The Beautiful Uluru
Jet star has been very 'kind' this summer and had Uluru return tickets for 180 dollars, a deal hard to miss and fortunately this matched with my current roster and we quickly planned a trip to the spiritual heart of Australia from 17 to 19 Jan. After booking the tickets, the reality struck, hotels were still quite expensive, the cheapest with aircon was going at 280 per night at Pioneer lodge and hotel, we had no choice now that we have booked the air tickets.
The day for our tour came fast. We drove in Tan's car, arrived at long term car park and freaked out a bit looking for a space to park, finally found a spot and caught the free shuttle to the airport and arrived at the gate just in time for boarding. Our pre-booked meals arrived soon after take off, Tan's noodles was not the one they advertised, nicely served in a dish, but a cup noodles and my beef duo was paediatric size, alas, another mistake, don't book meals on budget flights.
It was otherwise a rather unremarkable flight, flying over South Australia towards the Northern Territory. We flew over many arid lands, salt lakes and port augusta just in view.
It was a two and a half hour flight, captain announced landing about 10 min before and since then I was at the edge of my seat, staring through the window, looking to catch a glimpse of Uluru from air. If the previous trip reports I read were correct, I should see Uluru as I was seated on the left hand side of the plane. To my dismay I didn't see it, I was just about to give up hope, when it appeared under the plane wing just a couple of minutes before the plane landed, the beautiful Uluru, basked in the scorching summer sun.
As we disembarked from the plane, the reality hit us, it was very hot, I could almost feel water evaporating off my skin, it's an Uluru summer, hmm what did I expect, now this explained the flight deal.
We picked our car keys and met our cute hyundai i20 just outside the airport, it was HOT inside the car, i had to pour some water on the steering wheel and wet my hands before I could start driving and off we went. Uluru has well paved roads and you DO NOT need a 4 wheel drive to get around Uluru. Do not waste money on a 4WD, a small car should be enough.
All the hotels in Uluru are centrally located in Yulara about 5km from the airport in an area called the 'Ayers rock resort'. Ayers rock resort is not a single entity, it's the area where all the hotels, town centre and restaurants are located. Ours was Pioneer hotel.
We arrived at the hotel around 11.30 and our room was not ready. We were given a sheet of free activities we could do in the Ayers rock resort until the room was available. According to that we were just in time for the Aboriginal story telling (Bush yarn) experience. We drove to the town square and parking was limited and had to park under the sun. Headed where the bush yarn was to be told and no one was there, probably it was too hot for story telling.
The heat was overwhelming and Tan was becoming restless with the heat. Town square has an IGA, we hit the IGA and bought a tub of icecream and some plastic spoons, sat in the town square and fiished a quarter of it.
It was almost time for lunch and the 'lunch' on the flight was not doing any good, and we headed to the Gecko restaurant for some lunch. It was very crowded already and had to wait to get a table. Menu was impressive, kangaroo burger, kangaroo and emu pizza, crocodile ribs! I went for a kangaroo-emu pizza and being the innocent one Tan had his usual seafood pasta. With 2 drinks the meal came to just over 70 dollars, I would say it is rather expensive for 2 people, but considering how remote the place is may be acceptable.
After lunch we headed to the Wintjiri arts and museum where original aboriginal arts are on display and for sale. The paintings were very nice and all were above 1000 dollars, well one day for sure. This is the place where they conduct the bush food experience too. An indigenous gentleman gave a talk about how aboriginal people selected their food and did hunting and did their cooking, very interesting talk. At the end of the talk, there was a demonstration on how to make wattle seed cookies, the national flower of Australia.
After the food talk there was still sometime before the check in time and we decided to drive to Uluru despite the temp of 42. Uluru is about 10km from the Ayers rock resort. After a few kilometres of drive from the resort you get to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park entrance. You scan you pre-purchased park entrance ticket and go in. We decided to go to the sunset viewing area first.
The rock unfolded in different angles in front of us as we took the 80km/h drive. It was much bigger than I thought it would be. A truly magnificent rock. It was glowing in orange pierced by the burning sun rays.
