Last night we went to Kata Tjuta for a sunset picnic looking over these relatives of Uluru. The name means 'many heads' and is probably better than The Olgas, which sounds like a German girls school band.....Bertha on base........Hildegarde on the trombone......etc......
Anyway the flies were pesky, the German backpackers equally so, but Kata Tjuta was lovely. The sunset viewing area is a little awkward in that trees obscure the base and we are a little far away to get a good sense of scale. Kata Tjuta is made from the same process that created Uluru. Run-off from the Petermen Ranges.....when they were big, collected in a huge fan shape, was flooded, had sediment land on it and eventually petrified. The bits further from the Petermen were sandy and hence Uluru is sandstone, crushed into layers and folder so that the layers now run vertically in parts. Kata Tjuta is closer to the Petermen and hence has more than sand in their make up, they are a reddish onglomorate of sand, pebbles and sizable rocks. They stand probably as tall as Uluru but have eroded into a series of domes with valleys..........that was for the genetically nerdy.........a large proportion of this blog's readership.
To get a bit of context, here is a close up showing the shrubs on tops of the domes.....
As we were leaving, the sky behind us was alive......
So we drove back in the dark, looking out for stray kangaroos and camels. None found which is good.
Just as a matter of interest.......here is a little graphic of our trip......the numbers are the number of photos taken at each location.....
So after a good nights sl;eep, we woke to the alarm at 4:30AM. Time for crepuscular tourists to arise.......Off to Kata Tjuta again.....for sunrise. We had to queue at the Park office at 4:55AM, and we were by no means in the first 15 cars at the Kata Tjuta morning viewing sand dune.
It was nothing short of spectacular. We had Kata Tjuta and Uluru as well as a magic sky. The pesky backbackers....yes they do not show the crowds in the brochures.....or the flies....were
not so pesky as they were still wakening.
A detail
SO then we decided to go in. Less people actually doing any walking. We did the easier of the two walks. The harder, apparently prettier one, was closed due to the heat. More on that in a minute.
Marjan made it back out, but was a little tired. It was now 7:45. I asked her what she thought the temperature was. Early to mid twenties was her guess. low thirties was mine. 32C when we got to the car, 29c when we got moving.
33C when we got back to digs for a luxurious second breakfast. Probably 40C by now. Will see when I go to the pool.
We have booked a dinner under the stars sort of arrangement tonight. I think it includes camel bangers, and emu cutlets.....or at least has some bush tucker......maybe just witchetty grubs.
Talk to you soon.
1 comment:
Spectacular!
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