Uluru
The climb to the top of Uluru is being closed on 26 October 2019, marking the day in 1985 when Uluru and Kata Tjuta were handed back to the Anangu tribe. Apparently there are queues of up to 1000 people waiting to do the climb before it closes and resorts are overflowing.
Being good at neither climbing nor heights I made it up only as far as (maybe) the top of the guide rope before having to turn back.
The path of the climb is associated with Mala ceremonies. Anangu believe that during the time when the world was being formed, the Uluru climb was the traditional route taken by Mala men when they arrived at Uluru.
Before Uluru was reclaimed by the Anangu as a men's sacred site it was known as Ayers Rock. It has a management plan which aimed to close the climb when one of three preconditions were met. Those included that less than 20 per cent of visitors climb and that cultural and natural experiences were the main reasons why people visit the park.
From a geological point of view, the Uluru rock is mostly arkose, a coarse grained sandstone with a high proportion of feldspar. The 'spines' of Uluru show the layers of sediment eroded from the Petermann Ranges, tilted on their side. At its highest point, Uluru is 863 metres tall.
The area is on the edge of what was 900 million years ago a mountainous area near the Amadeus Basin, which became a shallow sea. The sea receded and the sandy sediments from erosion compacted over time. Uluru and Kata Tjuta are considered the visible tips of huge rock slabs that extend as much as six kilometres underground.
Uluru
The climb to the top of Uluru is being closed on 26 October 2019, marking the day in 1985 when Uluru and Kata Tjuta were handed back to the Anangu tribe. Apparently there are queues of up to 1000 people waiting to do the climb before it closes and resorts are overflowing.
Being good at neither climbing nor heights I made it up only as far as (maybe) the top of the guide rope before having to turn back.
The path of the climb is associated with Mala ceremonies. Anangu believe that during the time when the world was being formed, the Uluru climb was the traditional route taken by Mala men when they arrived at Uluru.
Before Uluru was reclaimed by the Anangu as a men's sacred site it was known as Ayers Rock. It has a management plan which aimed to close the climb when one of three preconditions were met. Those included that less than 20 per cent of visitors climb and that cultural and natural experiences were the main reasons why people visit the park.
From a geological point of view, the Uluru rock is mostly arkose, a coarse grained sandstone with a high proportion of feldspar. The 'spines' of Uluru show the layers of sediment eroded from the Petermann Ranges, tilted on their side. At its highest point, Uluru is 863 metres tall.
The area is on the edge of what was 900 million years ago a mountainous area near the Amadeus Basin, which became a shallow sea. The sea receded and the sandy sediments from erosion compacted over time. Uluru and Kata Tjuta are considered the visible tips of huge rock slabs that extend as much as six kilometres underground.