Month: June 2016

Day 59: Katherine Gorge

As the drive out to Katherine Gorge was a good 3.5 hours, we got up bright and early to make to most of the morning. We stopped at the K-Mart in Darwin on the way to pick up a 5-person tent this time, as sleeping in the car would NOT be an option in this heat, then headed down the Stuart Highway.

For the record, Lindsay was still leaning toward a 3-man tent, but Igor put his foot down

We reached Katherine Gorge at midday. Our original plan was to book an overnight canoe trip down the river, but unfortunately we found out that the river is still closed to personal watercraft as the rangers haven’t finished their crocodile surveys for the season. Apparently, salties will come upriver during the wet season, and at the beginning of the dry season, the rangers will trap all the crocs and release them downriver to make it *safer* for park visitors. Since canoes were out of the question, and a $70pp river cruise wasn’t exactly our cup of tea, there was no other way for us to enjoy the gorge then to grab a couple liters of water, our hats and some sunscreen and head out into the bush.

Heading out on the Southern Walks trail to Pat’s Lookout for a glimpse of Katherine Gorge

 

Trying to find a shaded spot to enjoy the vista of Katherine Gorge

After a short lunch break at the viewpoint, we headed back toward the Information Center. Luckily for us, the weather was partly cloudy, and few large clouds gave us some relief from the sun during the hottest part of the afternoon. Thanks to that tiny respite, we had the strength to explore a side trail to the Southern Waterhole (which unfortunately has nearly dried up now that’s it’s the dry season, and was too tiny for swimming), and return to the Information Center via the Baruwei Loop.

 

Shady break at the Southern Waterhole

If you go down, you must go back up! It’s a killer staircase in this heat

Oh no, where did our cloud go?

The Baruwei Loop has water stations periodically on the trail (heat exhaustion is a real danger), but our last fill up was with warm water. We were ELATED to find this water fountain with ICE COLD water at the top of the hill

View from the Baruwei Lookout

(Very loud) Flying Foxes in the trees near the Information Center, and one very surprised wallaby

We bought a cold can of Coca Cola and sat in the air conditioned Information Center (pretending to watch their video on the history of the park) for the last 15 minutes before they closed, then dragged ourselves out to the car to head back north to the campground at Edith Falls. Since it’s the beginning of the dry season, we constantly saw small fires throughout the park – it’s part of a traditional land management led by the Aboriginal people native to the area where small, controlled fires set at the very end of the wet season help prevent large wildfires later in the dry season.

Driving past bushfires – no need for alarm

We arrived at the campground just after sunset, so we pitched our new tent and found an empty picnic table to set up our dinner. Since it was still pretty humid, we decided to sleep without the fly on the tent – just a light mesh to keep the bugs away from us – we were sleeping under the stars.

Avocado sandwiches, chips, and wine straight from the bottle.

Nighty night.

Day 58: Darwin

We loved our hotel in Darwin. We could have lived there. Literally – it was a one-bedroom apartment with a view of the harbor. Gotta love Priceline mystery hotels – it’s like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get!

 

Awesome hotel.

So Darwin is hot. Like, oppressively muggy, super high humidity, sunburn in 15 minutes type hot. We tried to go for a morning walk around the Darwin waterfront, but were quickly chased indoors by the heat.

 

Shark & jellyfish protected swimming area at the Darwin waterfront. There was actually free Wifi in the park, but if was Just. Too. HOT.

 

We camped out in the Darwin Public Library for most of the day – air conditioning and fast Wifi was all we needed

Since it was Thursday night, we decided to head over to the Mindil Beach Sunset Market on the other side of town. Even though we had a rental car, we foolishly decided to walk there…did I mention it was HOT? We tried to stay in the shade, but we still arrived incredibly sweaty. We walked around the food stalls, listened to the live music, then found a spot on the sand to enjoy the ocean breeze and watch the sunset.

 

An optimistic start to our pilgrimage across town – it’s about to get really steamy

 

Mindil Beach Sunset Market – Darwin

 

Paella, oysters – dozens of food vendors to choose from – especially Asian cuisine

 

A meeting of cultures – this band with the digeridoo had both Aboriginal and European Australians and tourists dancing together

 

Staking our claim the sand

 

Sunset on Mindil Beach

We trekked back to our hotel as quickly was we could in the dark. After much needed showers, we cracked open a bottle of bubby and enjoyed our final home-cooked meal our lovely kichenette. We’d be camping for the next 3 nights in the Australian bush, so we soaked up all the homey comfort we could.

