After a month of volunteer work at a Buddhist Institute in the rainforest a few hours north of Brisbane I hit the road again and headed from the sub-tropics to the semi-arid desert of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in central Australia.  Ayers Rock, now commonly known as Uluru, has long been on my list of places to visit as it is an UNESCO World Heritage site, with historical and cultural significance.  I also wanted to experience the Australian interior, so the destination checked two boxes for me!

The only place to stay at Uluru is the Ayers Rock Resort which has accommodations for a wide variety of budgets and styles. There are numerous tour companies that run a multitude of different tours (sunrise and sunset viewing, hiking etc..).  I decided, almost at the last minute, to get a rental car for a couple of days even though I had a couple of tours booked in order to give me some freedom to roam around.  It turned out to be a good decision….

After landing at the Uluru airport and picking up my car, I drove the short distance to my hotel at the resort and checked in.  Summer is the rainy season in this part of Australia and it was overcast the rest of the day.  It is big sky country in that you can see weather patterns a long distance off and it was common during my stay to see strong rain showers happening in the distance while blue sky was directly above.  I settled in for the rest of the day and mapped out all of my options for the four days I was going to be in Uluru.

The next morning I got up early, around 5am, in order to drive the 48km over to the nearby rock formation of Kata-Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, to see the sunrise and do some hiking.  It was still overcast, but I drove over there anyway because of the changeability of the weather– it was quite possible there were no clouds in the area of Kata-Tjuta, although the area just north of Ayers rock was overcast.  Summer is also the off-tourist season so there were only a handful of others at the sunrise viewing site when I arrived.  It was nice and peaceful as the sun rose over the horizon–except for the flies; another summer phenomenon.  I had read ahead though and came prepared. I got out my fly net and put the fly it over my head to keep the flies from buzzing around and landing on my face.  Unfortunately it was cloudy enough that the sun, after teasing us with a brief flash  of yellow/orange color as it breached the horizon, soon disappeared into the clouds.

Just a couple of the fun signs I saw in the national park. Did not get a picture of the kangaroo sign.

I headed west around Kata-Tjuta to explore the Valley of the Winds, an area that is  in the northwest corner of the rock formation and includes a circuit hike with two different lookout points.  I only hiked in to one of them, however, as the clouds had been getting increasingly threatening and it looked like rain was going to drench me at any minute.  After finishing my shortened hike at Valley of the Winds, I drove back south and stopped to walk up the Walpa Gorge walk.  The circuit hike had been deserted- I only saw four other people- but the Gorge walk was a popular tour destination and there were tons of people coming and going up the 1.3km rocky path to the end of the gorge.

I took my time and lingered admiring the composite rocks, formed 500 million years or so ago.  I was surprised, looking west from the gorge, to note other large rock formations, appearing like massive desert ships on an ocean of sand.  Ayers Rock, and perhaps the Olgas, are very famous and well-known rock formations in central Australia, but they are not the only ones.  I saw several in the distance in all directions I looked.

The Walpa Gorge and part of the walking path up into the gorge.

In addition, the area had much more vegetation than I expected. The sandy desert, sometimes totally flat, sometimes with gentle rolling hills, sported a vibrant green life of scraggly trees, low bushes and grasses.  I was told that because it is the rainy season, the plant life was especially green, but the plants have adapted to the dry winters and remain year round.  The rain caused flash floods and created large standing puddles both on the road and at seasonal watering holes.  The national park staff warns drivers to be especially careful in the dark, as the animals approach the puddles on the road to drink at that time.  Signs posted throughout the park warned of camel, kangaroo and reptile crossings-and I did get a kick out of the signs!

The day started to heat up so after a brief stop at the sunrise viewing platform on my return from the Olgas to get better pictures, I decided on an indoor activity and headed over to the cultural center near Uluru (the rock).  The national park was returned to the ownership of the Anangu aboriginal people in October 1985 after a long and protracted battle with the Australian government to return their native lands.  As part of the compromise, the Anangu leased the land back to the Australian government for 99 years for use as a national park, with the caveat that they had a deciding say in how the land was managed.  It was a good compromise and at the cultural center the exhibits (and a movie) explained why Ayers Rock (Uluru) was sacred to the people and important for the practice and continuation of  their culture.  (more on that in a moment)

I returned to the hotel to relax by the pool in the heat of the afternoon but was back on the road near sunset to head to the sunset viewing area for Uluru.  I had signed up for a bus tour later in the week to do sunset viewing followed by a BBQ, but since I had the car, I wanted to take advantage of every evening, especially because of the weather forecast (cloudy/rainy all week at various times).  I am exceptionally glad I went because the sunset that evening was spectacular.  The sky was painted in reds and oranges as the sun dipped past the horizon and a circular hole in the clouds glowed yellow-orange like a brightly lit egg yolk.  The deep reds faded to pinks and purples as the light reflected off the bottom of distant clouds.  I have to say it was one of the most stunning sunsets I have ever seen– an advantage of “big sky” country, no doubt.

