cave hill safari

It's a long way to cave hill from Ayers Rock Resort (approx 2 hours, 1/2 off road) but well worth the trip. Once there, a beautiful indigenous family spent the day with us, sharing their wonderful stories, dance and 'bush tucker'. The views from the top of Cave Hill are amazing and well worth the climb.

This amazing tour gave us more than we ever imagined. If you want a brief but real insight into an indigenous experience in of living in central Australia this day trip is for you. It's a long trip over some rough roads but our air conditioned vehicle handled it beautifully. We actually travelled across the border into the APY lands in South Australia to reach Cave Hill. This is the only company with a permit to enter these Aboriginal lands. The food is simple - muffins and fruit and a barbeque lunch - except if you have Elizabeth, who went off in search of witchetty grub for us to taste while Wally took us on the walk to the cave, pointing out how he and his people use the land and telling his "chapter" of the Seven Sisters tjurpaka (dreamtime) story. The rock art is everywhere in the cave (no photographs allowed here). A panoramic view from the top of the hill if you want to climb. I was the only one of the 4 visitors to taste witchetty cooked by Elizabeth for lunch and it's delicious. I'd have it every day. There are plenty of flies - you can buy fly nets from Ayers Rock Resort. The toilet facilities are your basic "deep drop" outback style but were spotless. The local Pitjantjajara people don't speak a lot of English but if you spend a little time chatting and listening with respect you can't come away without learning something, even if it's not what you expect. If you want a tour with more than just pictures of famous landmarks, I can highly recommend this day. Finally, about Ryan, our driver, translator, cook and guide. He couldn't have been better and we really appreciate all he did for us.

Our family really enjoyed this tour, a chance to see the amazing landscape and learn and understand about a special part of aboriginal culture and history. We went on several very good tours and this was my favourite.

We were collected by our white guides (Piranpa) named Page and Sarah who warmly greeted us and then off we travelled on our 3.5 hour journey to Cave Hill.Most of the journey was on a beautiful red dirt road. Because the land has had 2 years of plentiful rain after many years of drought, the vegetation in the desert was thriving and the wildlife was plentiful.Our piranpa stopped the vehicle on many occasions during our drive to show us, explain and sometimes allowed us to handle the wildlife found. eg thorny devil ,blue tongue lizard.When we reached Cave Hill we were greeted by the local aboriginals, Wally and Elizabeth,and were taught about their hunting tools by Wally and food gathering and preparation by Elizabeth .After morning tea we walked through the land observing the trees , grasses etc growing and tasting the bush tucker seen.On Cave Hill we had Tjukurpa(ancestral stories) related in the indiginous language and interpreted by Page.The story line of this "page" of the " book" was about the 7 sisters being chased and who entered the cave for protection.The cave paintings depict this story and date back 22,000 years and are most interesting.The story line continues as we continue on the trek to higher ground on the hill and reach a large waterhole abuzz with much wildlife eg zebra finches and some shrubs.We return to base camp and enjoy an open fire rustic barbeque.This can be a sharing experience as that is central to aboriginal law. If you have a problem with flies please bring some netting to cover your face.On our return trip we stopped for a photo shot of Mt Conner , a mesa bigger than Uluru.Then a comfort stop at Curtin Springs station and maybe meet 'mongrel ' the emu.It was a wonderful full day encounter with the aboriginal way of life that can prepare you for Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

The best of this experience was seeing the Cave Paintings. Some are over 20,000 years old and some are relatively recent. Our Aboriginal guide told us some of the dreamtime songline. He was difficult to understand and our local tour guide translated for us. The disappointing part of this experience was that except for the Aboriginal guide and his family, the rest was handled by two white women (one from Melbourne). They did the barbecue and took care of the food. Our interaction was mostly with the women. We visited the beginning of April and it was unseasonably warm (hot) 102 degrees F. The black flies were very active. Almost all of us (about 28 people) wore netting. I disappointed that we did not get to see an Aboriginal village as part of the experience.

-torture :'(-we weren't told the drive was three hours there and three hours return-my wife and her friend were asked to wash up the dishes-my friends wife was asked to started the camp fire-i made the tea and coffee for the guests on the tour as the guide had no intention of offering - he made his first and settled in to enjoy it! -morning tea was one sara lee muffin each -lunch was a steak sandwich we cooked while the guide chatted with the locals-embarrassed foreign tourists with us had such poor standard of tour in Australia!! -guide wasn't sure the indigenous guides would come as they had just done a tour for a school party-indigenous lady was nice enough though the guide had to attempt to translate to english and his ability was very limited! -yes see mt conner from tens of kilometres on the roadside as you drive by-being australian we have roos come to our garden - no big deal!-all for several hundred dollars as a family

The Cave Hill Safari is an all day tour trhat starts at Uluru and travels by 4WD van through Curtin Springs and past spectacular Mount Conner (bigger trhan Uluru!!) to a remote aboriginal cave painting site in the desert. You can book the tour through the Ayers Rock Resort website or at reception in any of the hotels.It's a genuinely great experience. The drive each way is long, but the country is movingly stark and gives you a deep sense of its remoteness and harshness. We also got to see wild camels and big red kangaroos along the way:- something you are unlikely to do at Uluru itself.Once you arrive at Cave Hill, things go a bit slowly at first while the local aboriginal guides warm up for the day's events. We had morning tea and cake while Wally went off in search of a perentie goanna to show us. His wife Elizabeth and son Roderick entertained us in their own way.We followed a path around the hill learning about the Seven Sisters songline as we went, also stopping to eat berries and the like and watch Elizabeth grind seeds and dig witchety grubs. There's a small bush camp with clean toilet facilities adjacent to the hill.The cave paintings are the finest in Central Australia and very few people get to see and hear about them. Photos are not permitted, sadly, for cultural reasons.After the walk around the hill and to the cave, we climbed the hill for the view, were guided to a remote water hole and then had barbecue steak sandwich for lunch.If you've got a day to spare in Uluru, this is the way to spend it.