 

Raising a toast to our last night in civilization

Day 57: Kuranda

Of course the sun starts to come out the day we are leaving Queensland! We had until late afternoon before we needed to be at the Cairns Airport, so we decided to spend the day at Kuranda, to make up for skipping it earlier in the week due to the decompression time from scuba.

Roadside stop for the biggest rockpile display we’ve seen yet

1,000+ tourists declare, “I was here!” with rocks

Kuranda is a bit of a jungle-Disneyland, with several zoo-like attractions, tons of souvenir stands, and the Skyrail Cableway & Scenic Railway rides to and from Cairns. However, we still had a few touristy things to cross off our list, so we embraced the kitsch of Kuranda and enjoyed ticking off the boxes. First stop was the Koala Gardens were we got to feed/pet more wallabies and – you guessed it! – cuddle a koala.

We will never get tired of petting zoos

Adorable wallabies!

Yoshi the koala was on shift, handed to one tourist after another for our 5-sec photo op.

The ranger places the koala in your arms, and you have to stand perfectly still to avoid spooking the animal. Each animal “works” for 30min max each day, replaced by another koala. Not quite as magical as I expected – especially since the koalas smell really bad – like fermented eucalyptus & poo.

After the Koala Gardens, we headed over to Bird World, where we finally got to see the cassowary! Another tourist gave us his feed bag as we entered, and we soon discovered why – all the birds are fed so much seeds, nuts and corn, they are extremely picky and it was hard to get rid of our feed. We found out that the cassowary has a very strict fruit & vegetable diet (they have a very gentle digestive system – which is why they are so important to the rainforest ecosystem: they poo out the seeds of plants they’ve eaten which helps spread seeds around the forest). Bird World had two cassowaries in their aviary – a male and female – and they are SO COOL. They seriously look like little dinosaurs. We spent a lot of time hanging around their habitat – totally worth the stop.

My dinosaur-bird! Actually, looks a bit like Kevin from “Up”…

Look at that face!

On our way out of Bird World, we tried to give away our feed bag, but all the tourists already had bags as well. We finally found a rainbow lorikeet willing to eat some of our nuts…until he got interested in eating our backpack! When we tried to get him off the bag, the little jerk bit us!

Not content to be handfed, this greedy little bugger went for the whole bag!

When Lindsay was feeding him, he decided he had enough nuts and tried to destroy our backpack – we can now verify this brand is lorikeet-proof!

We left the amusement park atmosphere of downtown Kuranda and took a stroll around the perimeter of town via the Jungle Walk. It was a peaceful little path that ran through some tropical forest, then along the river for a few kilometers.

Most tourists skip the Jungle Walk – it was nearly deserted compared to the gift shop area – but I guess most get a view of the river from the Rainforest Skyrail Cableway overhead

The path along the river was croc-free, and nicely shaded by a eucalyptus grove

After a quick picnic lunch in the town park, we drove out to the Baron Gorge National Park for a quick view of the waterfall before heading back to the Cairns Airport.

 

The Baron Gorge is a stop on the Kuranda Scenic Railway from Cairns to Kuranda

 

Short jungle walk to the Baron Gorge lookout

 

Catching up with Igor – eager to see if this gorge lives up to its name – now THIS is a proper gorge!

Day 56: Cape Tribulation

We had a gentle wake-up with the sunrise in our orchard cabin, with a caddy of delicious hot coffee delivered to our porch by our hostess, Maren. After packing up our, we went out to the dining patio for our brekky: toast with homemade exotic jams, cereal and a basket of rare, tropical fruits.

I could get used to room service!

Igor LOVES fruit! Custard Apple, Longan Berries, Starfruit, Papaya, Pineapple, Guanabana and Pummelo

Another rainy morning in Cape Tribulation

We took a morning stroll on Myall Beach, where the rainforest meets the ocean – normally quite stunning, but the visibility was too poor in the rain.

Looking up Myall Beach

Looking down Myall Beach

Warning signs for “Things That Want To Kill You” on Australia’s beaches

Checking out the Golden Orb – a large rainforest spider – from a safe distance. They say if you go for an early morning walk in Daintree, make sure to walk second on the path, so the first guy can “clear” all the Golden Orb webs for you!

