Tuffy's Outback
Adventure to Ayers Rock, Australia
Tuffy's Outback
Adventure to Ayers Rock, Australia
Other Travel Buddy StoriesRead about Fauna and Scotty's adventures.
Read about Webster.
Read about Lucky.Tuffy and Sarah had a wonderful time visiting Ravenswood School for Girls in Gordon, NSW, Australia. The girls in Janet Benecke's fifth grade class (Year 5 Gold) showed the buddies a wonderful time and sent back 4 different journals! This is excerpts from one of these journals when Tuffy accompanied Mrs. Benecke and her husband on a trip to the Outback of Australia.
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Sydney to Uluru After a relaxing and comfortable night in the sleeping bag that Georgia had made me, I had an early start. We battled the peak hour traffic to make it in plenty of time to the airport.
Seats were allocated, boarding passes issued and I grabbed my headset and settled into a window seat just behind the wing. I thought I was heading for "Danger in the Dry Zone" and I wasn't wrong! We flew over Parkes, where farm paddocks were very visible and then desert, desert and more desert &endash; lots if red dirt and sparse vegetation. |
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Arriving in Central Australia within the Northern Territory &endash; "outback Australia" (it said so on the number plates), I had to remind Mrs. B to turn her watch back 1/2 hour of r Central Standard Time. It's 1/2 hour behind Eastern Standard Time in Sydney which is on the eastern seaboard. It was a short trip from Uluru Airport to our accommodation at the Yulara Resort. Most of the land here has been handed back to its traditional owners and large area around Uluru or Ayers Rock is within the National Park (more than 1000 km), so it is jointly managed by the tribal Aboriginal owners and the National Park rangers. The Resort is a development outside the National Park and was built when everything was moved away from the rock. |
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The township of Yulara is the only place for workers to live, campers to camp and other tourists to stay in a range of accommodation. It's like a small community. It has its own electricity generator powered by natural gas and the water supply is from an underground aquifer, which I now understand from all 5 Gold's work on the water cycle. If you measure how far I am from civilization on the basis of how far I am from the nearest McDonalds, I'm about 469 km away. Hard to imagine isn't it! I headed for the Olgas or Kata Tjuta &endash; a spectacular area of rock occupying 25 km, with 36 domes of conglomerate rock. You can see from the rock I am sitting on that it's like a whole lot of different rocks and minerals glued together. (I liked it so much I've put it on the cover of my Diary.) |
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The highest dome is 546m. They say they are about 500 million years old. The material comes from an area west of here, where some ranges broke down (eroded) when the climate was wetter. The sediment was carried by the water and deposited here in a sinkhole or low depression, it was buried before being exposed by the eroding away of the surrounding plains. This left the domes of harder material we see remaining today. The Olgas were first sited by Europeans when Ernest Giles saw them from the shores of a "Big Salt Lake" called Lake Armadeus. I'm amazed how much of this I now understand from all our feverish research for M.U.M (Murder Under the Microscope). |
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I was surprised how very much greener it was around the base of these rocks, but I learnt is because they form a natural basin that collects runoff You can see I got a little concerned when Mrs. B put me on a clump of prickly spinifex &endash; one of the World's hardiest grasses. Prickly too as its name suggests! I thought a spinifex hopping mouse might have mistaken me for one of its own kind and invited me into its burrow. As you know, they build their tunnel meters or more beneath these plants. Anyway, none appeared. I guess they keep out of the midday sun. |
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 Tuffy is attempting to gather seeds like the Aborigines. I don't think I'd like to be forgotten out here. |
I'm glad I'm here in June when the temperatures range from about -5°c overnight to about 25°c in the day. If it was summer I think I would be burrowing! Temperatures during the day in summer average 40°c-50°c. The whole desert is dominated by spinifex grasses when you're low to the ground like me. Jordana (one of my 5 Gold friends) would never forget the look of spinifex if she'd been here with me. She studied spinifex for M.U.M. The Aboriginals use the seeds to grind into a kind of flour and plait or weave the stems. You can see I'm trying to gather some of the fallen seeds in this photo. |
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Mrs. B kindly lifted me up so I could view the other levels of vegetation. Most obvious were the casuarina trees that as babies look like small poles. They're also known as desert oaks or Kurkara and they establish a root system deep enough to tap the underground water table. I guess that's why they're the most successful trees at surviving in the harsh conditions. Anna, I thought of you as we walked through the Olga Gorge. Red river gums lined the creek bed, although it was virtually dry. They say it hasn't rained much since last December. Can you believe it! Last December &endash; that's 6 months ago. They don't have a wet season in the desert, so flowering plants burst into action immediately following rain. They are spectacular in the photos I've seen. I'm secretly hoping it might rain so I can see another side to this fragile desert environment. |
