Uluru. To climb or not to climb?

Hoping to disprove a by tourists long-held superstition, I jump into my car and drive all the way up from Melbourne to the World Heritage Site Uluru in the Kata Tjuta National Park. You know there are still people who believe their Australia vacation only to be complete after they climbed the big red rock? I visit Uluru, and all I can say is that it really is possible
without the climb. Don’t know why there are so many too stubborn to let go of old fashioned beliefs. Mission accomplished.

The Anangu traditional owners of the land beg all visitors to not climb the site. Every climb is considered culturally offending. And they also don’t want to feel bad all the time about people getting hurt or even worse dying when climbing the rock. 

On one of the days I visit Uluru, I meet a guy, about sixty years old, from Adelaide, South Australia. He is only visiting this area because he absolutely wants to climb up Uluru. He is upset because the climb is closed on most days since it is too windy, too hot, too whatever …. As I engage him in a conversation he tells me that he has never heard that it is not desired to climb Uluru. He still calls Uluru Ayers Rock.

A large red monolith under a bright blue sky.

What do you think is the right thing to do? To climb or not to climb Uluru? Update: The Uluru climb closed permanently from October 2019.

From Berlin with love