My Journal: Uluru, the monolith

It was 20090602-20090603

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Members in our tour during the sunset
旅行團團員、日落、烏魯魯

Before arriving Australia, I didn't know anything about the monolith, Uluru. I was aware of it from the mention of Taiwanese who know it because of the Japanese drama called "Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World". In order to see it, I have to spend almost AUD $600 to achieve. Take me as an example: flew from Cairns to Adelaide (AUD $181), took train from Adelaide to Alice Spring (AUD $149) and the three days tour ($275). Another company taking you to Uluru is called "The Rock", the price is $295. During the trip, I met them many times, the places we visited, the food and the accommodation were almost the same.
在去澳洲之前，壓根不知道有這一塊大石頭，烏魯魯。到了當地，聽到許多的台灣人提到它，而他們也是因為看了日本的連續劇「在世界的中心呼喊愛情」才認識它。為了見它一面，至少要再多花一萬多將近二萬台幣的旅費才能達成。以我的情況來說：從凱因斯坐飛機到阿德雷德澳幣$181，從阿德雷德坐火車北上至愛麗絲泉澳幣$149，三天兩夜的旅行團澳幣$275。（另一個很有名的團是叫做 The Rock，團費要澳幣$295，我們在出團的時候都有遇到他們，基本上路線差不多，吃的和住的也差不多）

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Tracks information
步道資訊

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Orange Uluru, sunset
日落的橘色烏魯魯

The Australian call it Ayers rock, the local aboriginals call it Uluru. It's the biggest rock in the world at 364 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower, at lease two-thirds of the rock is beneath the surface, lies 335 km south west of the nearest large town, Alice Spring. You have to drive around five or six hours up to see it. The Uluru Base Walk around the rock takes you three to four hours by walk, the distance of the Uluru Base Walk is 9.4 kilometers. You wouldn't realized how big it is only from the picture. (It took me only around two hours to finish the Uluru Base Walk, and I found the tour guide was sleeping on the trailer)
澳洲人稱它為艾爾斯岩，當地的原住民（Anangu）則稱它烏魯魯。是世界上最大的獨立岩石，高達三百六十四公尺比法國的艾菲爾鐵塔還要高，至少有三分之二的岩體在地表下面，位於愛麗絲泉西南方三百三十五公里，為了看它，必須開車五、六個小時以上。光是繞著石頭周圍的步道走，就需要約三至四個小時，長達九點四公里。只從照片上看，沒有親眼見到它是沒法體會它的巨大的。（我因為腳程較快，只用了兩個多小時，回來時還發現導遊在拖車上補眠）

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Where is our tour guide?
導遊在哪裡？

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Black Uluru, sunset
日落的黑色烏魯魯

As all you know, the law in Singapore is very strict, you might get a ticket for littering. This place is not only the sacred site of aboriginals but also list as the world heritage. Our tour guide warned us many times, he called this place a small Singapore. A AUD $5000 ticket for removing rocks, $5000 for walking on a sacred Aboriginal site and $2000 for taking pictures of the sacred areas. Sometimes you can see a sign on the Uluru Base Walk telling you that taking pictures in this place is forbidden. But it's ambiguous, not clear enough, I have no idea in what places I can take a photo. What I can do was to press the shuttle quickly and moved.
大家都知道，新加坡的法律很嚴，隨便丟個垃圾就會收到罰單。這裡不單是當地原住民的聖地、重要資產也被列為世界遺產之一，導遊再三的警告我們，它把這裡稱做是小新加坡，因為隨意的搬動這裡的石頭罰金澳幣$5000，隨意進入原住民的聖地罰金澳幣$5000，在禁拍區域拍照罰金澳幣$2000。烏魯魯周圍的步道有時會看到禁止拍照的告示，不過整個路程九點四公里，到底哪些地方能拍哪些地方不能拍其實定義的非常模糊，搞的我不管走到哪，都是迅速的按下快門就閃。

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Afternoon tea
下午茶

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Parking area beside Uluru
附近的停車場

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Climb closed
不開放攀爬的標示

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Climb closed (Multiple languages)
不開放攀爬的標示（多國語言）

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We don't climb
我們不攀爬

It was winter of Australia in June, the weather wasn't hot at all, and quiet comfortable to stroll on the track without the exhaust gas existing only in the city. These days the weather was bad with dark sky and drizzle. We saw the sign saying "no climbing today" in the entrance of the national park, some of the tourists in the bus felt disappointed. The local aboriginals don't like tourists to climb their sacred place, even though the aboriginals themselves, only one of them is chosen to climb it in their festival once a year. The Australia government don't encourage tourist to climb it but they don't forbid as well. 35 people have died because of climbing the Ayers rock. The authority has strict rules: If the forecast temperature is 36 degrees or above, more than a 20% chance of rain within 3 hours, more than a 5% chance of thunderstorms within 3 hours, wind speed at the summit reaches 25 knots or above, more than 20% of the rock surface is wet after rain, when cloud descends below the summit. In these conditions, the climbing is forbidden. After the middle part of the climbing track, the authority set up special metal poles on the surface to help tourists climb.
時值六月，剛好是澳洲的冬天，氣候並不嚴熱，走起來非常的清爽，也沒有都市才會有的廢氣。這幾天天氣並不是很好，雲層暗暗的還下著細雨。早上進到園區時，看到今日不開放攀登艾爾斯岩的告示，有些同行的遊客都覺得很失望。當地的原住民並不喜歡遊客去攀爬他們聖地，即使是他們原住民，每年也只有在祭典時，從族人裡挑出一位上去。澳洲政府雖然不鼓勵遊客攀爬但也不禁止。已經有三十五位遊客因為攀爬艾爾斯岩而喪生。因此對於攀爬它，當地的單位有著嚴格的規定：三小時入內超過百分之二十的機率會降雨、溫度超過或到達三十六度、三小時入內超過百分之五的機率有大雷雨、艾爾斯岩頂端的風速到達或超過二十五節、下雨後超過百分之二十的岩石表面還是呈現溼的狀態、有雲低於岩石頂端，在這些條件下都禁止攀爬。步道的前半段都還算輕鬆，到了中、後半段，當地的單位還特別設置金屬的裝置，幫助遊客攀爬。

