Women Over Fifty

We trained for months so we could climb Uluru (Ayers Rock).  Now we were in the bus and headed there.  We stopped at an outlook so people could see Uluru from the distance.  It looked like a giant loaf of red bread waiting for some mega giant to come and eat.  It was beautifully shaped and rose from the flat desert floor.  Everyone took pictures, of course.

I’m going to have to insert the pictures here long before I write about them.  Just have a look and come back to read.

Back into the bus for another bit, then the driver had an announcement.  It seemed that this particular bus didn’t go to Uluru.  He told us he would be dropping us off and the Uluru bus would come and pick us up.  The catch was he had talked to the driver, and it would be about 15 minutes before he arrived.  Our bus, however, had to continue north - without us.

So we found ourselves - about 12 people and our luggage - standing at the intersection in the middle of the Outback with no civilization in sight.  At first we clustered together, then a few brave ones began walking about.  It was so quiet there.  There was nothing much to look at.  We were all aware of how alone we were.  So, when our bus did arrive to take us there, we were all eager to get on it and go.

There is a huge park a few miles from Uluru run by the government.  We had reservations at a medium-priced motel.  Others in our group were back packing and staying at a hostel there.   I had a problem.  I was sick.  I just wanted to stay in bed with my cold pills and my Coke (it cut the phlegm) and be miserable.  All this planning and I didn’t want to go anywhere.

We went to a barbecue for supper.  The backpackers were there, since it was all you can eat.  We had our choice of meat (beef, kangaroo, ostrich, crocodile, to name what we remember).  Then there was all sorts of other stuff to go with it. I mention this because we had never thought of some of this as meat.  I couldn’t eat the kangaroo because I had recently been charmed by them.  I think I chose ostrich, which was tasty.  My husband says he later wished he’d tasted the crocodile.

It was obvious I wasn’t climbing “The Rock” the next day.  I was really sick and my husband offered to stay with me.  That was so sweet.  His big thing, his big to do in Australia was to climb Uluru.  I told him to plan getting on the climber’s bus.  He was going. I told him I’d take the bus out there to meet him on his way back and I did.

So, he left early the next morning for the climb.  I went to the desk and the motel and asked if there was a doctor.  There was, they told me, the Flying Doctor was in town today.  (More about the Flying Doctor tomorrow.)

I went out to Uluru to meet my husband.  I hoped to see him on the rock,

but I didn’t make him out until he was nearly down.  To pass the time while I waited, I decided to walk as far around the rock as I had the strength to do.

Even up close, there is the desert and there is the rock rising out of it, and nothing much in the way of transition between the two.  Where the rock and desert met I found a small pool of water.  This pool, the signs said, was not to be touched by anyone but the aborigines and that meant us.  It was the only natural water for hundreds, maybe thousands of miles and it had been used by the aborigines for time untold.  Uluru was a religious place for the aborigines and signs told us that they would prefer we not climb the rock because it had religious significance for them.  However, if we chose to climb the rock, be aware that the climb was strenuous and there was no place to rest until you got to the top.

I had been reading a book about a woman who was kidnapped (or so she said) by the aborigines and taken by them on a walkabout.  I can’t remember the title, but it was fascinating reading.  One of the things she noted was that aborigines were not bothered by the flies that so plague the tourists at Uluru.  She was right about the flies.  I bought a had with a netting on it, and that helped, but it was hot and uncomfortable.   In the book, this woman said that the flies in the outback are different from the flies in other places.  She said that these flies are harvesting the dead skin and sweat from your body.  She said that if you let them clean you, they’d leave you alone.

I tried it!  I waited until I was good and sweaty, then closed my eyes, took off my hat and netting and let them at it.  It felt like dozens of tiny scrapers on my face.  It tickled.  It was an adventure of the outback sort. I batted them away from my ears and nose, but otherwise I let them work until I could feel they were losing interest.  They hardly touched me after that.  When I started watching the Park people, I saw that they too weren’t bothered by the flies.  I suspected it wasn’t Bug Begone.

If you look carefully at the picture just above and the one above it, you can see the wind channels carved from the rock by the wind.  If you think a bit, you’ll realize that these carvings  were done by the wind throwing bits of sand at the rock for eons.  They’re large and small.  It seems like once the wind makes an opening, it keeps working away at the rock.

I met my husband as he came down.  He said he’d taken pictures of Japanese tourist at the top with their camera and they had taken a few of him with his camera.  International cooperation.  He said that the wind had worn channels in the top so that it was hard to walk on the top.  Pictures of that tomorrow.

Marilynne

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