Uluru Rainbow Pic

In the rainbow thread I was referring to a trip we made to Australia back in 97/98 where we saw a triple rainbow over Uluru (a.k.a. Ayres Rock). Took me a while to get the pics uploaded, so as promised here is the shot I was referring to:



Well, unfortunately you can't see the very faint third rainbow arc section that was to the right of the other two (sometimes I can almost convince myself it's there coming down in the middle of the rock.....but not sure). Rainbows are very hard to get on film (35mm SLR I was using at the time) but I can assure you that there was a third arc to the right of second. Each one was a bit fainter than the last, so the third one was quite faint even to look at. Sorry about that.......

So, Uluru is a native (aboriginal) word for the place widely known as Ayres Rock. The local native population in the area was given the land some years ago, and although they don't force the issue, would prefer that you didn't climb the rock out of respect. That being said, there was a group of natives not necessarily from the same area in olden times where they would climb the rock as part of paying respect for the place. We didn't know any of this until we got there (of course) so then had to make the decision to climb or not. It was not made lightly, and we decided to climb it - as did most others who were physically able to.

So, my wife and I decided to climb it and started out clibming the traditional path that the aboriginies have climbed for centuries. There is a spot known as "Chicken Rock" that is an outcropping of the rock that forms this huge item in the desert, and it is a good distance away rom the bottom of "the chain." The chain is what you use to pull yourself up the rock, as in some areas it is very, very steep (at least for a non rock climber such as myself).

My wife had the video camera, and the snacks, and I carried the water and still camera. That was good thing, since there is a bit of a leap of faith to leave chicken rock and move the the bottom of the cahin. I am not the best at heights, although I am better than I used to be. This was somewhat intimidating to me, so I made a push to quickly move to the bottom of the chain, with my wife right behind me. Well, at least that's what I thought.

She couldn't move from the rock, and I wasn't going to go back to help because I then wondered if I would be able to make that move again to the bottom of the chain. So I told her "come now or I'm leaving." She said "see you in a while." LOL!



Here is the bottom of the climb. On the left you can see the chicken rock outcropping that moves up to the middle of the picture, with a bunch of people there making ther decisions........further up the photo is the bottom of the chain. You can see a couple of people between the tip of the rock and the chain. I think that this gap between the chicken rock and the chain is done intentionally, because if you can't handle making that part of the trip, you sure as hell won't handle the rest!

So began the trek. Now, several people die doing this every year, and they close the climb if the temperatures are above something like 38 C. It wasn't that hot on the day I did it, but for me it was a physically demanding task still. I think most die of heart attacks, but on occasion they die from falling. Up until near the time we were there, they had plaques installed commemorating those that died each year, but had stopped the process at some point. The tour guide made sure that everyone who was thinking of climbing went over to see those plaques before going up the rock the next day........

I was climbing with the group from our tour bus, and made a point of sticking with one fellow who was struggling a bit. I could have left him behind, but he started out in front of me and I wasn't going to let go of the chain to pass him. Then after a while he seemed to be breathing very hard, so I suggested we stop and take a breather. I snapped this photo looking down the chain (it does not show how steep this is at all I can assure you) and all the time was going over CPR steps in my head in case the guy I was with "carked it" as the Aussies would say.......



You can see the tour busses at the bottom.....

Here we are moving along the path after the chain. They marked it with the same kind of pattern used for lanes on a highway......



At times I felt like I was walking a tightrope. There were places where if you slipped, you would slide down the rock a fair ways........I'm sure that would not be a nice experience to say the least. This rock was very rough in texture, and if you slid very far it would chew you up!



We had to move down one side and up the other of a steep valley. It wasn't easy......I was glad I had hiking boots on for this section, and some that wore running shoes didn't have much ankle support as they tried to come down this face and not slip! Again, hard to get a feel for how steep this really is.....



Finally the top! Took this photo of the monument they have at the top. I had someone take a photo of me with the landscape in the background, but even on auto it turned out crappy.



If you choose not to upset the natives, and simply walk around Uluru, it's about a 9 km trail that we did by bus the next day (and my my wife did while I was climbing the rock). I snapped a few photos of the area (at least those that were not sacred to the locals):



This formation on the side of the rock is known as "the brain" for obvious reasons.......



The rock provides an amazing backdrop for some of the ragged looking trees in the area. This part of Australia is where the term "red earth" is something you will never forget after being there.



This is a nice photo I took on a trek to the nearby Olgas formation on another day. Just love the colours in this shot.



I found this sign a bit funny.......



No swimming.......hmmmmm.......wouldn't that require something called "water"? LOL! I'm sure at some point this is full during the wet season, and when we were in Alice Springs we saw many places where the river beds were dry when we were there, but had high water marks 2 to 3 meters high.

Anyway, I'm obviously no photographer like some here, but every once in a while you get lucky if you shoot enough pics, and even those that aren't spectacular bring back memories of a great trip.

For those who don't know, my Australian wife and I live here in my home land of Canada, and we make fairly regular trips back to see her family. Even though she doesn't see them for 5 years at a time, you can only spend so much time with family, so we also take a side trip (or 2) each time back, and this was one of those. 7 days on a bus with strangers is sometimes way better than spending it with your family.......

Thanks for looking.