Visible
from Ayres Rock is a group of weathered volcanic
mounds called The Olgas or Kata Tjuta (which means 'many heads') - we take a
hike through these rock formations, taking in the abundant (not!) wildlife.
You may notice the dominant colour here - Red. Its everywhere.
The reason for this is the pre-historic sea which created a huge amount of
sandstone over the millennia over the whole centre of Australia (which in those
times was part of a super-continent attached to America, Africa and Asia known
as Gondwanna). Sucessive ice ages compressed the sand, then rains washed
it across the centre of Oz. Hence the red dust everwhere here.
The Olgas were formed by chunks of rock being pushed up by tectonic
movement. By comparison, Ayres Rock was formed when a crust of volcanic
rock fused with the sandstone and erosion of all the sand for hundreds of miles
around left Ayres Rock sticking up. Fascinating stuff eh? Stop
yawning at he back - I'll be asking questions later...
