Monday – November 5, 2018
We spent one full day at sea on the Majestic Princess to cruise from Melbourne to Sydney. This morning we awoke to the alarm at 4:30 this morning and watched the ship come into Sydney Harbor in the early morning light. It was a spectacular entrance! Then we had to muster in the Vista Lounge at 6:00 o’clock so we could take a tour bus to the Sydney airport to begin a land tour of Australia. I took a picture of the sign below in the airport because I thought it was perfect:
We met our Australian tour guide, Juliete, and twenty-seven other intrepid American travelers. Together we boarded a Jet Star flight to take us from Sydney to the middle of Australia, to a place called Ayres Rock. The rock is a sacred place to the local aboriginal people who call it Uluru. It was a bumpy three hour flight but we finally arrived in “the outback.”
This was truly the red desert center of Australia. When someone in the group called it ‘the middle of nowhere,’ he was corrected by our bus driver who said, “we were in the middle of everywhere!” It was 36 degrees Celsius and one of the most barren places on earth. The only facility for hundreds of miles is the Red Rock Resort which has several levels of accommodations and is located just outside Uluru National Park. We all checked in and were taken into the park to see “The Rock.”
Ayres Rock is a huge ancient red sand monolith sitting alone in the vast Australian outback. Formed millions of years ago, it currently is over one thousand feet high and six miles around the base. Our bus driver served as a local guide and provided information about the geology, flora, fauna, history, myths, and people of the region. Uluru is a UNESCO World Heritage & Cultural Site and is protected by the Australian government. We drove up close to see a variety of features.
We saw ancient “cave art” drawings and several other natural features of Uluru. The guide led us to one section where we were allowed to touch the rock. I could understand why Uluru is sacred to the local Aboriginal people. We also walked to a pool of water which forms during rare rainfalls.
Later we went to the Cultural Center and met Alice and Sarah who are members of the local Aboriginal community. They work at the center to educate tourists about their culture and outback lifestyle. Both women were very shy and soft-spoken and they communicated with us through an Australian parks ranger.
Afterwards, we drove to the “Sunset Viewing Area” to watch the colors change on Uluru as the sun disappeared behind the Australian Outback.
Tables had been set up for us with cold drinks and cheese snacks so we could nibble while watching the colors on the rock. The viewing area was crowded with tourists and there was a party atmosphere as the shadows lengthened and Uluru became darker and more purple.
It was an amazing sight and an unforgettable experience. I have wanted to visit Australia and specifically see Uluru (aka Ayres Rock) ever since I first learned about it in the mid-1970s. It was so exciting to be so close to The Rock. Who else would travel 10,643 miles to see a rock?!