This morning I wake up later than usual. For the first time I have to go see the sunrise, and stay in the hostel for breakfast. Well I call it hostel by name it, it really is a tourist resort (do you say that?), Which has accommodation for all tastes, from camping to deluxe rooms. My choice was the cheapest without having to camp. The room has three beds and serves four, but this time not no one else, is all for me. There is a kitchen to share with other rooms but I find that no utensils or simply cooking stoves. I need a bowl, or at least a saucepan, where to put my cereal with milk, but there is nothing. At the end go to the store and bought me plastic utensils and one of those frozen desserts. After taking this dessert using the glass to my beloved cereal, and enjoy the day.
I get to the canyon of the Kings early, before nine o'clock. The plan is, like the other days, making the main promenade in the early morning before the sun too hot, and before they reach large groups of tourists.
The walk takes me the canyon rim. Down the river is dry with mysterious nocturnal creatures, and in front of me the landscape is rocky, with sheer rock hills and trees and defying the ground so dry climate of the place. The combination of rocks and trees becomes the star of this tour. The rocks look like the remains of some ancient ruins of a lost civilization. And the trees, twisted and with few branches, they look like carved on purpose to create, along with rocks, a landscape as seen in Chinese paintings in museums. My love of bonsai me noticing these trees more than anything else in the landscape. Many of the specimens you see in magazines bonsai and exhibitions are aesthetically beautiful but decidedly artificial. These trees, however, combines aesthetics and so naturally I do not want to miss the details, I have to create something like this when I return to my garden. The camera is always working, and I stop every fifty meters to observe and photograph tree after tree. Time passes, reaching large groups of tourists, but I still, rapt, watching the trees and ignoring the views of cliffs to the block that are so admired by tourists.
One reason I do this walk is that there is geocache treasure hidden in the rocks that I find, and gradually approaching I will hide and seek with GPS in hand. As I walk, stopping from tree to tree to take pictures, I hear a group of American tourists say the word "cache." Are they doing geocache too? I'm not used to American accent, perhaps talk about money ("cash")? Will they have lost money and they're looking for? I follow my path, advancing in my journey from tree to tree, and they getting ahead of myself when I stop to take pictures. And in one of these occasions one of them sees my GPS. "Oh, do geocaching?" He asks. Yes, they are also treasure hunters. What a coincidence, is the first time I meet with geocachers, and find in this remote location is somewhat unexpected. I have not thought treasure hunting in rough terrain and have no details of it, so do not come prepared. I offer to let my GPS after I have found the treasure, but in the end, as so often I stop, they decide to move on. When I find the treasure not see them on the way, sorry for them.
I follow the path, stopping at every tree in your way, enjoying the landscape seen from the edge of the canyon, and amazed to find the garden of Eden, a pond, an oasis in the desert, full of birds and aquatic animals. It is almost noon, much later than planned, and there are many tourists that the oasis you can not enjoy peace of mind, so I follow the road, almost running now, there is still much to do today.
I ride and get ready for the main quest of this journey, which is driving the circuit Mereenie. It is a shortcut through the desert, a dirt road that lead me to Glen Helen, the land of Namatjira, through Aboriginal land. This road is the reason I rented a 4x4 instead of normal cars.
The road takes me an unpopulated area, covered with dry vegetation. Just passing cars, and when you come I have to climb the window to keep out road dust. The road is not as bad as expected. I could have gone in a normal car with a little care, but since I have it take the opportunity to press the accelerator to go as fast as possible. It's a straight road but with many slopes, and in more than one occasion gives the impression that the car jumps as if this were a rally.
Tnorala I get to bypass. Tnorala is the rest of the crater of a comet that fell to the beginning of time. In his time the crater was 20 miles across, but what remains after erosion are compressed under the impact rocks, hills now appear simply because the surrounding terrain, softer, has been led by erosion. Is the crater within the crater. The detour road is much more difficult and sandy main road, and here if you have to drive slowly to avoid getting stuck in the sand. Now is when I appreciate having rented the car, with not being an SUV is at least four-wheel drive.
Tnorala, like so many geological features of the area is a place revered by the Aborigines. According to legend, was formed when, back in the sky, a group of women were dancing. One of them left the baby on the platform where they were dancing, and the baby fell off the platform hitting his birthplace on earth. Women are the Milky Way, and the impact of the crib is Tnorala. This is the legend, which is not far round of what they say Western science. In more recent times, before the white man came, there was a great slaughter among aboriginal tribes, and since then not allowed to spend the night in the place of respect.
'm the only one in the place. Starts at dusk, and take a walk along the path through the vegetation. The silence is absolute. Here you do not hear or breeze, or flying flies. After many hours drive, silence is more noticeable, pervades everything, and somehow amplifies the sound of footsteps to the point where I can no more, and I stop. Here I am, crater in the crater of a comet, alone, in silence. The time stops and seems to me that there is nothing behind the hills. Walk again, but the noise of footsteps I find it unbearable. In the end I just take off my shoes and run barefoot on in silence. I'm nobody, just a vision in this place so full of legend and tragedy. This experience will undoubtedly be the most amazing journey. I think so absolute silence never meet again, and I enjoy it like a precious jewel and poor, which is destined to disappear from this world. At the end of the day, as the song says, the silence is sound, a sound louder than I had imagined.
Back to the car, and the noise, came to a lookout where you can see how Tnorala, a circular group of hills in the middle of the desert plain.
I get to Glen Helen on the verge of evening, just in time for the solar function every day, when the sun paints the surrounding mountains of gold and purple mountains so well known that Albert Namatjira painting, the artist that brought together Aboriginal Western technology with indigenous feelings, creating an art school so different. Someone who, as I discovered years ago in a museum in Canberra was the first person who was able to give expression to the Australian eucalyptus trees and mountains. I get
finally to the property where I discover that my reservation over the phone there. Luckily the place is not full and I have to share a room all to myself. The room is smaller than other places, with two bunk beds, and very rustic. But for the price they ask me I'm not complaining.
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