More bugs! Lots of green stick bugs just hanging out on the leaves

Igor exploring the mangroves – he would have crossed, but Lindsay was (rightfully) wary of crocodiles and turn us back

The rest of the day, Lindsay was on a mission to find a cassowary – the heaviest bird in Australia. Similar in size and shape to an emu, the cassowary has a horn and bright blue & red coloring on its head. There were signs all over the road warning drivers to slow down due to rent cassowary crossings, and our farmstay hosts told us that the best place to see them was actually the road, as they are not afraid of cars. So we (slowly) drove as far north as we could in Cape Tribulation, along a 4WD road in our little Hyundai hatchback until we hit Emmagen Creek, with a constant lookout for our giant bird. No luck so far.

 

Searching for the cassowary

Emmagen Creek crossing. We watched a 4WD with a snorkel exhaust nearly get swept away during a crossing – the extra rain in the past week made the water especially strong. Even Igor agreed that this river was too much for us.

We headed back down south toward the Cape Tribulation ferry, stopping at hiking trails along the way in hopes of finding our bird. The rainforest was stunning (the Dubuji trail was Lindsay’s favorite), but no cassowary. Remembering our long a fruitless search for the kiwi in New Zealand, we decided to throw in the towel, and find ourselves a place to stay on the way back to Cairns.

Beautiful plants in the rainforest

Cape Tribulation Point from Cape Tribulation Beach

Cape Tribulation Beach

The amazing trees on the Dubuji Boadwalk Trail

Our itinerary had moved around a bit in the last few days, so we had to book the night’s accommodation on the fly. Igor found a “secret deal” on his Booking.com account and got us a room at a 4-star resort in Port Douglas for half off – nice! We ran into town to pick up some groceries & sparkling wine for a picnic spread on our pool-view balcony. The hotel manager even gave us free drink vouchers for the bar on check-in, so we ended the night with an extra dose of bubbles and a game of pool.

Catching the sunset in Daintree Village before heading south, where high-speed Wifi waits!

A luxurious dinner spread fit for a 4-star resort

Free drinks? Don’t mind if we do!

We played just one round of pool, which took us about an hour. We officially suck at pool. But let the record show that Igor sucks more, since Lindsay won!

Day 55: Mossman Gorge

While the rain didn’t show any sign of letting up, we couldn’t stay in our hotel hideaway any longer. We headed to the airport to pick up our rental car and drove up north toward Daintree Rainforest National Park. Normally, the drive is quite scenic along the coast – we stopped pulling over at the lookouts as the rain & clouds made everything look the same.

A cloudy view of the coast for our one & only scenic stop

Our destination for the day was Mossman Gorge, which is at the southern end of Daintree National Park. While tourists can drive into the park, there is no parking at the trailhead, so you either have to walk the 2KM to the start of the trail, or take an AUD $10pp shuttle bus. Guess which option we picked?

Just a bit of rain – it’s a rainforest, isn’t it?

It was incredibly humid and rainy, and we unfortunately were wearing long pants and heavy rain coats so we were a bit uncomfortable, but the walk is super easy. You just have to keep an eye out for the shuttle bus to make sure it doesn’t run you over.

Perhaps the bad weather just ruined the grandeur of the place for us, but we couldn’t figure out why this was such a popular spot, nor even why it was called a gorge. In the rain, it just looked like a big river through a tropical forest.

Walking the Mossman trails in the rain. Meh.

It’s a nice river, but we’ve seen better gorges.

We continued north to Cape Tribulation where we were staying for the night at Cape Trib Farm – a family-run working farm which grows only exotic fruits. Igor had booked the farmstay on Booking.com on a gamble as it was a brand-new listing and had no reviews. It paid off! In addition to our private cabin in a banana orchard, we had access to a beautiful, fully-stocked open-air kitchen and dining patio. We ran to the nearest food store and picked up ingredients for a home-cooked Indian food dinner. After a big meal, a bottle of wine, and some time catching up on Wifi (albeit very slow as it was satellite), we were feeling so good, the pouring rain didn’t bother us a bit.

