Flying
from Melbourne to get to Ayers Rock all the flights go to Sydney then
out to Ayres Rock. The flight from Sydney to Ayers Rock is just
under three hours. Below the plane Central Australia tells a story
of ages when giant seas covered the central portion of Australia.
A
wasteland of harsh climates where the temperature reaches 45 degree
celsius most days (107 Fahrenheit). The indenginous people of
Australia, known as aboriginals, found a way to live in harmony with the
harsh lands around them. Aboriginals would find the artisian wells below
the desert and grubs, guana, bugs, beetles, and roots to sustain
themselves.
Pictured
is the new airport at Ayers Rock. An old airport, run by a gentleman
named Connellan, ran flights in and out of Ayers Rock since 1959. See
story below.
Our
first view of Ayers Rock from the plane. What is really is a shock is
that Ayers Rock is just that; a giant rock. As hard as granite and one
solid piece of rock sticking out of the ground for millions of
years. As I understand "Uluru", the rock, was created
when the ocean was in central Australia. Billions of years of
sedimentary deposits high in iron settled hardened. Mountains
pushed 
up,
wore away, and the basin was turned on its side and was covered again
during the ice age then left again. This solid hard rock teems with
life. About twice a year it rains in the desert. At the summit,
1,400 feet above, small water basins exist after heavy rains. These dry
up within 20-30 days. In this time period triops and a small fish, not
more than 3mm in length, have an entire life cycle. Ian found them
( of course)! The eggs of the animals have to survive dried up for
sometimes years to be re-activated when washed into these small water
catches. No one else seemed to know there were fish on Ayers Rock.
None of the books we looked at mentioned them. We may have discovered a
new species of fish. If so we'll have to call them Cooke fish.
We
get up at 4am to make the half hour van ride to the "Rock" to
watch sunrise before the climb. Some coffee and what seemed as though it
would take forever finally came about with with the temperature rising
from a mere 70 degrees to 105.
Sunrise
in the desert. The moon shines down over the desert with Jupiter bright
in the sky below not wishing to be to be forgotten.
Pam
and the kids getting ready for the climb; happy the sun did come up in
anticipation of the long day ahead of us.
Flying
from Melbourne to get to Ayers Rock all the flights go to Sydney then
out to Ayres Rock. The flight from Sydney to Ayers Rock is just
under three hours. Below the plane Central Australia tells a story
of ages when giant seas covered the central portion of Australia.
