ULURU AND THE RED CENTRE OF AUSTRALIA
The arrival of the cold Australian winter - when sometimes the weather can drop to 5-10 degrees at night(!) - has also meant the arrival of the peak tourist season in the areas usually off-limits during the summer due to the intense heat. I’m speaking of the vast desert interior of Australia, also known as the Outback or the Red Centre. Different parts of Australia are best to visit in different times of the year, and they also follow different rules: it’s best to avoid the tropical North and the Great Barrier Reef during the rainy season between December and February, and this time is not ideal for the arid Outback in the middle of the country either, when the temperature can reach scorching 40-50 degrees. Melbourne and Adelaide can get quite chilly in the winter between May and September, so it's better to navigate more inland or to the North this part of the year. The plus side of such a large continent is that you always have ideal weather somewhere, no matter the season!
With a long weekend in June due to the Queen’s birthday, we thought it was the perfect timing to knock the majestic Uluru (also known as Ayer's Rock or the big red rock) and the Outback off our destination wish list.
We were actually incredibly fortunate with our timing, since the weeks before our arrival had seen unusual amounts of rain, so as a consequence the ‘desert’ was green and full of life, which contrasted beautifully with the blue skies, white clouds and red backdrop of Uluru. It was hard to imagine this place as a proper desert – maybe we will have to come back again in the summer! Temperature-wise it peaked at a pleasant 18-20 degrees during the day, which was perfect for hiking (during the summer a lot of the trails are closed after 11am when the mercury reaches 40+), and the l0w degrees at night were completely fine with our ski jackets outside and plentiful heating in the room. We never thought we would be wearing ski jackets in the desert!
Visit in winter has the additional benefit, that there are much less flies, although when the temperature goes up during the day, there are still enough to keep you entertained. Some tourists wear special Aussie fly-hats for this reason, which look rather amusing but, we all agreed, make perfect sense to protect your own nerves!
The first thing to say is that distances in Australia are huuuuuge! We flew more than 3 hours to get to Uluru – more than the time to get to Vanuatu - and we were still only halfway across the country! The majority of the country, away from the populated rim, is quite barren and arid, which we could see very well from the airplane. We flew over the empty lake-bed of Lake Eyre, which only fills with water every decade when a flash flood occurs (smaller flooding occurs every 4-5 years). For a few short months, this 10,000 km2 salt lake fills with water (similar in size to Lake Erie in the US, and 17 times the size of Lake Balaton in Hungary) and animals and plants thrive on its shores before the lake dries up. For now, we only saw the empty lake-bed, but are hoping we can get a repeat performance one day.
The only place to stay at Uluru is at the Yulara resort – these are actually 5-6 hotels for different budgets (from camping through to luxury hotels) owned by the same company, all of which are built along a loop road, less than 10 minutes’ walk from each other. There is also a petrol station, a small supermarket, a village square, a couple of souvenir shops and maybe 10 different food options between the various hotels. All the options are more expensive than you would expect in Sydney, partly because everything has to be brought in from halfway across the country, but also because the company has a monopoly. The standards are not luxurious, but adequate, and visitors look for the views and not the pampering anyways!
We stayed with our friends, Casey and Norman in the Outback Pioneer Lodge, one of the budget hotel options. It had great heating in the room, a large kitchen for those who wanted to cook, plenty of social space and 3-4 restaurants around its central court with live music in the evening which also attracted many visitors from the neighbour accommodations in the weekend. At one of the kiosks the guys could even get some real raw bush meet to BBQ for themselves, including emu sausages, kangaroo and crocodile meat for the full experience! We also had a lookout point 100m away from our room on a hill above the hotel, where you could see the sun rise and set over Uluru, or just watch the stars at night – it was magical.
Sunset flight over Uluru
Renata found out about the sunset or sunrise flights above Uluru with Ayers Rocks Scenic Flights where you can see the rock in beautiful light from a 4-seater airplane. The trip had great reviews, so we were eager to admire the majestic size and colours of Uluru from the bird's view. We signed up for a last-minute excursion shortly after landing, and this way we could get on the sunset ride which the company normally reserve for the longer - and much more expensive - trips. However, if they have a quiet day, you can negotiate to use the ride for the shorter trip too.
It was an incredible experience, and for $120/p, it was definitely worth it to take a special view of the rock's changing colours to deeper and darker shades of red as the sun set. It looks deceptively small from the air as we found it out the next day when we hiked around it! Our Chilean pilot was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot about flying. E.g. Did you know that airplanes keep their fuel in the wings? Or that in windy landings pilots touch one wheel down before the other on purpose? For those with a sensitive stomach, you can rest assured that the ride was is smooth - much smoother than when we flew above the Nazca lines, since there is no need to swerve around to see the shapes!
Uluru and Kata Tjuta at sunset
When comparing it to its environment it's easier to have a feel for the size of Uluru
Trek around Uluru
Uluru (as the Aboriginals call it) or Ayers Rock (as it was formerly known) is a huge sandstone monolith. It's roughly 350 meters high with a total circumference of around 10km. Its red colour comes from the iron content of the rock, which has oxidized to a rusty hue over the years, and it is different from a mountain, in that it is a (mostly) continuous piece of rock. I couldn’t help agree with Bill Bryson, who in his travelogue “In a Sunburnt Country”, quips that it is the perfect place for aliens to meet, because if you agree to meet at ‘the massive red rock on the 3rd planet’, there is no way they could possibly mistake it for anything else in the Solar System.