Cape Trib Farmstay B&B

Cooking up some vegetarian “Butter Chicken”

Toasting the rainforest with a bottle of Aussie Shiraz

Checking a few emails while the farm dogs play in the background – Caesar would have loved it here

The “dry season” in Cape Tribulation

Day 54: Cairns – Rainy Day

In our original itinerary, we had planned to take the Scenic Railway & Rainforest Skyrail Cableway to the nearby jungle village of Kuranda, however we found out during our scuba course that not only are you not supposed to fly within 24hr of a multi-dive trip, you are not even supposed to go above 300m. As the Skyrail goes above 350m, we had to rule that out. Plus, the weather was HORRIBLE. Constant downpour all day. So we holed up in the hotel room and had an internet catch-up day instead. And you know what? After 7 weeks of travel and constant activity, it was really nice to have a lazy day together.

The rain finally let up in the evening, so we got gussied up and went out to a nice dinner at Dundee’s – a waterfront restaurant with a “Bush Tucker” menu featuring native Australian meats & spices. Lindsay had been dying to try kangaroo & emu – she can now confirm what everyone else in Australia will tell you: they taste a lot like beef, just a little more gamey. Igor decided he prefers the taste of beef, but he is very glad to know that the kangaroos was free-range.

A fancy date-night out in Cairns

Bush-tucker for dinner! Kangaroo, emu, crocodile & barramundi

Bon appetite!

Days 51, 52 & 53: The Great Barrier Reef

Pro Dive picked us up from our hotel bright and early for our big trip to the Great Barrier Reef. It actually takes about 3hrs by boat to get to the reef from Cairns, so we had time for brekky and some leisure time on the top deck before our first dive in the ocean. The boat was pretty big: 3 levels, 8 bathrooms with showers, with 37 passengers and 7 crew. In addition to all the students going for our PADI Open Water certification, about half the passengers were already certified, along for a regular scuba trip.

Bright-eyed and bushy tailed for our 6AM boat departure from Cairns to the Great Barrier Reef!

Brekky, a cup of coffee, and our private cabin – things are starting out right!

Our first day on the reef, we had 2 training dives – where we had to prove we could complete the skills we learned in the pool in the ocean – as well as a pleasure snorkel. Funny thing, we saw as many fish & a turtle snorkeling as we ever did scuba diving – but then it’s not the quantity of what you see that matters, it’s the perspective.

We toasted our first successful dive over a delicious Indian-food dinner and some BYO bubbles, while all the certified divers jumped into the water for their first night dive. While we didn’t see a single shark during the day, 3 sharks appeared in the evening, circling the boat!

Our first dive site on the Great Barrier Reef

 

A really yummy curry dinner, with a beautiful sunset. Keepin’ it classy with some cheap bubbles in coffee mugs on deck.

We were in the water for more training before breakfast the next morning, so that we would be on track to get our PADI certification before lunch. Round of applause – we did it! That afternoon, Igor and Lindsay took off underwater without an instructor for the first time! Of course, we’re still not experts at reading our compass and had the surface to find our way back to the boat, but we made it back to the boat in one piece!

 

Got our stinger-suits on! Jellies? No problem! 

After reviewing the map of the reef and dive plan from our Dive Master, we jumped into the water to explore

30 feet underwater, and feeling great!

 

The time goes by so quickly – we can’t wait for our next dive!

After dinner the second night, we braved the circling sharks and jumped in the water for our guided night dive. The reef was really eerie in the dark – brimming with life and activity during the day, it’s so strange to swim past it with barely any fish around. We saw plenty of sharks – including a guitar shark! – but weren’t scared when we found out they don’t like the light and all you have to do is shine your flashlight in their face to make them swim away. We also went in search of Brian – a 140-year-old turtle who lives in the Fylnn Reef – unfortunately he was hiding in the back of his little cave, so only those divers with really good maneuverability were able to stick their heads in far enough to see him. However, Lindsay did see another (nameless) turtle swim past, so that was cool.

Disappearing under the dark waters – a bit freaky!

We returned to the boat exhilarated, and after a quick shower (3min max! Gotta share the hot water with everyone!), we went back up top to celebrate. On the top deck, we discovered a new character had joined the boat – Lebron the bird! The skipper recognized the friendly bird who is accustomed to visiting dive boats on the reef, and coaxed him down to mingle with the tourists.

