Uluru - Mala walk

You can walk the whole perimeter if Uluru which is around 10 kms... or enjoy views of the rock from the Mala walk which is a leisurely 2 kms return. It is named for the small marsupial hare-wallaby once numerous but now scarce because of predation by foxes and feral cats. A breeding program hopes to remedy this. The track visits significant indigenous ceremonial sites and has informative signs. To fully enjoy the experience, I suggest you take an enthusiastic five year old boy with you.

The teaching cave, where the grandparents schooled the  small children. 

Entrance to one of the women's caves.

Inside one of the women's caves

Rocks smoothed by thousands of years of grinding grass seeds to make flour.

The pool at the end of the walk is a permanent water source, recently refreshed by run-off from a rain event which happen only about six times a year. 

The Tjukurpa and Anangu people request tourists do not climb the rock due to its spiritual significance. On the day we were there, several people were on the climb totally disregarding the closed gate and signs declaring the climb closed due to high winds on the summit.

Look closely, you can see the fools up there. No wonder the Tjukurpa and Anangu call people who climb, 'ants'.

Bob at Walhalla

"It was a tough life. They were so isolated here. You know, there was this woman....Mac, MacDonald, no, Mac something, scottish anyway. She came out to Rosedale with her husband. He was a doctor but he died. So she got herself a dray and some bullocks and hauled potatoes from Rosedale to Walhalla. She'd sell 'em here because they nearly starved in the early days...they were so cut off. She must've been tough she had eight, or was it ten bullocks at hand? That means she drove them through the swamps on the other side of the range, then over into here! It's all true, I researched it.

She had a couple of sons. One became a doctor and the other one was a professor of something at Melbourne Uni. I met him...oh I can't remember when and he was quite old then. Probably gone now, but he confirmed the whole story."

[I checked the Rosedale and District Historical Society site and it has no mention of this resourceful woman and all the pioneers appear to have been only male. Thanks Bob, for herstory!]