On Saturday Kelly and I got up really early to see the sunrise. We walked about 15 minutes from our room to a ridge near our accommodation. The colors in the sunrise were not that spectacular, but the early morning light made for some great black and white pictures (at least I think, I need to see how they develop).
Then our group when to the Mutawintji Historic Site, the part of the park that displays the Aborigines’ cultural heritage. It was a great tour, although it was quite long because there were like 50 people on the tour. Today was the beginning of Australia’s school holidays, so there were a lot of people. First we saw a huge flat rock with hundreds of rock carvings. There were some really obvious shapes like emus and kangaroos, but other carvings were just random shapes to me. Just the sheer amount of art was really cool.
After seeing the carvings, our guide took us over to another Aboriginal rock art site. There were rock overhangs filled with hand stencils. Hand stencils were made by putting ochre (colored crushed rock) in their mouth with water and spitting it over their hand. The result is an outline of a hand. Hand stencils were made after each important ceremony in a person’s life. They were really cool looking.
In the afternoon we went to the Split Rock area. I didn’t find any split rocks, but it was an awesome area to explore. I found a dead adult kangaroo and what I think was a joey. While I know it’s part of the circle of life, it was still really sad to see them. Kelly got more than she bargained for. While she was taking pictures, she came across a fairly large snake! The jury is still out on whether or not it was a poisonous snake, but either way it definitely gave her a fright.
The best part of the day was when the sun started going down and casting a really golden light on the land. This light made the orange/red rock really vibrant and awesome. Then we saw a great sunset. It was a fabulous day.
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