Kata Tjuta and Uluru

Departure on the second day is before 5 a.m. We drive on to the Olgas, or Kata Tjuta on Anangu. The Kata Tjuta are a formation of over 30 wind-cut sandstone monoliths and a sacred area for the Anangu. The temperature is around 40 degrees again. You get used to everything.

Again: dead trees in front of red rocks against a blue sky. Stinging sun, thousands of flies. Not new, but still beautiful. We hike about 7km around a few monoliths, it’s impossible to replace the water fast enough. Zebra finches in a tree. Then we continue by bus to the end of the journey: Uluru or Ayers Rock.

First we make a stop at the Cultural Centre. You can learn something about the Anangu culture there. But only from white people. When I see an Aboriginal towards the end, I am almost shocked. He seems to be sober. The exhibition is also rather rubbish: it doesn’t bring anything closer, it looks like highly polished desert sand.

Luke drops us off at Uluru’s western car park and we walk halfway around Uluru. I fly at a whizzing pace, running like a wolf as I flee from the flies. My net is in the bus. Fatal mistake for two flies, which I kill while trying to reach my brain nasally.

Uluru is probably the only place in the world where a photo can cost $5,000. There are always prohibition signs along the way, indicating sacred Anangu sites. No trespassing and no photography. Why? It doesn’t say. Some water collects at the foot of a crevice, 50 x 100cm. There is also a sign in front of it: No Swimming.

We arrive at Sunset View Point just before sunset. Luke says there are still a few buses coming. But in high season there would be five times as many. There are about 30 buses with signs like “Discover the World in Style”. Terror tourists rush to champagne glasses set out on blue tables in front of Uluru. Grinning stupidly, they take loads of superfluous photos. I look around and can’t find any candy floss or a Ferris wheel. Strange.

This time the camp is near the Ayers Rock Resort. A large campsite, sleeping directly in the dust again. Yesterday was lonelier, dirtier and nicer, but today we have a shower for the first time in two days.

The next morning we leave for Sunrise Point at 4.30am. The crowds are even worse. It’s impossible to feel anything like magic. Noise, hustle and bustle, stupidity, monkeys climbing on van roofs.

Am I human too? Am I part of it? Yes. I didn’t expect anything else. But I wanted to know. Now I know, and I don’t like it, not at all. What remains? Dead trees in front of red rocks against a blue sky are infinitely beautiful. The people in between are usually quite bizarre and nasty.

The group circles the second half of Uluru, I sleep in the bus. Then it’s 6 hours back to Alice Springs. A big celebration. Relax for a day. On the last day, I realise that my second camera has died within a month. This increases the cost of the 5-day trip to just under €800. Tiger Airways is over an hour late to Melbourne. I miss my transfer bus, the Bumsbomber pay for nothing.