Sleeping outside the tents underneath the stars, with the rare but refreshing Central Australia summer showers, we got up at 4am for the Uluru (also known as the Ayers rock) full base walk. No we did not climb Uluru. It made us angry to see how culturally insensitive and disrespectful some people can be. The Uluru climb is the traditional route taken by ancestral Mala men upon their arrival to Uluru. Anangu (the traditional land owners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park) do not climb Uluru because of its great spiritual significance. Anangu have not closed the climb and prefer that visitors - out of education and understanding - choose to respect their law and culture by not climbing. There were many signs asking visitors not to climb Uluru from the moment you enter the national park by car, but there were still literally hundreds of tourists of all ages and nationality climbing up nonetheless.
