No, this isn't an X-rated blog!
An "erogeny" is an uplifting of the earth, and the Alice Spring egogeny is what created Uluru, that red monolith we showed you two posts ago, and its cousin Kata Tjuta (aka The Olgas), which looks like this at sunrise:
These sandstone rock formations are old - the uplifting started 450 million years ago, pushing Uluru up 90 degrees, Kata Tjuta 45 degrees. Uluru is estimated to be 4 miles deep, so the rock we see is like the tip of an iceberg.
The first European to see Uluru was Ernest Giles in 1872, and since then Caucasian visitors have climbed the rock innumerable times … there's a sort of tourist mystic to scaling the rock. But we'd heard mixed messages from people about that: some who said the Aboriginal custodians of the land (the Yankunjtjatjara and Pitjantajatjara) didn't like this practice for spiritual, environmental, and safety reasons (gees, for some reason they didn't like people dying from heart attacks or dehydration up there), and some saying they didn't really mind. A visit to the National Park Cultural Center cleared up any confusion we had - Uluru is a very important spiritual site, and the local communities are not pleased with the climbing. They accept that it occurs, but don't like it, so we refrained.
As with all of Aboriginal land and culture, Uluru carries with it many creation stories, stories which help to explain important physical and social aspects of their cultures. As outsiders, we could only learn the most basic creation stories, the ones told to children. Regardless, the stories are complex and myriad, but we can say the curved "scar" on this slope of Uluru is a serpent formed by a creation being.
We also learned, through our great guide, Norell, about some of the symbols used in Aboriginal art. For example, the concentric circles you can see on this cave ceiling represent watering holes, very important information to convey in a land of vast dryness.
We walked most of the way around Uluru, seeing the sacred water holes (below)
and other important features, but in the end I think we both felt that we were outside observers of the rock. Our limited time there and limited knowledge didn't allow us to really "know" this place.
Kata Tjuta was different. Part of the same national park - which is jointly managed by the Australian national government and the local Aboriginal communities - it offered us an opportunity to walk within its rock walls. It showed the same red hues, but also interesting vegetation, including trees drawing nutrition from the rock itself (it's the green you can just see at the center of this photo; the black streaks are fungus growing where water flows during rains).
Our guide Norell also identified "bush tucker" for us, food that Aboriginal people have long gathered from the wild, including this bush tomato plant:
Did we mention the flies? Flies are notorious in the Red Center, and we queried many people before our tour started about whether we'd need fly nets for our heads. Apparently, the flies are horrendous during the summer, but lessen somewhat as the temperatures drop. In the end, we decided to buy some nets just in case, and we were glad we did. Though not terrible - we often didn't need to wear them, and the flies disappear at dusk (where to flies spend the night??) - we were glad we had them, as sometimes they just made things more pleasant. Here we are with our fly nets on at a beautiful lookout on Kata Tjuta.
After our hike in Kata Tjuta, we headed off on a long ride to King's Canyon, which we'll write about next.
An "erogeny" is an uplifting of the earth, and the Alice Spring egogeny is what created Uluru, that red monolith we showed you two posts ago, and its cousin Kata Tjuta (aka The Olgas), which looks like this at sunrise:
These sandstone rock formations are old - the uplifting started 450 million years ago, pushing Uluru up 90 degrees, Kata Tjuta 45 degrees. Uluru is estimated to be 4 miles deep, so the rock we see is like the tip of an iceberg.
The first European to see Uluru was Ernest Giles in 1872, and since then Caucasian visitors have climbed the rock innumerable times … there's a sort of tourist mystic to scaling the rock. But we'd heard mixed messages from people about that: some who said the Aboriginal custodians of the land (the Yankunjtjatjara and Pitjantajatjara) didn't like this practice for spiritual, environmental, and safety reasons (gees, for some reason they didn't like people dying from heart attacks or dehydration up there), and some saying they didn't really mind. A visit to the National Park Cultural Center cleared up any confusion we had - Uluru is a very important spiritual site, and the local communities are not pleased with the climbing. They accept that it occurs, but don't like it, so we refrained.
As with all of Aboriginal land and culture, Uluru carries with it many creation stories, stories which help to explain important physical and social aspects of their cultures. As outsiders, we could only learn the most basic creation stories, the ones told to children. Regardless, the stories are complex and myriad, but we can say the curved "scar" on this slope of Uluru is a serpent formed by a creation being.
We walked most of the way around Uluru, seeing the sacred water holes (below)
Kata Tjuta was different. Part of the same national park - which is jointly managed by the Australian national government and the local Aboriginal communities - it offered us an opportunity to walk within its rock walls. It showed the same red hues, but also interesting vegetation, including trees drawing nutrition from the rock itself (it's the green you can just see at the center of this photo; the black streaks are fungus growing where water flows during rains).
Our guide Norell also identified "bush tucker" for us, food that Aboriginal people have long gathered from the wild, including this bush tomato plant:
Did we mention the flies? Flies are notorious in the Red Center, and we queried many people before our tour started about whether we'd need fly nets for our heads. Apparently, the flies are horrendous during the summer, but lessen somewhat as the temperatures drop. In the end, we decided to buy some nets just in case, and we were glad we did. Though not terrible - we often didn't need to wear them, and the flies disappear at dusk (where to flies spend the night??) - we were glad we had them, as sometimes they just made things more pleasant. Here we are with our fly nets on at a beautiful lookout on Kata Tjuta.
After our hike in Kata Tjuta, we headed off on a long ride to King's Canyon, which we'll write about next.
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