Paintings of Kata Tjuta & Uluru

I paint when I travel in order to understand the landscape. These watercolors are a "way of knowing" for me, not intended as great paintings or even intended for frames. They tend to stay in my travel journal to remind me. Along the route to Kata Tjuta, I saw cracks in the red, red sand. Distant mountains sped by. I drew the ink sketches on the bus and painted later. I heard it was very distracting for the bus driver. Kata Tjuta, or the Olgas, did seem very male to me. Indeed, they do have exclusively male sites. If an Aboriginal woman had been with us, she would have covered her eyes rather than gaze on the forbidden sites. Uluru, the back side, sketched on site, in a big hurry as we walked to a water hole, the most beautiful waterhole I have ever seen. Balancing the pad of paper, the camera and the pace was a challenge...but I did not want to miss what the guide had to say. Our bus driver was our guide and his love and respect for the Aboriginal people was palpable. A more sympathetic guide could not be imagined. When I drew this one, I sighed and said,"Now I understand." I felt like the form and the meaning of the mountain had entered me, somehow.

Uluru at Sunset and Sunrise

Champagne at sunset is traditional. The viewing lot is chock a block full of coaches and catering tables. Cheesey? yes. Cool? You bet! It is a great tradition as far as I'm concerned. Drinking champagne and gazing at the iconic view of Uluru is the bomb! Note the gloves...it was cold! The rock really does changes colors as the sun sets, going from a copper red, through purples to dunn brown. A Carrot at Uluru! The food down under is quite British...meaning that vegetables are NOT the center of the meal and fresh vegetables are even less so. I was so excited that the caterers brought raw veggies! Sunrise we watched from near out hotel.

It was cloudy, so no where near as spectacular as sunset, but still pretty wonderful.

I don't know who this woman is, but she stood through most of sunset with her arms stretched out in welcome.

Uluru, the experience begins

The first glimpse of Uluru is an iconic experiences. It looms in the distance like a big turtle shell, a giant crown of a hat...You see it in the open flat plain and deduce that it must be big. But how big?

Bigger than you ever imagined. And far more complex. It is convoluted and full of fissures, caves, rock pool, utter cathedrals of stone, secret areas where women gave birth, other areas where men painted their stories claiming this land as the land of their ancestors living now and forever.

Uluru is one, singular large piece of compressed sandstone, tipped on its side. The striations are vertical on Uluru. Like an iceberg, more of it is below ground than above.

The Olgas or Kata Tjuta

I had heard of the Olgas, whose true name is Kata Tjuta, but I did not know what to expect. I just knew that many people said they were even more magnificent than Uluru.

We first saw them at a distance, looking like so many heads peeking up through the ground.When we got closer, we could see the red and purple colors of the rock. Deep canyons full of stories. Kata Tjuta is a series of conglomerate rocks of monolith proportions that are incredible.

In the presence of these rocks, and Uluru, one can understand how religions were formed here. When one is in the presence of the Earth's awesome power on such a scale, you cannot help but feel puny and awestruck. Kata Tjuta is the site of the male ancestors, male stories, male business. Business means male ceremony/ritual sites, secret sites where Aboriginal women are not even allowed to look.

Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park

The desert and camels on the way to Uluru

We left Alice Springs by buswatching for kangaroos> which we did not see, and feral camels, which we did see. In addition to the wild camels,we stopped at a camel farmwhere I experienced my oneand only camel ride that I expect to take in my lifetime, even if I do return to Egypt! Oy, it was rough! While I am sure that one can adjust to the lumpiness of the camel gait, it would be easier if the stirrups were properly adjusted. We no sooner took off than the stirrup flew off my right foot, making it really difficult to control the movement of my body in the saddle. The drover did not hear me, or chose not to hear me (hysterical woman, etc.). I finally gained stability by stretching my stirup-less foot out staight, with firm, locked knee. Had a few back twitches for days afterwardsThe trip across the desert was beautiful and austere.We saw birds of prey galore.We stopped at the huge salt lake I had seen from the airplane, climbing a sand dune for the blinding view.