Uluru and Canberra

What better way to celebrate the 4th of July then by sitting on a bus from 9am until 3:30pm? Ack. way too much sitting for me! The scenery, I suppose, was at least a good way of really feeling the emptiness that is central australia. We arrived in time to drop our stuff off in rooms (most of the program stayed in a hostel/lodge type thing) or in my case a tent (wasn't bad, had a real bed in it afterall) and then they bused us out to watch Uluru while the sunset opposite it on the horizon. I must say now that it is one BIG rock. I've seen plenty of mountans and such, but a rock of that size is just a bit odd. Definitely much cooler our in the desert as well. Got down to below freezing at night which was quite a shock after the 80s and 90s in Darwin. Our bus driver instructed us to start taking pictures at 5:40 and continue taking them every 5 min until after the sun was down around 6:15.... in cahoots with the film industry! but he had a point in that the rock changes color slowly but steadily. Starting off with its normal red sandstone color and darkening/deepening. Spent the rest of the night bumming around what is apparently Yuluru - the town/resort that we were staying at. I walked back with Claire from the lodge where the other groups were staying - probably took us about 25 minutes, but we got to walk through almost empty desert and enjoy the stars and almost full moon. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy and we only got patches of the sky.
The next morning they roused us all way to early to go watch the Olgas while the sun rose opposite them in the horizon (20 degrees from Uluru.) The Olgas are a number of large rocks (each significantly smaller then Uluru but in total taking up a larger space.) College students are never incredibly cheerful when woken up at 5:15 and dropped off at an outlook to wait 45 minutes for the sun to rise. I think however this was even more beautiful then the sunset although it was definitely a cold wait. It took quite a while because of cloudyness, but the Olgas almost seemed to be glowing pink just as the sun peaked the horizon and colored the underside of all the clouds blue and pink. Next they took us all to the culure center at Ululru before finally driving us right up to the rock. We took a Mulga walk around part of Uluru led by an aboriginal family who was translated by a park ranger. It was incredible to hear the stories of ancient ancestors visiting for sacred rites. It was explained to us that although the aboriginal man spoke English, these tales were too powerful to tell in that language. The path up to the top of the rock was closed due to high winds, but I wouldn't have walked anyway after hearing of the importance of the path and the requests of the native owners to not climb. We probably got 3/4 of a mile around it to see several of the caves where men, boys, and women sheltered for thousands of years. T

hen, unfortunately, our group had to head back to the buses to catch our flight to Canberra. Only the history and Michigan state journalism classes went to Canberra for 2 nights. We went via Melbourne, where we saw rain for the first time on the trip. Then a short hop to Australia's capitol - on that flight in the late evening you could look out of the plane window and see along the western horizon a bright spectrum spread in a thin band while the rest of the sky was in darkness - cool! If you know anything about Canberra you know it's not an exciting place. It was a totally planed city first built in the 1920s and 30s to prevent the capitol being Sydney or Melbourne. As a park city everything is incredibly spaced out, and the almost downtown area we stayed at a hostel in was completely dead at night. Luckily the hostel showed movies on its TVs in the evening! The next day was hectic as we visited the National Museum, which has incredible exhibits featureing "Land, Nation, People" but is under some controversy as the current Liberal (think republican) govt wants to remove many of the apologetic references to the european invasion, and then the National Gallery with art work of Australians. Yet another quiet night in the hostel before visiting the War Memorial on Wed morning. Australians are very serious with their war memorials - there is one in every town no matter how small. Their impression of war is completely different from ours. In WW I, they see themselves as a sacrifice of the British empire, and since then the idea of 'mateship' with fellow soldiers has been more important then demonization of the enemy.

Yet another bus ride - 4hours this time through quite different scenery. Even in this terrible drought, NSW is relatively green, with rolling hills and pastures. One can definitely understand why original explorers who were thousands of miles and many months away from their home saw English hills and meadows. Moved into the University of New South Wales last night. The dorms are a tad ghetto, but I have my own room which is plenty big so I'm not complaining! More important - free breakfast and lunch! woohoo! Today we had our elective class before going on an excursion to the museum La Peruse which has an exhibit over the French explorer of that name who landed in Botany Bay the day after Arthur Phillip and the English first fleet claimed the continent. Seems like I've been in a whirl since arriving - but had time to walk around and orient a bit this afternoon. Hopefully I'll be able to get all my papers written this weekend so as too have no work the rest of the trip! Anyway, it's cold here too! such a shock for it to be winter with highs in the 50s. and of course I'm going surfing at Bondi beach tomorrow! should be great if i can avoid sharks and pnuemonia!