Magnificent Nature
A formation in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Uluru renders adventurers speechless when they observe its beauty and grandeur. People are invariably enthusiastic, and envy the Australians this mighty wonder! Together with us that day was our form teacher, Professor Stephane. He was also our tour guide and told us: ‘Uluru was discovered by the surveyor William Gosse by chance when exploring here in 1873. When he discovered this giant rock, Gosse was so elated that he climbed to the top and wrote a famous sentence in his diary, ‘I looked straight ahead and only saw a bushy and neglected grassland, the more I look the more immense it is!’’
In order to mark this discovery, Gosse named it Ayers Rock in honour of the then-Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. Since then, this giant rock has become widely-known, and tourists from everywhere flock there. Nowadays, Uluru is marked off as a national reserve and is a famous travelling destination.
Much of Uluru is actually coarse quartz, and so its composition is very firm. After millions of years of erosion by the weather, now its surface is flat and its four sides are steeply sloped. The flat top looks like an ‘island-mountain,’ as well as resembling a giant animal resting on the land, so the rock appears extraordinarily majestic. Uluru is honoured and treated as a sacred mountain by the local Aboriginal people, and it is rumoured that there is a colourful snake in one of the caves, to which the people offer sacrifices periodically. Uluru is located at the north of the MacDonnell Ranges, 350km east of Alice Springs. It stands 348 meters high and stretches 3km in length, and its circumference at the base is 8.5 km.
Uluru is known in Vietnamese as ‘Ngu sac doc thanh son’ (literally: unique five-colour rock-mountain) because of its beautiful colours, ever-changing according to the weather and the time. Professor Stephane said, “The beauty of the changing colour is because of the specific minerals that the rock is composed of. The rock derives its rust colour from oxidation, and the glowing effect at sunrise and sunset is due to the arkosic sandstone of the rock, which contains reflective minerals and changes color according to the direction of the sun.” This is the most attractively unique beauty of Uluru.
CONQUERED!
We arrived at Uluru just as it was getting dark: the sunset was fading and the rock was dark red, changing to purple. More strangely, when it was completely dark, its colour changed to saffron and merged with the scenery, a fantastic sight.
After dinner, we decided to sleep at the top of Uluru in order to see the sunrise from above the desert. It was recommended that the group take along sleeping bags because although it is extremely hot during daytime, it is cold at night. We struggled with our bags, also carrying drinking water along the way, where a chain helps tourists to the top. The climb to conquer this ‘five-coloured rock’ was full of hardship; extremely interesting but greatly tiring. After just 15 minutes of climbing, our arms became stiff and cold. The helmets with attached lights became heavy on our heads. The whole group was panting hard, and we encouraged each other with the thought that we would be famous after travelling 1000km to conquer Uluru! The cold wind blew fiercely at our faces. We climbed patiently hand over hand to the top, our bodies sweating despite the 2o C temperature.
After 2 hours of climbing, our 100 team members finally reached the top. Everybody was so tired that they went straight to sleep. I couldn’t get to sleep because it was so cold. But at last, I curled up, shivering, and fell asleep.
Professor Stephene’s shouting woke me up in time to see a blazing red horizon; gradually, a circle of light appeared and finally a huge fire ball rose into the sky. Everybody silently observed this blazing grassland. At that moment, looking out at the desert, we felt as if we were living in ancient times.
Two hours later, we began climbing back down the mountain; actually, climbing up had been easier, because this morning’s dew made the rock slippery. We fell often and stretched our limbs to get down. It took another two hours to descend. On our way to Sydney, we were exhausted, but knew that this trip, conquering Uluru, would never be forgotten.
Duong Thuy