Travelogue: Australia – Weekend Side Trip: Uluru – Part 4b, Uluru At Sunrise

How amazing is this place! The adjectives I can come up with seem tired and boring in comparison to what I am trying to describe to you. It is easy to see what the indigenous peoples of this place hold it as sacred!

Even in the dark, you feel its presence. The great monolithic sandstone bloc stands imposingly alone on the plain. It rises just over surrounding plain by slightly more thousand feet and has a circumference just short of six miles. So this looming hulk of sandstone, as you approach it, blocks out a large part of the sky.

We approach the mountain, the sun has yet to actually rise, the light comes from the false dawn; it is about half-an-hour before sunrise as we enter the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park. I have lucked out! The coach I have been assigned to is carrying only 18 people; the driver has announced that we will be arriving at the viewing site about ten minutes before dawn.

It is still early, but I will come to appreciate the driver’s style. He will tell me later on today that the lack of commentary on the ride to the mountain is not only to give us a chance to take in the scenery and appreciate the pre-dawn stillness of the desert, but also to give everyone on the bus the chance to fully wake-up. As the day progresses, Tim will share lots of amazing stories and facts with us, but his assessment is pretty much right on. Right now it is amazing to soak up the silence of the predawn hours in the Australian Outback.

The parking area is about a ten-minute saunter from the viewing platform, so I had plenty of time to meander along the various paths to the platform and still be able to see the sun start changing the color of the sky and the rocks of Uluru. The changes are striking. It transforms from a brooding hulk of sandstone to a bright, rusty prominence rising like some giant’s castle from the surrounding scrub.

On this clear and bright morning, the peaks of Kata Tjuta can be seen in the misty distance. It is amazing to think that they are over fifteen miles away! If I had to guess, I would say not more than five or six, but the clear air of the desert is deceiving and The Olgas are much further away than they appear.

As the sun finally peaks over the horizon, we are treated to a color change that is somehow both subtle and amazing. I have to say that while it is not too extreme a change really, the affect is phenomenal! There is no place like this. How do I explain the feeling?

Ah! I know! Take a look at the picture of the crowd of photographers at sunrise. This is only small number of the people who showed-up on this particular day. There were people of all ages, backgrounds, and ethnicity. There were adults, children tourists, travelers, and professional photographers in the crowd. At an estimate, there were easily two-to-three hundred people on the tiered viewing platforms and who knows how many more on the paths that wend their way to the foot of the rocks.

And yet with all those people, you may not have actually been able to hear a pin drop, but you could easily ignore the few people talking in hushed whispers to enjoy the sounds of the birds and insects that seemed to be singing-in the morning. I swear that I could not have imagined the collective gasp of awe as the sun finally broke the horizon and a new day officially began!

To steal a line I read somewhere: “This is how religions get started!” If Uluru is not on your “Bucket List,” Take my suggestion: ADD IT!

Wherever you are this morning I hope that you have had an adventure this weekend!

Don Bergquist – 05 April 2012 – Canberra, ACT, Australia