24 March 2016:-AUSTRALIA:- Yulara>>Sydney

AUSTRALIA :-  Yulara >>>Sydney

19th Day: 24.03.2016 

Today is my last day in Ayers Rock or Yulara. I have a scheduled short tour starting early in the morning to catch the sun rise. SEIT Tour guide picks me up at 05:30. The name of the tour is “Uluru Highlights”. Our guide, Rolano, with the Chilean origin is a friendly guy with good experience about the Aboriginal Culture in Yulara. We collected some more guests from different hotels and altogether 5 people we drove to Uluru.

Rolano stopped approx. on the southwest side of the Uluru (the big massive stone) with a distance of around 2 km to the stone. We got out from our minivan and waited for the rising sun. Meanwhile our guide prepared a breakfast at the rear of the car. Coffee, bread, honey, almond cake and some fruit was ready for self-service. The sun rise was at 06:21 and we caught a lot of pictures under the first rays of the sun.

After the sun rise we departed from this point at 07:00 and drove closer to the Uluru. We started to walk to the water sink. There is a cave made by nature and we saw on the walls of the cave some primitive paintings done by the Aboriginal people.

At the top of the cave there was a big stone with the shape similar to a snake head. Snake is a sacred animal for the Aboriginal people. They believe that the snake laid eggs at Uluru and therefore the stone Uluru is respectfully treated by themselves.

The land going closer to the water sink is in a shape of a bottleneck. This part is also a natural trap for the wild animals. As per the explanations of our guide the Aboriginal people

had used to hunt here easily. The hole on the cave wall looking to this area was also serving to the children to peep outside where the men were hunting and learn hunting skills of their fathers.

After the water sink we walked back to the minivan and we drove to the east side of the Uluru. This part of the Uluru is not for photography. The native people are living here somewhere and there is no permission to take picture. The tribe, called “Anulu” is living here according to their traditions and rules and there is a kind of consensus for a reserved living. They have obtained their rights during late nineteen eighties and since then they live

here as before. There is a believed set of rule among themselves which describes their daily relations and similar traditional rituals etc.

As per our guide we understand that almost half of the year is allocated for the ceremonies, traditional rituals. We drove further to the north side of the Uluru. We saw that a few people were climbing the stone. The people are not encouraged for climbing because of two main reasons: Security, respect to the Aboriginal people believes,

On rainy and windy days it is not safe to climb the stone.

Just before 09:00 o’clock we returned to the Hotel. I bought some souvenirs from the shop at the entrance of the Hotel and then went to my dormitory room and packed my luggage.

The scheduled AAT Kings bus is at 10:30 and this one is adequate for my Virgin Australia flight at 12:35 to Sydney. Our plane took off at 12:35 and after a 3 hours flight we landed at Sydney Airport.

The local time was 17:10 when we landed at Sydney airport. I took the Redy2Go shuttle service from the Airport and our driver dropped me at the Vulcan Hotel, 500 Wattle Str, Ultimo, around 19:15. It is very reasonable price: 22.-AUD only. It took more or less one and half hours from the airport to the hotel during the rush hour.

My hotel has a good location. I walked to the China Town and took seat outside at the table on the pavement of a Chinese restaurant and ordered some Chinese food with some steamed rice and drank a bottle of Chinese beer, Tsingtao.

Night view at the Darling Harbour, Sydney.

After the late dinner, I walked to the Darling Harbour. It is a touristic zone and there are a lot of cafés, bars and restaurants there. The lights of the city was very colorful and attractive. After spending some time at the Darling Harbour, I walked all along the Harris Street to my Hotel. I arrived at the hotel around 23:00. I felt happy while thinking that this is my last stop on this long Australia+NZ journey and I am going to sleep three nights at the same hotel.

Tomorrow I am going to meet with some friends and we are going to make sight-seeing in Sydney together.