Mala Walk

Today, we took a walk with a park ranger. He took us to 3 or 4 different places at the base of Uluru.

He told us of the Anangu people and a little of their teachings and beliefs. He showed us caves where male elders would teach the young boys the ways of their people, the ways of country (not the country, just country). What I heard made perfect sense and was very interesting. The aboriginal people go walk about as part of their teachings. To do this, they burn a path. This scares the animals so they can move through freely, but they also know that in a month or so the shrubs will start to grow back, and animals will graze, so they are creating a hunting ground too.

Much of their beliefs are not told to anyone outside their own. We saw caves where teachings had been held and art adorned the walls. Some of the symbols showed that if you walk a short way you would find a certain plant that could be eaten. It was fascinating.

We also spent a few hours lazing by a pool - bliss!

To round off the day, we returned to Uluru to watch the sunset. These are once in a lifetime moments and nothing is passing unnoticed. Everything is committed to memory.