We were the only people in the sunset viewing area, probably others were not mad enough to come out in this temperature. We could only take a few pictures and the phone didn't allow to switch on the camera and switched off itself giving a too warm to operate warning, that's how hot it was!
Then we drove closer to the rock, where climbing of the rock begins. Obviously the climb was closed due to the summer heat.
We couldn't stay outside much due to the heat and decided to drive back to the hotel, it was time for our check-in.
The room looked nice, though quite expensive to what it offered. But then again can't complaint provided the remoteness of the location and scarcity of resources. We had a shower and had a nap until it was time for the sunset.
Sunset was expected at 7.45pm, we left the hotel around 6pm allowing ample time to reach the sunset viewing area and set ourselves up. On our way we returned to the IGA to buy water and some food stuff as it was quite apparent by now that it is the cheapest place to buy food. We reached the sunset viewing area by 6.45 pm and there was already people flocking! As you drive towards Uluru, first you will see the coach park which is only for tourist buses, you need to drive down a further 1-2km to get to the car park for private cars. As previous visitors have mentioned the best views are at the end of the car park, where you get a clear view of the rock without tall trees obstructing the view. We got to the end of the car park, a few other people have already flocked in that area. Other than the admirers of the sunset the area was infested with flies! We have forgotten to bring our insect repellent, so you could imagine our plight. I tried to set up my go pro but unfortunately my tripod was not tall enough and I didn't have the correct mount to mount it on one of the poles of the fence either and had to balance it on a rope, still not a bad angle.
As the sun set behind us it was shining its rays on the rock painting it with a bright orange and as it descended the colours started to change from orange to red to purple but unfortunately the sun hid behind a dark cloud shying away the colors.
We stayed a bit more after the sunset, to see the sky turning into one of the prettiest blues.
The park closes about 1h after sunset, so we took off to the hotel. Had some Pizza at hotel and slept early in time to wake up for the sunrise.
We woke up around 4am next day morning not wanting to miss a good spot to view the sunrise. Our plan was to see the sunrise from the sunset viewing area to catch those rays behind the rock in its silhouette. We lathered our selves with the insect repellent after the lesson the flies taught us yesterday and had a quick breakfast of croissants, banana and coffee which we bought yesterday from IGA and reached the sunset area by around 5am.
We were the only people there, the entire viewing area was for us to explore.
But to keep our company was a larger swarm of flies! Us being the only visitors the attack rate was higher than yesterday evening and the insect repellent didn't do any work at all, I felt they were rather devouring on the repellent. I patiently waited trying to chase away the flies with one of Tan's spare t-shirts, while Tan found refuge in the car.
The sun rose gradually behind the rock giving different hues to the sky around the rock in its silhouette form, what a fascinating view!
After the sunrise we drove down to the base of the rock, hoping they would allow climbing today. Alas, it's closed again, this time due to a forecast of storms.
We took the walk around the base, which takes you to a gorge with a water hole. On our way we passed the men's area, women's area and elder's area, how simple the life must have been?
Then we took a drive around the base of the rock, it's almost a 10km drive and took us about 15 minutes to complete. Tan patiently took time to record the drive.
Our next stop was Kata-Tjuta mountains viewing area which is about 30km from the Uluru rock. Drive took us about 30 minutes to get there and after strolling down about a 300m foot path, again infested with flies came to the dune viewing platform. You could see Kata-Tjuta across a savanna type landscape and at the horizon stood the giant monolith of Uluru.
Wonder how the first aboriginal explorers felt when they first saw this rock at the horizon. The sun was starting to bake the central Australia by the time we finished viewing Kata-Tjuta and we hopped in the car and drove back to the hotel.
After a nap we woke up around 5pm, hoping to go early to secure a better spot for sunset viewing. We secured a good spot at the end of the car park. Sun was shining brightly and the dry tall grass was of a golden color and the rock a bright orange.
But alas the sky was overcast soon with thick grey clouds, the storm they predicted in the morning was about to hit Uluru. We patiently waited hoping for the sun to peep through the clouds again, which never did to our dismay, but we had a surprise visitor, a full rainbow over the Uluru. Amazing!
