The Rock Tour: Uluru and Goodbyes

We awoke again to lots of dust and got ourselves ready. We had to make sure we were in place for the sunrise over Uluru. As it ended up, we were like an hour early, and nearly froze waiting on the sun. Most people wanted to stay on the bus to shield the chilly wind until Dingo forced them off and locked the doors. He made us oatmeal, so we had something warm to eat as we shivered and took useless pictures in the predawn no-light.

After the sun arrived, we had a quick bathroom break then went to Uluru to do the full base walk. Mom opted to do a shorter walk, but I wanted to do the whole walk since I didn't in 2010. At first, it was freezing and windy. Our group trudged silently through small foresty areas on the side of Uluru, freezing when we entered shade. No one was talking, so I put my iPod on and played the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was perfect when the song "I Like Dirt" came on. You would really have to like dirt to do this tour. As it turns out, I missed a whole lot when I came with Matt in 2010. There is rock art and so many amazing things to see that you miss if you don't do the full base walk. It was a long walk, but we arrived back early to Dingo and my mom waiting for us on a bench at the climb site. Oh yea, I was going to tell you why you shouldn't climb. I didn't climb last time, and didn't intend to climb this time, because the Aboriginal people who own the site ask you not to do so. Dingo gave a speech about how it was not only disrespectful to climb- "Do you take your shoes off when people ask you to when you go into their house? Do you pee in on their house?"- but also a safety and environmental issue. People die every year, only 36 have died on the rock, but he says at least 150 can be attributed to deaths caused by doing the rock climb. There is no grip for your feet and only a tiny chain to cling to climb up. He says the vast majority of people who climb are Australian (due to ignorance) and Japanese (apparently there is a popular movie in Japan where the character climbs Uluru to scatter ashes and people like to recreate this scene).

Environmentally, we are polluting the only water sources in the area (there are 2 waterhole at Uluru) and animals have pretty much stopped going to Uluru for water. The climbers urinate and defecate on Uluru (it's a 3 hour climb up and back and no bathrooms on the rock) and when it rains, all of that goes straight into the water source. He said that someone even reported having a diaper fall off the side while doing the base walk. That means 1) someone took a baby up that insanely steep, very dangerous climb, and 2) they changed the baby and decided to leave the diaper on the rock.

Anyway, Dingo had warned us about all this stuff, and said that if anyone in our group still wanted to climb, he would set their stuff out of the bus and let them go for it, but if they were late, he would leave them. He said that there was not enough time for us to climb to the top and come back anyway, so if someone wanted to try it, they would not hold the rest of the group up. All of this was moot the day of the base walk anyway. The climb was closed due to winds.

After our walk, we got back on the bus and Dingo passed snacks around to everyone to eat. We dropped some of our group off at the YHA because they would be catching a plane from Uluru airport. Then there was lots of driving and lots of people sleeping on the bus. Dingo was a little resentful that everyone was sleeping and not entertaining him on the drive. I have a suspicion that he was making a game out of waking people up. It seems I would nod off and would be woken by him turning up the music or swerving . One time I woke up and Christmas music was playing. It was a weird half sleep/half awake bus ride. We had lunch at the gas station- wraps- half way between Alice Springs and Uluru before we resumed more driving. I tried to stay awake this time because Dingo made me feel guilty at lunch about sleeping. We stopped at a camel farm outside of Alice Springs for a brief camel ride. We also saw some kangaroos, emus, and a dingo.

We finally got back to Alice Springs around 4:30 pm. We checked back into our room, unpacked, repacked, showered, and got ready to meet the group at The Rock Bar. We walked down with the little Chinese girl from our group and went into the office to write some comments in the comment book about our experience. Then we went to the bar next door. All of our group eventually showed up and we ordered dinner and drinks. Mom got kangaroo again for the last time. I got us a jug of beer to drink. Later, Dingo dared us to take shots. I asked what it was, and it was 151. I was not excited about the shot, but mom took one too, which I was proud. Then she started poking people with straws so I sent her home with the Chinese girl, haha. I stayed a little longer to finish my jug. I ended up talking to the German can thrower, who had all these crazy conspiracy theories about 911 and even the Batman shooting, something about the Illuminati being involved. "I've always wanted to talk to an American," he said. I've been here 3 days, I thought to myself. But the people I planned to walk back with seemed to be falling asleep at the table, so I said we could leave too. We told Dingo we were leaving, and we did like a 4 person group hug, then he leaped up and wrapped his legs around the Canadian guy across from him, forcing me and the other person to hold him up. This went on for a while, then we did normal hugs and he told us not to walk home. "I don't even walk. Take a cab. People will just come up to you and punch you and steal your money. Take a cab, it will be 2 dollars each." So we did.

I had Dingo withdrawal the next day. I think when you spend that much time with people you get attached. It has never happened with tour guides before, but the group of girls on on of my tours last time to Exmouth were way cool and I almost cried when I had to leave them.