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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Australia | Rock of ages
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Australia | Rock of ages

The 5-hour drive through the no-man's land of Northern Territory is a journey to Australia's spiritual centre

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“It’s quite straightforward. Exit the airport car park, turn left at the first junction and then right at the next junction and you’ll be there."

Those were the directions the lady at the Thrifty car rental desk at the airport gave me for the 445km-long route between Alice Springs and Uluru.

Uluru, which is the traditional name for Ayers Rock, is bang in the middle of Australia, and the road that leads to it is an offshoot of the 2,834km-long Stuart Highway (A87) that runs from Darwin to Adelaide.

In the 5-hour drive to Uluru, I must have passed about three cars. It was during those hundreds of kilometres on cruise control at 120km per hour through Australia’s Northern Territory (NT), on my fifth visit to the country, that I realized how big and sparsely populated Australia really is. The tarmac is a pencil line through the fiery red and flat countryside, uninhabited till the horizon.

You might strike Uluru off your itinerary, thinking it’s a long way to go just to see one rock and another group of rocks (The Olgas, more popularly known as Kata Tjuta), but refrain from doing so. This is a truly spiritual place and the way the rocks change colour over the course of the day is magical, and made me believe, like the original inhabitants have believed for over 20,000 years, that the soul of the place resides within them.

A jabiru. Photo: Rishad Saam Mehta
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A jabiru. Photo: Rishad Saam Mehta

“Packaged tourism" certainly flashes into mind at Yulara. Most people fly here on an all-inclusive deal. They have a sunrise tour at Ayers Rock, sunset tour at Kata Tjuta, maybe an option to climb Ayers Rock or lounge in the hotel pool during the day, and then fly out the next day.

This is too rushed. I’m glad I had my own car, because that allowed me to drive around the park the evening I got there, as the setting sun rendered the rock a fiery orange.

The next morning, I was picked up by Sarah—of an unknown last name—at the wheel of a minivan. She just said: “Hi! I’m Sarah, from Seit" (Spirit Emotion Intellect Task), a leading company providing adventure and educational tours focused on central Australia’s indigenous culture. I had opted for a Kata Tjuta sunrise tour because it included an informative walk through Walpa Gorge, named for the wind (Walpa) that whistles between the massive domes that shape Kata Tjuta. On the 40km drive from the hotel to Kata Tjuta, during which darkness gave way to dawn, Sarah chatted about the geological phenomena that created these unique formations over millions of years and how these have been sacred to the original inhabitants of this continent for 20,000 years. After taking in a sunrise during which the 36 domes that make up Kata Tjuta constantly changed hue, we had a typical outback-style breakfast before the 3km walk.

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A sunrise cruise on the Yellow Water billabong in Kakadu. Photo: Rishad Saam Mehta

Along with the visitor centre, there are plenty of interesting walks around the rock. The mother of them all is the Uluru base walk that is 10.6km long and goes through acacia woodlands and grassed claypans. This should take about 3.5 hours. There are shorter walks too—the Liru walk and the Kantju Gorge walk, which goes past many fine examples of Anangu rock art, and lets you experience the sheer vertical walls and profound peacefulness of the Kantju Gorge. These are 4km and 2km, respectively.

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I was under the impression that all of the Northern Territory was like this—red and sparse. But since I had to catch my flight back to Mumbai from Darwin, I drove from Darwin to the Unesco World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park, which is nature on a grand scale. The park is 19,000 sq. km of vast flood plains, meandering river systems, teeming billabongs, towering escarpments and majestic waterfalls. Wildlife, the Twin Falls, the Jim Jim Falls and the Yellow Water billabong, together are only a minuscule part of the park.

Since it was getting into the hot and dry season at the time, the temperatures were peaking at 34 degrees Celsius. The robin egg blue or emerald green waterholes I trekked past were so inviting that it might have been impossible to resist a swim but for the stark signs warning of crocodiles. Fortunately, during our trek to the Jim Jim Falls, our guide Kelly found us a lovely waterhole at the base of the falls that had been declared free of crocs by the park rangers. Swimming in the chilled green waters was sublime.

NT is so unique that it was probably the closest I’ve been to the mystical soul at the enigmatic centre of this huge continent.

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Published: 09 Nov 2012, 04:38 PM IST
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