Next morning we woke up early again, this time to see the sunrise from the sunrise viewing area. Sunrise viewing area is further 10km away from the sunset viewing area, you have to drive around the rock to reach here. We were relying on Google maps and it asked us to drive down a foot path! when we skipped it, it asked us to drive on a restricted road! The sunrise was just around the corner and we were running out of time while Google was playing games, luckily I had brought my Garmin too, and it directed us to the correct road, and we noted that had we being noticing the road signs it would have been easier. By the time we reached the sunrise viewing area, it was still more than 30 minutes to the sunrise. The platform built to watch sunrise was already crowded by tourists! We wouldn't have a chance to stand there and get a decent view. Instead we walked down the trail and set ourselves up at a lower point, compromising the view by some tall grown grass, a view obstructed by grass would be better than a view obstructed by heads.
The sun started to come up the opposite horizon casting its spell on the rock, which started to lighten up ever so slowly. The beautiful rock and it's surroundings were coming to life for a new day in front of us. I don't think I would ever get fed up of this view.
We then took off to the base, hoping to climb the rock. Temperature was good, no storms in forecast, no high speed winds, Yes! the rock was open for climbing. We started our climb. It is a STEEP climb.
The moment we stepped on the rock we realised we were not prepared enough for this game. From yesterday's storm, the rock was slippery. There were a group of Japanese tourists ahead of us, all well geared, with proper shoes, gloves to improve the grip and fly-nets to combat the menace of flies. The initial climb has no support, you just have to crawl up with all fours if needed be until you reach a chain which you can hold onto to climb to the top. Just before we reached the chain, one of the Japanese girls was stuck before us, clinging to the rock with all fours, unable to move forward. She was stuck there for over 5 minutes, we thought she would tumble down on to our heads.
We lost our confidence to climb it especially being poorly geared and decided to turn back. I was very disappointed that I couldn't climb the rock, but obviously didn't want to end up quadriplegic at this age and Tan was scared there won't be anyone to drive him back to the airport.
We drove back to the hotel, packed up and headed to the airport for an uneventful flight back home with happy memories of the heart of Australia.
Tips
- Uluru is an expensive destination, here are some tips to cut down your cost
- Wait for a flight deal - Usually from Melbourne return tickets are over 400 dollars, but with this deal we managed to get it at 180!
- Hotel deals - As it was summer, hotels had about 10% off, but still it would be expensive
- Restaurants are expensive - Pizzas were the cheapest we could find and the IGA in the town square sells roasted chicken, different breads and croissants which would make a cheap meal
- Buy water from IGA - 1L bottle in IGA 4 dollars, if you buy at your hotel it would be 6 dollars
- Hire a car! - It may sound expensive, but if you are travelling with someone else, this is the cheapest option and gives the most amount of flexibility. For us the car cost 250 dollars for 2 days, if you opt for more excess it would have been cheaper (Around 190). If you decide to take tour buses instead of a car, per head ticket is above 100 dollars! So obviously hiring a car if you are travelling with someone else is the cheaper and more flexible option
- No need to hire a 4WD, just hire a small car, Uluru has well paved roads!
- Uluru sun set
- There are 2 official designated areas for sunset - one for cars, one for tourist buses
- Leave early to find a spot
- In car viewing area the best views would be at the end of the car park, drive all the way down to the end of the car park.
- This is also a very good area during sunrise, no crowd at all and you can see stunning silhouettes of the rock!
- Uluru sun rise
- The designated sun rise viewing area gets crowded very early! Go at least 1.5h before the sunrise time to secure a good spot.
- Do not use google maps to get here! First it tried to drive us through a foot path, then through a restricted road. We finally got here using the road signs. Google maps doesn't have the new road which goes to the designated sunrise viewing area!
- Uluru from air
- Make sure you sit on the LEFT side of the plane when arriving in Uluru and obviously the right side when leaving Uluru to see the rock from air.
- There are so many flies!
- The insect repellent we had didn't work at all!
- Best would be to have a fly net over your hat.
- If you want to climb Uluru
- Make sure you have proper shoes to climb
- Gloves will be handy as the chain could heat with the sun and you have to use all fours to climb the initial part of the rock until you get to the chain
- Fly net over the hat would be handy as it would be difficult to hold the chain and fight the flies too.
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