Camping part three

This is the last of three entries about our camping trip. I am now in Alice Springs, an the internet kiosk. It's going to be a bit of a hassle to upload photos here, so I will probably do so tomorrow. Please visit the Flickr site then if you want to see some photos from the camping.

May 22
King's Creek Station
Sunny, mild, clear (again!)

We are on the coach, in fact, returning from our walk at Watarrka (King's Canyon). We will stop a moment at the station where we camped last night, and then push on to Alike Springs.

As I've done this sort of tour several times now, I've noticed that I am beginning to value different things about it. We walk at Uluru, Kata Tjuta, and Watarrka, and in that order, almost all the time. Uluru is very touristy, and I find that I am noticing that more and more, as though the things of real value are vanishing.

The walk at Kata Tjuta is more of a physical challenge. There are at least two step climbs and a climb up a tilted sandstone face. The ground is more difficult to traverse as well. Unlike Uluru, which is pretty much a big piece of sandstone slowly eroding from the wind, Kata Tjuta is a sandstone-volcanic rock conglomerate. Think of boulders held together by a sandstone matrix and you've got the idea. The sandstone still undergoes the wind erosion, but now the result is a surface in which relatively large sections can fall out at once. The loosening of a boulder the size of an emu egg is a small matter, but a car-sized boulder falling suddenly from a cliff face must be terrifying. As we walked, we saw much evidence of exactly that. Of course, once a large boulder has been dislodged, the wind works on the weak sandstone behind it, creating numerous depressions and mini-caves along the cliff faces. We stopped at the top of a passage between two large stones. The view was wonderful. One of the other tour groups was kind enough to take group photos of us using our own cameras, and we returned the favor.
Because the track we used goes up and down a lot, the return trip is about as taxing as the first half. Since it was later in the morning, a few people were more easily tired out by it. No injuries or sickness at all, parents, but a few decisions to take it easy on our final walk at Watarrka.

While I prefer Kata Tjuta to Uluru, Kata Tjuta is frustrating, as it generates questions that I know I will never have answered -- I have my guesses about how Aboriginal men use Kata Tjuta, but I know I won't ever really know.

The first night of our camping takes place at Ayers Rock Resort, the commercial portion of the enterprise at Uluru. It is pretty crowded, and while pleasant, you do not feel as if you're really out in the wild. King's Creek Station is where we spend our second night, and the camping here is much more satisfying. We are away from the crowds of Uluru, and still have a full-featured camping area. King's Creek Station is a working cattle station, one of the smaller ones, with the camping resort as a secondary venture. Nonetheless, they do offer toilets and showers; a camp store; attractions such as station tours by camel, 4wd, or even helicopter; a coffee shop with gourmet coffee; even an (expensive) internet connection! So, it was a nice night. The weather was not so cooperative, clouding over just enough to make star-gazing difficult, but all in all, a pretty good night. A few sprinkles, but nothing that the swag can't repel.

. . .


There is one incident that the students insist I share with you. During our drive from Kata Tjuta to King's Creek Station, we made a roadside stop. The first reason we stop is to collect firewood. One of the features of the Central Australian landscape is the presence of many dead trees: mulgas, desert oaks, gum trees. The trees die when the water table shifts of when other trees take their water supply. (Everything out here is about the availability of water). Collecting firewood is nothing more than going off the road a few dozen metres and picking up old dried-up dead bits. It takes only a few moments to collect more than enough for the night. We do this every year when we camp.
The other reason we stopped is to find a wichety grub. The wichety grub, the larval stage of the ghost moth, lives inside the roots of certain bushes, like the Gidgee or the mulga. Aboriginal women would find a likely bush, dig down to the woody roots, looking for one that is bulging. Breaking open the roots reveals the cream-colored grub, about the same size as your index finger. The Aborigines eat the grubs, raw if necessary, but more often cooked. The flavor -- I am told -- is like egg, but nuttier.


Now it is the usual practice for the tour guide to offer the grub to one of the students to eat. Every year, the students have refused, though, so the guide has always wound up eating it for us, holding the head and biting quickly right behind it. It's over pretty quick.

This year, two of our students ate wichety grubs. It is the first time this has happened. Now I am sworn to secrecy, so I cannot tell you who. Parents, it's their little puzzle for you. I can tell you that I have seen no ill physical effects from their doing this, although the culture of the group seems to have altered somewhat.

. . .

Today began with an early morning walk at Watarrka, a canyon system at the end of the Gill Range. This has become my favorite part of the camping trip; I never fail to learn some new things while on the walk.

The first part of this walk is a steep climb up Heart Attack Hill, aptly named -- unprepared tourists have died here. I am afraid that I started off at too fast a pace up the first hill, and my legs soon cramped. And after telling the students that it wasn't a race! I was embarrassed, but recovered and made it up to the top, where everyone was waiting for me.

The view is unique. The colors are actually simple: the rusty red earth, the clear blue sky with a few white clouds, the green leaves of the plants and the silvery gray of the dry and dead wood. At the top of the canyon, we're about 100 metres above the plain, and can therefore see for perhaps a hundred miles or more. The rock that makes up most of the canyon area is a sandstone that develops a tough rust-red coating when exposed to air.

Watarrka was important to the tribes in the vicinity for two related reasons. It was a reliable source of water, perhaps the only one until Uluru, a couple of hundred of kilometers away. The sandstone acts as a sponge and absorbs most of the rainwater that lands.

And of course, the presence of water means that there's a lot of bush tucker, the food gathered by the Aborigines. Our guide was able to offer us a lot of information about the plants on the canyon rim and their uses as bush tucker and bush medicine. I have some photos that I'll upload to Flickr, together with some explanations.

After a lunch stiop at Mt. Ebeneezer,we are on the last leg back to Alice Springs. The students are in a good mood, listening to and singing along with songs the guide is supplying from his iPod. There are clouds ahead, so perhaps it will be raining in Alice Springs when we arrive. Tonight I will try to find the time to upload these journals, after we have a group dinner.

Tomorrow, we will return to Sydney for our last few days in Australia.