Igor and Tessa making friends with Lebron

This guy was a little attention seeker! We actually had trouble getting him to perch on the boat instead of a person!

For our last morning on the reef, Igor wanted to catch some extra Zs, so he opted to snorkel our 6AM dive, while Lindsay paired up with one of our classmates. After watching us having fun from above, he decided to strap on the tank for our last two dives in the reef, where we found THE REAL NEMO.

 

Igor doing his thing – trying to make friends with the animals. The Spotted Sweetlips wasn’t having it.

 

NEMO, Marlin & even the deceased Coral! (photo credit to Kerri B, whose camera worked at 18 meters, unlike our which crapped out at 10 meters) Also, do I spot a few DORYS on the right side of this reef?!? Please say yes, I was looking for her the whole time and kept missing her.

As we sadly said good bye to the reef and made our way back to Cairns, the bad weather that had been threatening us and ruining our visibility all week finally let it rip. That evening we braved the storm to meet up with our classmates and Pro Dive instructors for a casual dinner & drinks at the Bavarian Beer Garden where we had one last chance to reminisce about our experience at the reef and bid each other farewell.

PADI Open Water Certified, bitches!

Days 49 & 50: Cairns – Learning to Scuba

When planning this trip, we decided that the only way to see the Great Barrier Reef properly was to learn to scuba dive. We looked into getting certified in the USA or doing the course material prior, but honestly if was far more affordable to book a 5-Day Learn to Scuba course in Cairns, which included 2 days classroom & pool training, and 3 days living aboard a boat in the Reef (USD$700pp), rather than pay half in the USA and still have to shell out for rentals / excursion fees in Australia.

So our first two days in Cairns were spent at the Pro Dive learning facility (they picked us up from our hotel each morning, and gave us the option to buy or bring lunch), in a class of 11 students for the coursework, and 7 students for the pool session. We went over the exercises at a comfortable pace, and were feeling pretty confident about jumping into the ocean.

 

2 days of pool exercises & classroom quizzes – we are ready for the reef!

The first night of the course, we followed the recommendation to attend a presentation by Reef Teach, were Gareth, a real marine biologist, took us through a very entertaining slide show on how to identify coral & fish, and where to look in increase our chance of seeing turtles and sharks. We are really d we did it – not only was Gareth very funny, his advice for how to identify fish (forget color! Describe shape, size & behavior to narrow it down) helped us get a lot more out of our diving experience. Basically, it’s all about sex – coral and fish have lots of sex, and if they are not eating they are trying to have sex. If there are no members of the opposite gender around? No problem – many will give themselves a sex change (*cough*clownfishfromFindingNemo*cough*). Others, like the flatworm, will sword-fight with their willies, and the looser has to be the girl. #penisfencing

We were too engrossed in the presentation to take pictures! But we highly recommend the evening talk at Reef Teach before a scuba/snorkel to the Great Barrier Reef

The night before our trip to the reef, we had to take it easy, as we had a 5AM wake-up call in the morning. But we did get a chance to wander around downtown, enjoy the sunset on the boardwalk & the hordes of flying foxes that live in the area – land & sea, this place is bursting with animals!

Sunset in Cairns after a long day of learning! Heading to the esplanade for a wee walk before finding some dinner

Cairns Esplanade

 

A colony of Flying Foxes live in the trees outside the Cairns Library, and at sunset you can see hundreds flying through the sky! Like a scene from a horror movie!

Day 48: Return to Alice Springs

Today was a travel day, as we had almost 500KM / 5hrs between us and the Alice Springs Airport. We left the campground nice and early so we could have time to stop along the way – the road to/from Alice Springs & Uluru surprising has a lot of attractions, evenly spaced out, so the drive was rather pleasant.

 

First stop was the Mt. Ebenezer Roadhouse, where Lindsay was reminded that she hadn’t seen any camels yet. But there was a cool art gallery with some really good paintings by Aboriginal artists (even Igor said they were good, and being a painter himself he’s a tough critic).

 

Igor set a price limit on refreshments – Lindsay was so excited to find an iced coffee on discount!

An hour down the road we stopped at our second roadhouse, which had a flock of emus

Normally they sell feed to tourists for $2/bag and were all for it, but they were sold out! Igor apologized to the birds since he had nothing to give them.

