Saturday, February 18, 2012

Australia 2011 - Day 5, Part 1 - Kata Tjuta

"I always run into strong women who are looking for weak men to dominate them." - Andy Warhol

***

Australia 2011
Day 5 - 2nd August - Kata Tjuta
(Part 1)

The previous night I'd tried to download map data so my Navigation app would work, since Google Maps needed data to work. However despite 7 hours the download didn't finish. This wasn't that big of a problem, since when there was no data the direction to proceed in was generally clear.

We woke up early to see the sunrise from the Kata Tjuta viewing point.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
"Le safitei de feu"
I've no idea what went wrong in the translation process.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Direction of viewing area from walkway near carpark

Ironically, though the viewing point was for Kata Tjuta everyone was looking at Ayer's Rock in the distance.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Sunrise: Ayer's Rock in the distance

There was a Japanese tour group, which was comforting after all the PRCs.


Sunrise panorama at 7am

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us


Sunrise panorama at 7:07am

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Kata Tjuta

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us


Sunrise panorama at 7:21am

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Sun rising like Aten


Emerging Sun Disc


Sunrise panorama at 7:29am

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Crowd

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
On the Kata Tjuta landscape

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Kata Tjuta stitch

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
"Kapi - Drinking Water. Anangu, the traditional owners, say:... always drink water and you'll be sure to survive here"

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
On Valley of the Winds

"Detailed knowledge of the area is restricted to certain people only. It is forbidden to pass this information on to the wrong people. Therefore we cannot share any of the creation stories with you."
Hopefully nothing will happen to those certain people.

We then walked up to Kata Tjuta - the sand domes. Unlike Uluru, you can't climb them (and you're threatened with criminal penalties if you do so). As they are probably less sacred than Ayer's Rock, the reason is of course that this wasn't in the agreement with the Australian government, like with Kata Tjuta.

Due to time constraints, we took the Karu Lookout route, the shortest of the 3.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
The approach. The aea reminded me of Las Médulas.


Kata Tjuta panorama

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Dome


Another panorama

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Side of dome

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us


Third panorama

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Rocks on floor

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Dome

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Path, with relac one corner in the background

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Valley from Kata Tjuta

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us


Panorama within domes, in Valley of the Winds

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Flora


Wind whistling in rocks. It was quite spooky

Others continued on but we turned back.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Tree

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
Rest stop, with another relac one corner

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
No climbing

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
More flora