View Basketball court, Alice Spring in a larger map
The people climbing the Uluru, you can see the white devices along the track
正在攀爬烏魯魯的人群

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Climbing track, and metal poles
攀爬步道以及金屬杆

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Parking area beside Uluru, climbing track
附近的停車場，以及攀爬步道

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Climbing track
攀爬步道

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Climbing track
攀爬步道

When I finished the Uluru Base Walk, the entry of climbing track was still closed, but the weather was getting much better than that in the morning. A period of time later, I saw some people were on way to the summit of Uluru, I was astonished to tell our tour guide, seemed that some of our partner in the trip ignore the law here, I really worried for their money. Then, I knew the authority allowed us to climb since the weather was good. I didn't climb for the respect.
我走完環繞步道，攀爬的起點還是關閉沒有開放，不過天氣和清晨比較來的確是好很多。過了一段時間，看到有人開始在攀爬艾爾斯岩，我還真的嚇一跳，跑去跟導遊說，似乎是有同行的遊客不顧法令跑上去玩，還真替他們的荷包擔心。後來才知道，因為天氣好轉，當地的管理單位開放了艾爾斯岩的攀爬。基於尊重，我不沒有爬。

From 20090602_UluruTrackKataTjutaUluruSunset

Uluru
烏魯魯

Yesterday, we enjoyed the Uluru sunset, the sunset we people usually imagine is that the rock and the sun should be in the same side, actually the sunset in Uluru is that we are between the sun and the rock. What we see is the change of the color on the rock. As to the sunrise, the same rule, so the locations for seeing sunrise and sunset are different.
昨天，我們看了艾爾斯岩的日落，我們一般人想像的日落是石頭和太陽是在同一側，但是這裡的日落指的是，我們人介於太陽和石頭中間，看的是石頭上光影的變化。今天早晨的日出也是相同原則，當然，日落和日出的觀賞點就會有所不同。

From 20090603_UluruSunriseMtConner

Sunrise
日出

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Prepare our breakfast
準備我們的早餐

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The Uluru Base Walk
環繞步道

The Ayers rock is not very rigid, I guess, early days, some tourists would take part of the rock home, sand as their souvenir. It's illegal today according to the law. There's a book in the visitor information center collecting lots of mails from the tourists who stealing the sand from Uluru. The mails are about regret and apology. Some of them had bad luck, misfortune after that, such as family got cancer. They mailed for apology, some of them even attached the sand in the mail, and included a picture showing the location where the sand from.
我猜艾爾斯岩一點都不堅硬，早期有許多遊客會從岩體中挖一些沙粒帶回家做紀念，以現在的法令是絕對不允許的。我在遊客中心還看到一本厚厚的冊子，裡面有許多當初偷拿沙粒當紀念品的遊客的信件。他們有不少人來這拿了沙粒之後，家裡都發生了些不幸，有家人得癌症之類的。他們寫信來這道歉，有的人甚至把沙粒寄回來，還附上當初取得位置的照片。

Welcome to Aboriginal land, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Visitor guide and maps

Listen! If you get hurt, or die, your mother, father and family will really cry and we will be really sad too. So think about that and stay on the ground.
Barbaa Tjikatu, Traditional Owner

That's a really important sacred thing that your are climbing... You shouldn't climb. It's not the real thing about this place. The real thing is listening to everything.
And maybe that makes you a bit sad. But anyway that's what we have to say. We are obliged by Tjukurpa to say. And all the tourists will brighten up and say, 'Oh I see. This is the right way. This is the thing that's right. This is the proper way; no climbing.'
Kunmanara, Traditional Owner

Please don't climb Uluru
What visitors call the 'climb' is the traditional route taken by ancestral Mala men upon their arrival at Uluru. The climb is not prohibited, but it has great spiritual significance for us and we prefer that, as a guess on Anangu land, you will choose to respect our law and culture by not climbing.

Traditionally we have a responsibility to teach and safeguard visitors to our land. The climb can be dangerous and over 35 people have died while attempting to climb Uluru; many others have been injured. We feel great sadness when a person dies or is hurt on our land.

When you visit the cultural centre you will learn more about the significance of Uluru in our culture. You should also read the safety information on the back of this guide. Please do this before you decide whether or not to climb.

There are other challenging and interesting things to do at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Read about them in this guide, or talk to our information officers at the cultural centre.

Uluru walks
Uluru Base Walk, Liru Walk, Mala Walk, Kuniya Walk.

Important to know sacred sites
Around the base of Uluru are important sacred areas. Some of these are sacred under traditional men's law, and others under traditional women's law. Viewing or entering these areas is forbidden unless properly authorised by senior men or women. Knowledge of there areas is also restricted. This has been our custom for tens of thousands of years. These sites are cared for by the right people according to Anangu law. They are fenced and registered as sacred areas. It is very important that you do not enter or take photographs of these sacred sites. Please respect our places and do not enter then. Trepassers can be prosecuted under NT and Commonwealth laws.