May 13: Some of us were up very early to get ready for our sunrise walk with Roxy to the dunes behind the hotel. It was cold in the morning but we saw the sun shine on Uluru and The Olgas and it was beautiful. We went off to breakfast and then got on the coach for the ride to the Olgas, which are called Kata Tjuta by the Aboriginals. On the bus ride Roxy answered some of the questions people had submitted from the previous day - anything was fair game. (No, she doesn't know where Hugh Jackma lives and we aren't going to see him and she is VERY sorry.) There was a question about what the prospects were for the Aboriginals in the long term and she talked about her concerns for their culture, given their current health and economic issues, as well as their clash with the white man's laws. She contrasted this with the Maoris in her native New Zealand, where the government has made a concerted effort to respect and integrate the native peoples, and also the fact that there is only one Maori language, which makes it easier for the people to communicate and get together. She also explained the recent governmental response to illegal immigration from Indonesia, and the detention camps that have been set up in Australia, and the most recent, controversial plans to send people from the detention centres to Malaysia in exchange for immigrants who have already been vetted.
We arrived at Kata Tjuta and went on a walk to the Wolpa Gorge - it was incredibly beautiful. Very windy at the beginning but the wind eventually stopped. It wasn't a very strenuous walk but the views were stunning and it was just wonderful. I found Kata Tjuta much more interesting and beautiful than Uluru.
New Aussie slang word - "parky" means chilly. Kata Tjuta means "many heads" - there are 36 that make up the Olgas. We had a loo stop after that with a "long drop" toilet (non-flushing, but not at all smelly or gross). Roxy said to be careful not to drop anything in there by mistake, but if we did, to make sure to drop our wallet in, as it would be better to at least be going after something important if we had to go in at all.... The sign above the toilet said, "This toilet is for your pleasant convenience". And it was!
We drove to a viewing area to take some photos of Uluru and Kata Tjuta, then to the Cultural Centre where we walked through a small museum and watched a film about wildlife in the desert. We saw some aboriginal crafts but not a native in sight - I was hoping there would be more cultural stuff but not touristy cultural demonstrations by happy natives. Outside on the way to the bus Roxy pointed out a chain of caterpillars attached to each other and making a trail in the dirt, just like the Aboriginal story of the patterns on Uluru made by the trail of the sacred caterpillar.
We went on to the airport where we boarded our plane to Cairns. I managed to have a window seat in a row all to myself on the right side of the plane and saw beautiful views of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. During the flight we put our watches ahead one hour for Cairns time. We are now in Queensland, with the temperature a beautiful 23 degrees Celsius at 6:15pm - quite a bit warmer than we have been experiencing, but the Cairns people were complaining that it is getting chilly! We had to drive 50 minutes from Cairns to our hotel in Port Douglas and talked on the way about the history of the area. At one time Cairns and Port Douglas were vying to be the most important port city, and Port Douglas won out until it was devastated by a cyclone and Cairns won the title by default. Tourism and sugar cane production are two of the most important industries.Tomorrow we will take a boat over to an island in the Great Barrier Reef for snorkeling, glass bottom boat rides and whatever else we might enjoy. For snorkeling we need to wear "stinger suits" - there are two kinds of jellyfish (stingers) that can be found in the water, usually not at this time of year, but it wouldn't be good to chance it. The stinger suits are special lycra suits with a hood and mittens.
The bus ride was very twisty and wound around the coastline, and I was feeling a bit icky. We stopped at a grocery and liquor store as the food at our hotel is pretty expensive. We went on to our hotel, The Sea Temple Resort and Spa, where we were given a non-alcoholic fruit drink and got a ride to our rooms in carts. I had a pretty nice room with a huge Jacuzzi, which I made full use of that first evening, of course thinking of Dan who would definitely have done the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment