June 7th-Ayers Rock Journal

June 7th, 2007

Today was a wonderful and moving day! First, we all should be very proud of Pedro. We got up at 5:30AM!!! We wanted to watch the sunrise over the desert near another rock formation. This rock formation is called Kata-Tjuta or The Olgas “many heads”. Kata-Tjuta is 36 rock formations and the highest dome is 546 meters above the plain, even higher than Uluru rock. These domes result from stresses inside the rocks, which themselves are river-rounded stones embedded in fine sandstone. These rocks also have spiritual meanings to the Aborginal people that live around here, and are asked to remain off the rocks.

We arrived out to the sunrise viewing area with about 10 mins before the sun rose. It was really nice outside-calm, quiet. The stars in the sky are an unbelievable site out here in the desert. Daniel, you would fall in love with it! I will tell you that one thing about the desert is it is freezing! Pedro and I definitely did not prepare for these kinds of temperatures. But, it was well worth it to see the beautiful site of the sun rising over the desert plains and shining onto the rock formations. In the distance we could also see Uluru. It was spectacular!!

After the sun rose, we made our way out to Kata-Tjuta to do a about a 7 mile walk called the “Valley of the Winds”. This walk involved walking through the rocks on a trail. It was both smooth and rough terrain, steep hiking, and more. It was also brutally cold in the beginning until about 10AM. And, as they call it “Valley of the Winds”, it was very windy! Getting up close with the rock formations was so incredible. The views from all the different places we were at were beautiful. On our journey, we met 3 medical doctors that were in Ayers Rock for a Radiology conference. They were really awesome to talk to during the hike and one of them gave us their phone number to call while we are in Cairns and he will show us around! After about a 4 hour hike, we returned back to the hotel for a rest and to get some lunch.

After lunch, we wanted to return back to Uluru (Ayers Rock) since we didn’t have time to walk around it yesterday. The walk around the base of the rock is about 2 hours long, about 5 miles, flat terrain. Here, we got to see many sacred spots of the Aborginal people, and even artistic drawings of them on the rock. The one thing about the desert if it is warm out, the flies come out. It is pretty bad that people have to wear fly nets to keep them out of their faces and mouths! They were not so bad since it wasn’t too hot, but we still were swatting at them occasionally. The other interesting thing is you would think that if you are in a sweatshirt and cold and in a hat that you wouldn’t get sunburnt! Well, I learned my lesson! My face definitely got some sun while we were out there.

After hiking around the base of the rock, we again went to the sunset viewing site of the rock to watch another amazing sunset as yesterday. Here, we got to personally meet the couple celebrating their 63rd anniversary that I told you about was on our plane. They were truly special and you could tell that they were really in love. I’ll share with you one experience. I offered to take a picture of the couple in front of the rock with their disposable camera and I said “Ok, look at the camera and smile”. The husband wasn’t looking at the camera but instead looking at his wife, even after I said it two times. Then, the wife said, “Come on, Roy, look at the camera and smile while gently hitting him”, He replied “I need something to smile about, which is why I’m looking at you.” I thought this was sooo adorable! The couple told us they take a holiday (as they call it, but same as vacation) together every year. They also take a holiday with their two daughters every year, and only their two daughters and them. They were really special people.

We returned back to our room to attend a very special event that Pedro and I were lucky to be here for.

The Ayers Rock resort sponsored a barbeque and invited out the Watoto Orphan children choir for an event. This event happened at the Ayers Rock Amphitheatre. With only a “gold coin” donation (1.00-2.00) , we were able to get free barbeque which was basic hotdogs and burgers, but we were happy it was free! The show started off with the local Aborginal children’s choir singing 3 songs, one in English and 2 in Aborginal language. They were very cute. Then, it led into an older male Aborgin who is a well accomplished musician in this area and travels around playing his instrument. I can describe the instrument as this long tube like structure that he puts his mouth up to and then can make the tube shorter and longer and make different sounds with his mouth. These sounds are nothing like any of you have heard before, but very cool. After this, the concert moved into the Watoto orphan children(about 20 children). These children are orphans from Uganda, East Africa. Watoto is an Christian organization that rescues children of parents who have died from AIDs/HIV. It was started in about 10 years ago and has become a town where they have saved 1600 kids. They have education, healthcare, and events such as the choir as we saw tonight that they can become involved in. Their ultimate goal is to save 10,000 children. One of the statistics that we heard was that “Every day, the amount of deaths that they have from AIDs is equal to 3-September 11s.” Ayers Rock sponsored this event and paid for the Watoto children to fly out and put on the show. They came out dressed in wild colors and sang and danced many songs. In the background was a powerpoint presentation showing some of the meanings of the words they were singing. Some songs were in English, some in Ugandan language. In between the songs, the children would speak to us and tell them their story of how they lost their mother and father from AIDs and how they suffered. They told us how Watoto gave them hope and gave them dreams. Each of them introduced them selves and told us what they wanted to grow up to be. The show was really moving and amazing. The singing and dancing was incredible. I made some movies of it to share with everyone when we return so you can appreciate it as we both did!

After the show, we returned to our room to pack up our bags to leave for our trip to the Northern Territory, Darwin tomorrow. We arrive in Darwin and have our 2 Day Safari on Sat/Sun.

I hope everyone back home is doing well! I do hope you are enjoying the journal entries! I apologize if they are rushed and I don’t have comments by each picture, but in Australia, you pay for every second of the internet so I try to load up the pictures fast and cut and paste the journal from my word document. I figured you can make sense of the pictures based on my writings. We miss you all and are thinking about you!! J