 

Another hour down the road, Lindsay pulled over at Stuart’s Well WHICH HAS A CAMEL FARM! They race their camels at the Alice Springs Camel Cup every year, and they trophy display proves they know what they are doing. Too bad we’ll miss it.

Igor just wants to feed animals! He gave our last clementine to a camel

Poor Sparky just wanted some grass, so Lindsay gave her a little treat

We decided to feed Bruce – the big breeding male – some grass as well

 

So glad got to see some camels before we left the Outback!

When we got to Alice Springs, we made a quick stop at the K-Mart to see if we could return the small tent (yes! AUD$19 back in the budget!), then boarded our flight to Cairns off into the sunset.

 

Hi/Bye Alice Springs! Wish we had a little more time to explore

A full dinner on a 3hr flight? I feel like we’re back in the 1990s! Delicious frittata & cake, Qantas!

Day 47: Uluru

So, Lindsay has wanted to see Ayer’s Rock ever since she was a little girl – one of her favorite cartoon video tapes was called Noozles, about two magical koalas who claimed there was a magical portal at Ayer’s Rock between our world and Koalawalla Land. Not that she was expecting any flying magical koalas or talking kangaroos or thing, but it’s still place that’s had a certain allure in her mind for a few decades.

Childhood influences – you never now where they will send you as an adult

We set the alarm for 5:30AM, so we could drive into the park and claim a good spot at the sunrise viewing area before dawn. Once again, we were not the only ones interested in seeing a rock at sunrise (Moeraki Boulders, anyone?) – there were about 4 tour buses, and a parking lot full of cars who beat us there. Rather than fight for a spot on the raised platform, we decided to endure a few trees in our pictures in order to enjoy the sunrise in peace on the lower path.

Snapping Instagram pics during sunrise at Uluru

After the sunrise, we headed straight for the Base Walk so that we could enjoy every side of Uluru.

 

Our walk around the base started in Uluru’s shadow – we were so glad to turn the corner and get into the morning sun

 

Artsy photos of the many faces of Uluru

 

There are many parts of Uluru that are sacred – which the Aboriginal people believe should only be viewed in person, never as a replica (picture) – Igor resisted taking photos of those sites. All rock art was fair game though!

Taking a short breather hade to admire the rock art 

The Aboriginal people can read stories from the face of Uluru, almost like it were a book. This cave tells the story of three old men who were killed in a fire from a hostile neighboring tribe – their images still haunt the cave as a reminder.

Uluru in the full morning sun

Once we were done walking around Uluru, the issue of whether or not to climb *up* it came up. The Aboriginal people indigenous to the Uluru area consider climbing Uluru to be a sacred rite of passage, and they find it offensive when tourists climb up it. Also, it is incredibly steep and dangerous, so both the Aboriginals and Australian park rangers don’t like it when people get hurt / die / need to be rescued from the climb. Lindsay decided not to climb the rock, out of respect for the Aboriginal people’s request. Igor believes, however, that no culture can “own” a natural wonder and decided that since the rock was technically open for climbers it was fair game. We have agreed to disagree on recommending the climb to others. However, we were informed by a park ranger the climb will be officially banned as of 2019, per the will of the Uluru council members (66% Aboriginal controlled), so keep that in mind.

 

Steep climb to the top, where a compass points to all the sights

There’s rainwater atop the rock! Igor could see The Olgas in the distance

 

Only one pair of boots on the top of Uluru

Beautiful texture of the rock

Panorama from the top

 

It’s a perilous climb down – Lindsay was watching Igor nervously from the parking lot. Many tourists slip and fall, which is the main reason for closing the walk.

We took a long break from the sun, heat & flies in the middle of the afternoon, and checked out the Aboriginal Culture Center, which had a lot of information about the history of Uluru (both geological & political), as well as conservation concerns and wildlife in the area. (No pictures allowed though, as it was another sensitive area)

We still had over an hour until sunset, we so decided to return to Kata Tjunta and hike the last walk that we missed the day before – the Gorge Walk.

 

The Gorge Walk at Kata Tjuta

 

Beautiful, late afternoon walk in the park

We returned to Uluru with plenty of time to catch all the variations of the rock during sunset and dusk. The parking lot cleared out once it got dark, so we had Uluru to ourselves for a final starry photo-shoot. It may be a big rock in the middle of nowhere, but this is seriously worth the trip.

The four final faces of Uluru