think I understand that this is not the fact that non-Aboriginal people can see these sites that disturb but because the sacred places reserved for women Anangu risk being seen by men Anangu et vice-versa, which is inconceivable in their culture. We preferred to bed at sunrise and regret not we directly went to Kata Tjutis that we see in the distance veil of soft colors. We still take breakfast time before Uluru that lights up slowly before traveling fifty kilometers between the two sites.

Ready for the sunrise over Uluru

Kata Whooping au loin

A first stop at the viewpoint on the southern part of Kata Tjutteaches us that the name aptly means "many heads", We then decided to make the trek to the Valley of Wind. Most walkers stop at the viewpoint of Karinganthen the second part of the walk is simply superb ! Perhaps precisely because we are alone and appreciate the cry of birds rather than tourists - which again does not have to read the message of Anangu asking "to enjoy this sacred site in the quiet ' – in a landscape typical colors of Australia : white trunks of eucalyptus trees in their green leaves, yellowing grass under the blue sky and the red-orange of these amazing mountains whose highest exceeds Uluru two hundred meters.

Balade dans la vallée des Kata Tjuta

Zoom in Kata Tjuta

Still under the spell of Kata Tjuta, we take the road on Lasseter Highway and traverse the more than two hundred kilometers to the junction with Stuart Highway we hardly leave more in the coming days as it goes to Darwin - Adelaide and in the other direction.

J’avais envie de me planter devant ceux qui redescendaient pour leur demander s’ils savaient pas lire ou s’ils s’en battaient les cils de ce rocher au milieu de nulle part… Bon ce n’est qu’un caillou d’accord mais, bien que je ne ressente pas son pouvoir c’est quand même un joli galet !

Je comprends pourquoi on nous demande de pas prendre de photos car il y a un pan du rock (réservé à l’éducation mère-grand-mère-filles) qui ressemble à un vagin géant, idyllique pour apprendre d’où vient la vie ! Faut pas mettre ça sur YouTube !

J’ai préféré les Kata Tjuta car on peut se promener dedans, et ça m’a donné un magnifique mal de têtes 😉

Les nuits froides se suivent mais au moins il n’y a pas de moustiques. 🙂 Bises à toutes et à tous !!!