Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon……….

Hello to you all and welcome to another Hopkins Walkabout update. Wow……what can I say, we have certainly seen some amazing natural wonders since our last update. We have gone from bush camping to resort living (we really had no choice), achieved some spectacular walks and have seen our first snake! There’s a bit of info on Uluru, Kata Tjuta (Olgas) and Kings Canyon below followed by some more images. I hope you enjoy and please if you have any coments please post them on the blog (at least I know someone is having a browse). Onto the MacDonald Ranges now……

Uluru….

Well what can I say about “The Rock” It really does have an imposing presence and without getting too hippie, a spiritual vibe. We made the decision not to climb as the Anangu aboriginal owners make it quite clear in all the literature “you can” but they rather “you didn’t” I will let Tilly discuss why:

WHY PEOPLE SHOULD NOT CLIMB ULURU!

Hi my name is Tilly and I’m going to tell you why I believe that people should not climb Uluru and here are my reasons why:

Firstly it is Aboriginal land and they really don’t like it when people do climb it. But some tourists just can’t stop themselves from climbing Uluru, there is a saying that says “It’s not cool to climb Uluru.”

Secondly you could really badly hurt yourself and you could nearly die of the desert heat. There are also sacred sites that Aboriginals don’t appreciate white people looking at and taking pictures. It is also very unfair because when someone gets hurt Aboriginals feel really bad and feel like it is their fault (But it really isn’t)

Thirdly you could destroy lots of lovely Australian animals’ habitats which makes Aboriginals very angry with us white people. And some really shy animals could get really scared and run away from their Mums, and would properly end up dying and we wouldn’t want that to happen. Plus some tourists don’t read the signs and feed the wild animals and then they don’t try and hunt anymore!

I hope you agree with me and I have persuaded you it’s not cool to climb Uluru, and this was my strongest reason why: You could destroy animals habitats or even kill them and hurt the Aboriginals feelings by looking at the sacred sites. So please don’t climb Uluru.

Thank you for reading

 By Tilly Hopkins.

Geology- The making of Uluru & KataTjuta

Around 550 million years ago a range to the West of Kata Tjuta eroded forming a fan of sand and rock. Later the whole are became covered in sea. Sand and mud covered the sea bed including the fans. The weight of the seabed turned both it and the fans beneath into rock. The rocky fan became conglomerate rock. The sand fan turned into sandstone.

About 400 million years ago, the sea had disappeared and the whole of Central Australia began to be subjected to massive forces. Some rocks folded and tilted.  The rocky fan tilted slightly. The sand fan tilted 90 degrees so the layers of sandstone almost stood on end.

Over the last 300 million years, the softer rocks have eroded away, leaving the parts of the old fans exposed. Kat Tjuta is a hard part of the old rocky fan. Uluru is part of the sand fan, with its beds of sandstone nearly vertical. The area around Kata Tjuta was covered in windblown sand plains and dunes 30,000 years ago. Uluru like Kata Tjuta is the tip of a huge slab of rock which continues below ground for possibly 5-6 kilometres. My apologies for the geologists out there fir this explanation.

A few facts & figures

Uluru is 3.6km long and 348 metres at its tallest point: 43 m higher than Sydney’s Centrepoint Tower, 24m higher than the Eiffel Tower and just 33m lower than the Empire State Building.

Kata Tjuta consists of 36 domes, the highest rises 546m above the plain, 198m higher than Uluru.

The colour changes of Uluru result from the filtering of the sun’s rays through the earth’s atmosphere on the sun’s rays.

Tourism dates back to the 1950,s where the trip from Alice took over 2 days (now about 5 hrs). 5,462 tourists visited Uluru in 1962/63. This number reached 391,547 in 2002.

Kings Canyon

As spectacular as Uluru and Kata Tjuta are I think Kings Canyon is the visually most imposing and impressive. The “Rim walk” is breathtaking and it is great the OH&S police have not ruined it yet. You really can get up close and personal with some very long drops…Awesome! The Canyon is a valley that cuts first through a layer of Mereenie Sandstone, deposited about 400 million years ago, forming cliffs 30 metres high. Below the cliffs, the slope is less steep and the valley cuts through the softer Carmichael Sandstone, deposited 440 million years ago……I could go on but the geology gets quite involved, suffice to say the result is spectacular. A picture tales a thousand words, enjoy………

Am Emu at Curtain Springs...

 Resort Living....Yulara Resort

Aboriginal dancing at Uluru...

Uluru at Sunrise...

Uluru at Sunset...

Our walk around Uluru..

Family Hopkins at Uluru

Kata Tjuta

A Zebra Finch

Kings Canyon... We walked the rim, amazing..