Ayers and graces
Alison Jones is on a roll when she visits the most famous rock in the world.
A visit to Uluru, or Ayers Rock as it is more commonly known outside Australia, is all about perspective.
Whether it is from the back of camel, hovering hundreds of feet above it in a helicopter or gazing at it while eating a bush tucker breakfast and drinking billy tea, the only reason you go to the Red Centre is to look at the rock.
There are other diversions, of course. There are walks to be taken, canyons to be navigated and even stars to be spotted above what must be one of the most uncluttered landscapes on earth.
But there is no escaping the fact that every tourist goes with the single intention of getting up close and personal to the reddy, dome-shaped lump of akrose sandstone, rising like a loaf from its flat, scrubby surroundings.
In the early days of mass tourism, plane passengers used to be able to gaze at it from their windows as the original airstrip (developed in 1959) ran alongside the base of the rock.
As the number of visitors increased (from 2,296 in 1958 to more than 400,000 in 2000) the demand for better accommodation grew and a purpose built hotel complex together with a new airport were built just outside the area designated as Ayers Rock National Park, which also included Kata Tjuta or The Olgas, a group of 36 red domes.
Ayers Rock was named after Sir Henry Ayers, the Chief Secretary in 1873, when Englishman William Christie Gosse became the first European to climb it.
Gosse beat explorer Ernest Giles to it, even though Giles had seen it first a year earlier. Unfortunately he mistook it for a sand dune. Even Gosse was rather dismissive of it, describing it as a "big pebble". Giles had to content himself with naming The Olgas after Queen Olga of Wurttemberg. The titles to both Uluru and Kata Tjuta were handed back to their Aboriginal owners in 1985 and their traditional names restored.
There is a third rock formation 100kms to the east of Uluru - Mount Conner or Atila. With its flat peak it is reminiscent of Table Mountain in South Africa.
And for nature junkies who prefer depth to height, there is Kings Canyon which is a three-and-half-hour drive from Voyages Ayers Rock resort - a short hop when you are dealing with a landscape as vast as this.
The resort is like a little self-contained town, complete with a mini mall of tourist shops, cafes, information centre and a little supermarket. A bus circles round the resort dropping tourists off at the various hotels, but they are all within walking distance.
The accommodation ranges from campsites and two star lodges through three star and four star apartments up to the five star comfort of Sails in the Desert Hotel with its tasteful Aboriginal art works in the lobby.
There are a variety of restaurants, whether you want up-market a la carte or beer and a barbie with an impromptu singalong to Waltzing Matilda.
The day we arrived we had planned a sunset camel ride, although other attractions on offer included a gourmet dinner under the stars to the haunting music of a lone didgeridoo, oddly this was described as the Sounds of Silence dinner.
However, the weather was against us and a rainy first night meant most of the outdoor activities were cancelled. It was disappointing, but probably for the best as we had to be out at 4am to see Uluru by dawn.
This was not quite the solitary spiritual experience we had anticipated as a veritable convoy of coaches pulled up outside the hotel ready to pick up the breakfast brigade.
There is $25 fee for entering the park (the pass is valid for three days) and as we neared the rock it was only distinguishable as being a slightly darker shade of blue than its surroundings.
The sunrise vantage point is essentially an over-large layby. We had our backs to the rising sun, the better to see the rock gradually change colour as we sipped coffee and ate cereal and jockeyed for position for the best "Kodak moment". We lingered a little after the majority of the other sightseers were gone, and were rewarded by seeing the rock suddenly transformed into a deep fiery red.
We were on an eco tour and for this reason our guide, Leroy, was sympathetic to the wishes of the locals that we do not climb the rock as it is a sacred spot.
Leroy claimed that 40 people had actually fallen to their deaths, although plaques on the rock only record the names of five. This, he said, was because they were put up before it was handed back to the Aborigines and they believe the dead take their names with them.
Though it looks smooth from a distance, up close the surface is pitted with nooks and crannies, holes and ripples, all them with a legend or story attached to them.
Slightly more rooted in reality was the Uluru post office, cave paintings on the roof of an overhanging piece of rock. The various symbols acted as a kind of message board for Aborigines indicating when and where there were to be meetings.
Our early start gave us much of the rest of the day to play with. Predictably this was taken up with other ways of seeing the rock.
Having missed out on the camel ride the evening before I decided to catch the midmorning camel train ($60 for a 45 minute ride).
Imported into Australia by explorers and early pioneers, the camels thrived in the dry sandy environment due to their ability to store water in their blood and fat in their humps. It is now believed there is anything up to a million of them in the country.
There is a common misconception that they spit. They don't, Llamas do. However, they do projectile vomit. Nice.
The thing to remember when preparing for a camel ride is they get up using their back legs first. So once in the saddle lean back, otherwise you can find yourself kissing the sand.
The actual ride was a gentle amble up and down the dunes with an occasional pause to look at the flora and fauna. The fact that camels walk by raising both legs on the same side together creates a kind of swaying motion, like a ride on a very slow roller coaster. Camels are also quite wide, so if you are unused to riding it might take a while for your thigh muscles to snap back into shape.
After seeing it both from a distance and up close, as a last hurrah we decided a fly-over was in order in a four seater helicopter. It is only from above that you can truly appreciate the incongruity of the raised lumps of Uluru and Kata Tjuta in the miles and miles of otherwise flat landscape.
It is quite startling to think they were actually formed hundreds of millions of years ago, when the area was under the sea and sand and mud was pressed down onto big fans of eroded sand and rock. When the sea had gone, massive forces tilted the rock and sand fans. The softer rocks were eroded away to leave Uluru and Kata Tjuta, both believed to be just the tips of huge slabs of rock that, like icebergs, continue for five to six kilometres underground.
-------
* Bridge and Wickers (020 7483 6555, www.bridgeandwickers.co.uk) has a two-night package from £205 per person, including two nights at the five-star Sails in the Desert hotel (pictured), "Camel to Sunset" tour and morning "Liru Walk" tour of Uluru.
* The camel train costs Aus$60 for a 45 minute ride. For details, visit www.ananguwaai.com.au
* For details on the helicopter ride, which costs Aus$105 for 15-minutes, visit www.helicoptergroup.com