Uluru looks different from all angles
Uluru is a sacred site for Aboriginals who attach great importance to it in their mythology, a lot of the formations have a story attached to them about how they formed. These stories were passed on from generation to generation and always contained at least one moral educating the young about the right way to behave; and the consequences (usually death given the harsh environment) that followed when they weren’t followed. One of the more unusual customs we learned about was how wounding an enemy in the thigh with a spear was an acceptable form of punishment, but then you had to nurse them back to health afterwards.
There are 3 little waterholes around the side of the rock which was an incredibly valuable resource in the desert. It also meant food, because the animals of the desert were also forced to seek it out. When hunting the emu, the Aboriginals lay in wait in the bushes, waited until the emu had drunk, and then quietly killed the last animal leaving so as not to scare away the animals from the waterhole in the future – this way they would just think their friend had gotten lost somewhere when they finally noticed he was missing!
One of the waterholes at the bottom of the rock
As we walked the 10km circle tour around Uluru, we saw the locations still used today for Aboriginal ceremonies. Seeing the cave paintings on the walls felt like a piece of Stone Age history come alive! The place has a magical atmosphere and we felt very fortunate to be able to experience this piece of our joint human history that is still being preserved.
You are asked not to climb Uluru out of respect for Aboriginal customs, but as you are not prevented from doing so, and surprisingly, we found plenty of people willing to ignore their conscience and make the climb. We decided to give it a pass, not least because we didn’t see the point of climbing the only noteworthy thing in the desert – you’re actually standing on the only thing to see, so all you see is the desert.
Other activities in Yulara
There are a number of other activities to see and do around Uluru, such as going camel riding - or you can just visit the camel farm for free. Camels were introduced in the 19th century to help navigate the desert and construct the railways, but they eventually got made redundant. However, they liked the environment so much that a lot of them went wild or they became a normal resident of the desert. These latter ones are domesticated for the purposes of carrying tourists in mainly sunset or sunrise tours, and we got a neat picture of them lined up like taxis in a taxi rank!
Outback atmosphere at Uluru Camel Tours
Possibly the best additional activity is seeing the Fields of Light – a magical art exhibition comprised of tens of thousands of solar-powered lights that gradually shift colours in the desert night. Unfortunately you’re not allowed to use a tripod to avoid tripping people up in the meandering paths though, but you may still be able to get a couple of nice shots. This exhibition is live until March 2018 and is worth a visit. Eager ones can also enjoy the view from a hill above the lights with a special dinner.
The main square in Uluru also gives place to daily indigenous cultural events which we read about, but unfortunately we had no luck with the free bush food tour we picked as it was cancelled due to the performers’ other cultural obligations that day. The visitor centre next to Uluru itself, however, had some good exhibitions, Aboriginal art painting demonstration by local indigenous artists and an interesting video. We even got a hand painting for ourselves to hang out on the wall among our precious collection of paintings from around the world where we fell in love with local art.
Indigenous art often features animals and typically use dots and simple lines
Kata Tjuta
40km away from Uluru is Kata Tjuta (also known as the Olgas), which was once a similar, but even larger monolith than Uluru, but which has now collapsed and is comprised of 36 ‘smaller’ domes. Here we did the appropriately named 2-hour Valley of the Winds walk, with some stunning views of gorges, surprisingly forested ravines and flat plains. There were even 2 water tanks providing drinking water along the trek – a nice addition!
Kata Tjuta from a viewing platform
Views on the Valley of the Winds walk
King’s Canyon
After exhausting the sights in the immediate vicinity of Uluru, our final expedition was to the King’s Canyon which was a mere 300km away. While the road was asphalt, there wasn’t much along the way. When we stopped at the only stop along the way in Curtis Springs (consisting of a single café, a petrol station, a camping ground and a bathroom block), the waitress looked at us incredulously when we asked whether she had freshly brewed coffee. On a side note, this is a place where you stop for gas at every chance you get, because you never know if you will find another station for a couple hundred kilometres – and when you do find one, they will surely charge you a 50% premium over what it would cost in Sydney Alice Springs, the nearest proper city, would have been over 600km away from Uluru by the way, so you have to drive through a whole lot of nothing to get to the next sight!
The only sight on the way to the King's Canyon in the middle of the desert - another meeting point for Aliens?
King’s Canyon was well worth the long drive though, since we had some amazing vistas through the steep gorge as we walked the 3-hour Rim Walk around the edge of the canyon. The beginning is a tough ascent, but once it levels off you’re mostly on flat terrain with a descent at the very end. Just don’t get too close to the edge if you’re afraid of heights! After the hike we rewarded ourselves with a nice coffee / ice cream in the nearby Kings Canyon Resort - the only catering establishment around.
Once on top, you walk through the rim of the canyon with some impressive views
One of our favourite pics: Spot the people on the cliff edge = the respectful force of nature
Anyone fancy a quick jump?
All in all, we felt that we had an action-packed long weekend, but that we’d managed to do the main things there was to see. By taking our time and doing some longer hikes in each of the locations we were able to become a bit more attuned to the sights and the atmosphere. It was hard to decide which was our favourite, but we can definitely agree that Uluru shouldn't be the only thing on your list when you come to visit, since Kata Tjuta and King's Canyon are just as special in their own way.