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I felt like a dot on the landscape! I was glad Mr. B didn't forget me. I was pretty well camouflaged. |
I haven't seen a dingo yet - I think I'd be scared. I might looked like a tasty dinner. I was a little nervous when I saw a wedge tailed eagle soaring overhead. I kept very still in case I was mistaken for a meal. Uluru &endash; it was nearly sunset. What a spectacular site. So many more features than photos ever shown. The rock is a sandstone monolith - 9.6 km around the base, 3.6 km long at its longest point, 2.4 km wide and 348 m to the top. It was formed by the uplifting of the earth's surface so its layers are vertical rather then horizontal as they would originally have been. You know this single rock extends beneath the ground probably for many kilometres. The sun set quickly and I will never forget the amazing colors, especially the purple haze that gradually lifted as the sun set. What a day I have had! Oh, I forgot to mention, I tried emu sausages and kangaroo and crocodile steaks for dinner. The crocodile had a lot of fat that I wasn't too keen on. Otherwise it was tough like chicken. I wonder if its always tough or whether that was caused by the cooking. The kangaroo had a strong flavor, although I hadn't been told otherwise. |
Although it's sandstone, the red color comes from the iron oxide oxidizing when exposed to air. Just like metal rusting. It takes a long time so you can tell from the color if any section has recently eroded or been broken away.
Time came to climb the rock. Was I brave enough? It was very steep - up to 80° in some parts. That's nearly a right angle. A chain was there to help. Mrs. B opted out and preferred a base walk but I braved it in Mr. B's backpack.
It was a challenge but the view of the desert from the top, made it worthwhile.
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The trip down was worse but I made it feeling very proud of myself. I saw a man's hat blow away. It's windier than you'd imagine and apparently some people have been killed lunging for their hats. They warn you to secure your hat but it wasn't a problem for hatless old me. I then walked around parts of the base and saw the only waterhole that usually has water in it because it's in an area where the soils are less porous and it collects more runoff from the rock above. It's called Mutitjula. Of course I needed to understand that Uluru National Park is the center of the driest continent in the world. 74% of Australia is arid or semiarid. The Aboriginals were very careful not to swim in this waterhole as it would have polluted it and stopped the animals from drinking there. Of course if the animals left so would their food supply. You can see some of the courses water follow on its way over the rock. |
 It's very easy to become disorientated at the top, so special markers are placed to help you. This plaque also helps to orientate you. |
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I saw some Aboriginal rock paintings and was able to work out some of the traditional symbols. waterhole a person bending over when viewed from above They painted on the rocks as a form of storytelling to pass on traditions and as a form of entertainment. Just as I enjoy a bedtime story and we listen to folktales. |
I collected a brochure on Aboriginal handcrafts in case I forgot some of their traditional weapons and tools.
I was most interested in what they found to eat because so far I'd seen so little that I could identify as food. I was sure I'd starve.
I saw photos of quandongs - Katie G my 5 Gold friend, is an expert on these. They're a beautiful reddish &endash; orange color and are also known as native peaches. I still think I'd starve though! I really began to appreciate the skill and knowledge of the environment the Aboriginal people have. We have to be taught how to look after our environment and work out ways to reestablish a balance between our use of it and its long -term survival. I'm impressed with how well they have lived in harmony with the environment for thousands of years.
It's raining! Just a little. Will it be enough for the wildflowers to bloom?
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I've had my photo taken with Maureen Nampajinpa Hudson. She's an Aboriginal artist whose work I thought was beautiful. She's exhibited in London and Germany and has been an artist in residence at Uluru for the last month. She packed up her exhibition toady. So we were lucky to have the opportunity to meet. All of Maureen's paintings tell a story and relate to her family's symbols that have been passed down from generation to generation. She was really pleased that her people's stories will go home with me to California. The page before has some information on her that Mrs. B gave me to include in my diary. |
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I think camels are gorgeous. I'd really like one as my pet and they're great in the desert with big, soft, flat feet designed for walking on sand. I rode Moosha. He had only one hump and was a camel native to a hot, desert climate like the Sahara. He is a browser as I found out every time he bent or stretched to nip off a tasty piece of casuarina or desert heath. He eats just about everything except spinifex, so he doesn't wipe out a whole species of plants. I guess you could say he's environmentally friendly.
