7. July

Climbing the rock – Nature or Us?

We arrived at the park entrance and the climb was open. You could already see them climbing… like little ants. Our hiking shoes were put on and we started. It went straight up, no steps just plain rock. We saw a ranger at the entrance to the climb but couldn’t say what she was doing. Amongst others we started our climb and had our first rest probably 200m in where we noticed not many people are behind us. Maybe they’ve closed the climb after us and the ranger was checking the wind-speed…

Anyway we kept climbing. At several points I was happy that there was a chain to assist with pulling up. It was so steep! Although Tom didn’t make so many breaks we arrived at the half-way mark at the same time. I could come closer as there were slow climbers in front. It really interesting how many people actually doing this climb – keep in mind some people have died there. We could see babies which were carried on dad’s back, three-year old doing the climb on their own up to 70+ year old who would normally need a stick.

After the half-way mark you follow the white lines (not the yellow brick road) and it’s a little bit easier not as steep but you still have to be very careful as there are some drops. Now there are even some places in which you can rest – out of the way of the other climbers and of the wind. At several places we had to go onto our bottom and slide a little bit to continue the climb. But we made it to the top of Ayer’s Rock. There is even mobile phone coverage – so many people were talking on their phones. We enjoyed the views into every corner and had a little bit to eat before the descent which wasn’t easy especially as more and more wind was coming up.

Some parts you climbed quite easily were hard to get down… You definite need both hands and check careful where to put your feet – you don’t want to slip at any time. Finally we reached the bottom of the rock, were happy and really exhausted and not looking forward to the sour muscles the next day. And we noticed that the climb was closed due to wind – probably we were the last people to start the climb that day. During the last weeks the climb was only open on some days – most times it was closed. The reasons could be rain, cloud cover, 20% possibility of rain, wind or too warm…

Happy climbing,
Tom and Anja