We drove about 310 km that day. And to be honest, nothing interesting happened along the way. If you decide the prairies aren't interesting. Because at first glance they are not. There is nothing there. I would like to emphasize that we wern't even so far from the coast - maybe about 200 km in a straight line and if the outback here looks like a place abandoned by God, imagine what Australia must look like in it's inner part. But despite everything, I think that this space and austerity has something amazing about it.
One of my next dreams is a trip to the sacred place of the Aborigines - Mount Uluru (Oolora or Ayers Rock in English, named after the Prime Minister of South Australia - Henry Ayers by European settlers). However, Uluru was first described by the traveler Ernest Giles in 1872 as "the remarkable pebble". This pebble is 600 million years old, over 300 m high and 8 km in circumference. For many years, Uluru was considered the largest monolith in the world. However, this is not true as the Mount Augustus monolith is more than twice as large. Moreover, according to more recent studies, Uluru is not a monolith at all, but part of a larger rock formation that also includes Kata Tjuta (Mount Olga) and Mount Conner.
It is a holy place for the local Aborigines, there are many rock paintings in the caves at the foot of the rock. In 1985 the Australian government ceded the ownership of Uluru to the local Anangu tribe, which gave it to the government on a 99-year lease. The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, 1325 km² was created there. The park is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. Despite the explicit request of the indigenous peoples and the plaque pleading to respect Aboriginal culture and traditions, tourists continued to climb to the top of the mountain. For the Anangu tribe, climbing a rock is associated with a sacred initiation ceremony. In 1964 a handrail with a chain was installed. The ascent itself is very steep and many people give up climbing on the way. Almost every year on Uluru, several people die while climbing it, most often as a result of a slip or heart attack. Since the 1950s, there have been 36 deaths related to climbing Uluru. During the Australian summer, it is forbidden to climb the rock from 10 am to 4 pm due to high temperatures.
The biggest attraction for tourists is watching Uluru Rock at sunset or at sunrise, when it changes its color from minute to minute depending on the lighting. Tourists gather at viewpoints where they picnic for a few hours. It is good manner to open a bottle of champagne as soon as the sun goes down and stops illuminating the rock. Taking pictures is a very rudely. Aborigines believe that this sacred place should not be immortalized on any medium and they are asking tourists to do so, but you know what people are like. For Aborigines, the forms and hollows visible in the rock tell a sacred story. They believe that images of these fragments posted on the Internet or shown elsewhere in the world would make their story known beyond Uluru, which is bad. Unauthorized persons would interpret their story enchanted in stone and distort its meaning. According to Aboriginal custom, these stories can only be told where they "happened". Moreover, some stories are intended only for women or men and may only be told by the same gender. Stories from "Time of Sleep" (the Aborigines believe that in the mythological time of sleep, gods and totemic ancestors shaped the world) helped to teach the appropriate skills for the social role, and the initiation of both sexes was based on the transfer of knowledge useful for survival. In preserving the message, not only the place but also the way of telling is important. The White Rangers, who have been authorized by Anangu to tell tourists a few stories about Uluru, must tell them the way the Aborigines did. An interesting fact is that there is a certain book and a pile of pebbles on the ground. This is a collection of letters sent by people to the National Park headquarters who apologize for taking/stealing pebbles/stones from around Uluru during their visit. That is, pebbles belonging to the Aborigines. With a high degree of probability, they were once a homogeneous part of Uluru. No wonder, they understood their mistake and returned them but... the vast majority of them write that from the moment they brought "their treasures" home, they were haunted by a wave of misfortunes, diseases and other smaller or bigger tragedies. There are hundreds of these letters written in English, German, French, Chinese, Spanish and even Polish!
Indigenous people would also prefer tourists not to go up the mountain. And so on October 26, 2019 the ban on climbing the mountain came into force. The last tourists reached the summit on October 25, one day before the permanent closure of Mount Uluru to visitors. The ban was established on the 34th anniversary of the monolith's return to its original owners.
I would love to go there one day. Just... you know, not to take advantage of the nearby airport and hotel complex, but embark on another great expedition. This time throught a real desert to central Australia. But for such a trip you also need to be well prepared and above all, have a professional 4x4 car, fuel, water, food and generally be prepared for everything that may happen to you in the desert and in the bush. If everything goes according to our plan and the current turmoil passes, maybe next season we will set off on another great Australian expedition.
Meanwhile, we were passing vast tracts of dry land, flat as a table. We rarely passed a passenger car, rarely even passed a truck. Voids. Sometimes we saw cattle graze, sometimes a herd of kangaroos ran by. But we saw ostriches for a while! For the first time in my life I saw a wild ostrich, an emu actually. But there was no way to stop, so no photos were taken.