Camels were the ships of the desert until the train line was built in the latter half of this century.
Shaun, the alternative one, also told me about the spinifex hopping mouse. It builds an intricate burrow with lots of tunnels and rooms and unlike most marsupials, suckles its young and rears them for a long time. If the parent leaves the burrow, they block the babies off in one room. Of course everything in the desert is in a food chain so no little mouse popped its head out to say hi to me in the middle of the day, in case an eagle-eyed hawk or kite was wheeling overhead.
Shaun was a fountain of knowledge - a very interesting and calm man. He explained that the artesian water extracted through bores that are sunk down into the ground about 40 m to reach the water table, is extremely salty. Therefore, Yulara, the township here, has the biggest desalination plant in the southern hemisphere. I was worried about the effect on the environment of taking all this underground water. After all, I was able to have a bath and use as much water as I needed without noticing any warnings or restrictions. I know now why. All the water is used 3 times before returning to the water cycle.
You could probably work out how!
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First it's used for drinking, cooking, and washing. (What a relief!) Then it's treated and used to flush toilets and finally, with its added nutrients, it waters the gardens. I'm glad I didn't cool off under the sprinkler! I might have had to go to the Royal Australian Flying Doctor Service Base for treatment. I think it's all cleverly balanced use of the environment and that the Aboriginals and white people here really care about managing the environment for future generations to enjoy. By the way, today I also bought a sample of red sand to take home. It seems extraordinary to see the red, red soil showing through the lush green grass at the Resort to say nothing of how it coats Mrs. B's boots |
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It was only in 1873 (126 years ago), that Uluru was first sited by white man and white people have only been coming here regularly since the 1960's.
I've also just realized that there aren't many of my kind around here. I think keeping pet dogs must be discouraged. But I'm, not lonely &endash;-I've had a wonderful day. I particularly enjoyed meeting Maureen as she seemed to like me a lot. She even asked Mrs. B if she could show me to some other people.
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It hardly ever rains in the desert and it hadn't rained for almost 6 months until yesterday and today. Two of about the 8 or so days it rains in a year. They're not really prepared for rain here. Most outdoor things are not undercover, including people's luggage awaiting collection. In a way I think I've been fortunate. I've seen Uluru dry and wet. Waterfalls quickly formed on Uluru once they'd been some consistent rain. I think it looked splendid and quite majestic. I met Jacob Puntaru, an Anagu Aboriginal elder in his 80's. He belongs to one of the 2 main local tribes. |
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had my photo taken with him.He told me about their creation stories and traditional lifestyle. I had my photo taken with him after he'd shown me how to make the world's oldest glue that was traditionally used to bond rock to wood for knives or to make wood stronger or waterproof.
Mrs. B bought a miniature club with this resin on the end, for me to take home. You can see Jacob's bigger club in the photo. He got the powder for the resin from little white specks dotted along the stalks of a type of acacia plant. I could barely see them. Anyway, he stripped the stalks and then kept banding the club around the pile of leaves mixed with the resin until the larger leaves separated out leaving a little heap of white powder. He then rolled the end of his club in the powder and heated it over a fire. The powder melted and was malleable like plasticene until it was cold, which didn't take long. Sharp quartz chips, like blades, were glued to sticks this way.
I had a wonderfully interesting morning and the time had finally come for us to depart. We packed and were off to the airport.
I farewelled a desert plant resplendent in white blooms.
From the plane I looked out over Lake Eyre and lots of salt pans in the desert until the clouds became too thick.
My next view was the Blue Mountains escarpment - what a contrast in vegetation - dense green forest. Then the stunning coastline south of Sydney loomed and we soared out over Botany Bay, turned and made our approach to land. It was a smooth set down.
Tomorrow school - I can't wait to get there and share my wonderful desert experiences in Central Australia with all my classmates and Sarah.
Julia, Sarah, Sarah and I reunited. Sarah had had a wonderful weekend helping Sarah W. celebrate her birthday. She's also got a new chair to rest in while at school. It was made by Sarah W's grandfather. I think we've both been very lucky to have had such wonderful experiences with all our 5 Gold Australian friends at Ravenswood.
Story written by Janet Benecke. Photos by Janet and Peter Benecke
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