Uluru

Today we drove to Uluru campground. When we arrived we decided that we would do the full set up on the trailer (with all the walls, floor and skirt). It took a while but finally we finished setting up the camp trailer and me and Mia did some maths, then went to the visitor centre to see what we should do around Uluru. The visitor centre looked like a airport.

On Monday we went to a Indigenous weapon chat and learnt about the different tools they used. The guy named Charlie who told us all about the tools, said that when the 6 year old boys turned 7 they would make their first spear. To make the spears they would use a long stick of molga roots, next they heated up the stick and bent it until it was straight, when it was straight they would make a sharp wooden tip. To attach the tip, they would use kangaroo droppings as bush super glue. Finally, they would collect the muscle out of a kangaroos leg and stretch it until it looked like a piece of string, then wrap the muscle around the top of the stick with kangaroo droppings. The kangaroo droppings should be between the sharp top of the spear and the stick.

Next Charlie told us that you never share your tools. He said his grandfather told him a story about a kookaburra. In the story every day a man would hide everyone’s tools so that he would get the first catch. Eventually the other men got very angry at him and invited him to a meeting when he arrived they turned him into a kookaburra.

Charlie said if you crossed over the border into another country without permission the elder from the land you live in and the land you entered would have a meeting and decide what punishment you would get. The punishments you could get is have a special big punishment stick stabbed into your thigh, you could battle to the death with someone else from that land or you could battle till first man injured. In both fights the winner can go into your home land and the land you crossed into. But the loser can go in neither of the tribe’s territories so they were banished from both lands. All you could fight with is a narrow sheild and a hard club. Your sheild would show your story and was like your passport. Charlie also told us about boomerangs. He said that there are three different types of boomerangs a v shaped boomerang (returning), a curved boomerang (non returning) and a 7 shaped boomerang (non returning).

The v shaped boomerang does not kill the animals it would be thrown over the animal to sound like a bird flying over it and scare it. The curved boomerang knocks the animals out of the air. A third type of boomerang the seven shaped boomerang trips up the larger animal like an emu or kangaroos.

Next we walked to a Digeridoo workshop where me and Dad got to play the Digeridoo. He told us that it was not actually called a Digeridoo it was called a Yidaki.

Soon we walked over to a bush food talk. In the bush food talk they said that there are bush tomatoes and you can tell that the tomatoes are ready to eat when they fall off the branch. In Australia they grow over 100 different types of bush tomatoes and only 30 of them are edible.

On Tuesday we decided to walk all the way around Uluru. At the start we went on a ranger walk and the park rangers told us about the history of Uluru. Once the walk finished we continued walking around Uluru. On the way we saw a kitchen cave, old person cave and a hunting cave.

At the end we realised that we had walked 10 kilometres. At the very end of the day I had got the most steps I have ever got (26,892 steps).

On Wednesday we walked around Kata Tjuta. I think Kata Tjuta was better than Uluru because we walked closer to the rock and it was more shady. During the walk we found a seven lined comb eared skink. The walk was very hot. After the walk Dad bought us ice cream.

Later we went to see the sunset. It was amazing! I loved how the colours changed on Uluru. Uluru changed to a brighter red.

On Thursday we did some school work and started to pack up the annex.