Today we have done something really cool. This morning when we woke up, we took our things and took the bus to a helicopter. We left Sydney and the city life to spend one day in the outback. We and a few other tourists went to Uluru. From the helicopter we had a really nice view out over the landscape and the farther from the city, we got the more desert landscape we saw.
The helicopter dropped us off a bit before Uluru and we took a bus the last bit. On the way there, it was much greener than I had imagined, and a guy explained that it was because of the recent rainy season. When it blooms, different species such as frogs can live there as well. But it dries quickly and it can take years between the rainy periods. After a little while in the bus, we saw the giant mountain. The very last part of the way we had to walk and I thought, when we went against the mountain that it was much bigger in real life than the pictures I had looked at before the visit. We actually walked around the whole stone, about ten kilometers, so it took a while. I think it took 3 hours because we had to take some pauses in order to cope with the hot weather. When we went around the mountain we had a guide that told us a lot of interesting facts about Uluru and I thought you would like if I share some facts with you guys, so of course I’m going to do that.
Uluru also known as Ayers Rock, is the characteristic mountain in the central part of Australia, it’s also one of the country's most famous landmarks. The mountain is known for its shape and the fact that it has been formed over millions of years very slowly. From the beginning it actually belonged to a larger mountain range, but today it’s the only thing left from it. It’s therefore isolated in the flat desert landscape. It’s believed that the rock is 500 million years old, and that major parts were under the water from the beginning. Today it’s almost 3,5 km long and 2 km wide, with a height of about 900 meters above sea level and it continues 2.5 km under the ground. You may not be able to say that there is a mountain, but it consists of sandstone. The interesting thing we noticed with sandstone was that it looked like it changed color during the day while we were there due to the sun.
It’s also a mountain with a long history and the word Uluru comes from the language of the Aborigines living in the area. Uluru is actually the name of the area where they live and not a specific name for the mountain. Aborigines have apparently lived in this area for over 10 000 years, and it’s them who have named many sacred sites and the sacred sites around the mountain were named by them. It’s said that the aboriginal people make contact with their ancestors in these holy places, which in their history created Uluru. Today the local people have ceremonies and rituals at Uluru. This area belonged to the Australian government for many years, but since 1985 the area Uluru became aboriginal ownership again. Today it’s also a part of a large National Park called Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Uluru is the most famous thing to visit in the national park and it was much cooler than I had expected. Something that I really enjoyed was to take part of the aboriginal culture and see the many rock carvings and paintings on the mountain. // Emma