Sound of Silence

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Uluru and Kata Tjuta, ancient treasures of Central Australia

IT’S not yet 6am and we are all quiet in that way you are before you are properly awake. When we get out of the small coach we can just make out the angular shapes of the young desert oak trees in theUluru
inky darkness. As we walk up the narrow sandy track through the dunes someone makes a joke about how he hopes the snakes get an earlier start than humans and have already slithered off into the spinifex. An elderly English couple look slightly dubiously at the undergrowth.

Finally we arrive at the viewing platform and scan the pre-dawn sky. All around, people are gathering, setting up their cameras. There is an air of expectation. As the sky lightens, the vast iconic shape of Uluru emerges in the distance, suddenly dazzling as the rising
sun seems to transform the rock into something alive. In the photodistance, to our left, Uluru’s bigger sister, Kata Tjuta is also waking, seamlessly transformed as the sunrise hits from iron grey, to dark purple to vibrant ochre.  Watching the sun rise over Uluru is more than just an event to be ticked off the “bucket list” but is something that becomes imprinted on memory.

Most of the visitors sharing the experience are staying at the Ayers Rock Resort. It is like a small village that has separate living centres such as the top-of-the-market Sails in the Desert through

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