Each subsequent town was an attraction for us. We were glad that there was some kind of civilization here. We lost phone range for hours, the radio often lost signal as well. We were saved by painfully replayed playlists on phones. We had to plan each car refueling, because we couldn't known whe the next gas station was.
But such a trip also has its advantages. We really were stopping in places like the wild west.
I like to stay in these small towns where literally two streets intersect and usually the gas station is the center of social life. Everyone we met was very nice and curious what we are doing here. For them, tourists are a big attraction. And from Poland ?! Dear Lord, where it is?! For 90%, Aussies Poland is same thibg as Holland (Netherlands what they mean). Fine for me, let it be :). Cool vibes, old cars, workers at lunch, and signs alerting you to rain not fires.
On another occasion we stopped at an abandoned station/cafe. It's hard to say what was there, but the place is for sale if anyone is interested! And yes. It is in the middle of nowhere. There is only a road there. Nothing else.
Once we stopped at a rest stop where there was a plague of flies. In Australia, especially in summer, flies are a real nuisance. They are incredibly annoying. They get everywhere - in the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and you can't wipe them away.
You have to run away!!! Of course, I prepared myself for such a situation and before leaving, each of us got a professional hat with a fly net and I even bought a preparation specially produced on the basis of repellers used in stables and on horses. But after 10 days of throwing things around on the bus, I had no idea where those things were. And they would be very useful, see:
As usual, the dusk found us suddenly and totally unprepared :). An empty road stretching for miles, some bushes on the roadside, huge pastures and huge herds of kangaroos who didn't care that they were just hopping in the middle of the street. In fact, suddenly a herd of 50 individuals could jump in front of the car. And we were somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We had to look for accommodation quickly. As usual! At one point, we reached a crossroads where there was a gas station, a motel and the most atmospheric trucker bar I've ever seen. But we weren't supposed to see it until the next day, because we focused on overnight accommodation. Marcin insisted we sleep "in the savage way". He drove the car somewhere in the bushes behind the motel barracks and announced that no one would see us here and that it is great. I had of an absolutely different opinion. I knew that we were sitting in the middle of a shavings-dried bush and in my mind's eye I saw us burning like living torches.
With catastrophic fires and drought prevailing in the country, that was the moment when I had to put my own footing in the interests of the safety of all of us. I can agree to many crazy things and sleep in the really strangest places, but this time my instinct was telling me: NIE! NOPE! NEIN! NO! NOT! 不! Lamp in my head was burning red - it was flashing furiously. But Marcin insisted on sleeping in the bushes. The situation got nervous. And a stalemate. Neither of us wanted to step down. Well, that's how we are. Sometimes we disagree with each other. We asked the group what they wanted to do putting them in a rather uncomfortable position (sorry again for that, polish squad). And the atmosphere thickened. But I was stubborn like a donkey. I disagreed and still believe it was the right decision. Only I ruined everyone's moods. It ended up taking the last two rooms in the motel and sharing them somehow.
And then a rumpus broke out. No sesnse to mention details. But it happens on trips. There is no good trip without a decent rumpus! 😁 After all, we spend time together almost 24 hours a day, most of the time in a can on wheels, often dirty and hungry and simply tired. Anyone's can loose patient sometimes. And it is absolutely understandable. Life.
So the "party" that night didn't last long. We ate dinner quickly and went to sleep.
However, the next day everyone's mood was improved by a delicious breakfast in this amazing truck pub that I mentioned.
Fried eggs, bacon, toast, sausages, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and hashbrowns (small potato pancakes), a glass of fresh juice and a cup of coffee. Each devoured their portion like animal. The atmosphere of this place was amazing. We sat behind large counter. Like in an old in the western film. The counter had plaques commemorating the regulars who spent most of their evenings on the same stools! There were even indentations in the wooden counter where they rested their elbows. The main customers were of course truck drivers. They have been driving their big road trains here for years. Everyone knew each other. They had big bellies, long beards, dirty dungarees, heavy boots and typical baseball caps on their heads. Come on! That was so climatic! At one point, one John or another Bob sat between Hubert and Marcin. He drove here with his UTE and a live goat. On the car, not in the bar. 😁
John or Bob: Where are you from?
Marcin: From Poland.
A: But what are you even doing here? There is nothing here.
M: Well ... we're travelling!
A: You wanted to see what the real Australia looks like, right ?!
M: Seems we do!
😁
Old Aussie nodded his head appreciatively, finished his coffee and went with his goat to do his business wishing us good luck. And we continued our journey.
Incredible climate.
I just keep wondering where did the stuffed boar heads come from in this bar ?!
(edit: now I know that wild boars are found in Australia)
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