Uluru sunset. This is just one small part of the sunset. Off to the right outside the frame were large red streaks shooting through the sky. But I liked the tree silhouettes here.

The next morning I was scheduled on a sunrise hiking tour around Uluru.  It is possible to hike the 11km circuit on your own, but I wanted to hear the stories- geological, historical, cultural — that accompanied the tour.  We headed out of the resort at 5:30 and saw an incredible sunrise, with all colors of the rainbow present, as we traveled to the start of the hike.  I tried to capture as many photos as I could from the moving bus and luckily was able to to get a few, but they don’t do the beauty justice!  The day was slightly overcast, with some sun peeking through to pound on our heads, making it clear why these hikes were scheduled for the morning; there was a big difference in effective temperature when the sun was out.

Sunrise photo from the bus. Look at the amazing colors!!!!

Our tour guide stopped at various points along the hike and explained the history and cultural significance of the rock.  Ayers Rock (Uluru) is a massive mountain of rock but it has caves, erosion, boulders, pitting, water stains and lots of features on it; it is not an unblemished monolithic piece of stone.  The aborigine tribes have creation stories associated with every feature of Uluru. The stories provide a means to communicate cultural norms, survival knowledge, morals and ethics and the physical features of the rock are considered evidence as to the veracity of the tales.  Members of the community, both male and female, are initiated into various levels of the stories as they mature.  Basically, Uluru is a giant physical mnemonic for the transmission of the important community knowledge and hence the sensitivity to respect and hold the physical landscape sacred.  There are areas of the rock that we hiked past where photography was forbidden in respect to the cultural sensitivity.  In addition, climbing the rock has been forbidden since 2019, although not only for cultural sensitivity reasons, but also for safety (it is pretty steep!) and environmental (people were leaving trash up there which gets washed off when it rains and pollutes the water and the area around the rock).  I really enjoyed the hike and the insight into the connection between the physical landscape and the people who have lived in that landscape for well over 30,000 years.

Hiking around the base of Ayers Rock, near some caves on the north side. Hope you can appreciate the scale!

We got back to the hotel around 11:00am and after having a quick lunch, I got into the car and headed back out to Uluru to check out some shorter hikes near the Uluru sunrise viewing platform.  As it was early afternoon, and the heat was building despite the partly cloudy sky, I was the only person at the site and spent a peaceful hour just hanging out watching the amazing ever changing horizon.  Clouds of all sorts were drifting along– the high thin wispy clouds were moving northeast,  storm clouds had gathered on the southern horizon and were sending rain showers down to drench the land.  To the east, white cotton-candy clouds, reaching high into the sky slowly drifted southwest, not realizing their happy-go-lucky temperament was under threat.  Directly overhead slightly gray, moisture laden clouds were also heading south towards the storm, but with a determined air to join and merge with it.  The sky was alive and beautiful and I can see why some enjoy living in central Australia in the middle of nowhere;  nature was in your face all of the time!

I spent the rest of the afternoon cooling off at the pool.  Unfortunately the southern storm clouds found their way north by late afternoon and when I attempted to go watch the sunset that evening all I saw was rain from horizon to horizon.  The next morning I got up at 5am again and headed out to the sunrise viewing platform, hoping for another repeat of the rainbow sunset from the previous day.  Because the Uluru sunrise viewing is more popular than the Kata-Tjuta viewing, instead of only a handful of people, the viewing platform was crowded with nearly 100 or so.  (I cannot image how many people are there in the winter, which is the high-season.).  I had gotten there before the crowds and staked out a spot that allowed me to look south towards the horizon.  Most of the people chose instead to look north towards the rock– probably to get a glimpse of the storied multi-colored hues projected on to the rock during sunrise (and sunset).  Not many of them bothered to pay attention to the beautiful sunrise itself and I shook my head at their cluelessness.

The sunrise unfolded with a vibrant collection of oranges, reds and yellows, and was a wonderful sight, if not as dramatic as the one the day before.  Alas, the rock did not reflect any light due to clouds and many left shortly after official sunrise was over.  I stayed another half an hour or so to watch the changing light show as the sun continued its journey to full daylight.  I suspect the angle of the sun re: reflected light on the rock is at a better angle in the winter, but I am pretty sure you can be at Uluru any time of the year and get amazing and highly variable sunrises and sunsets.

What I mean by “big sky” country. The sky goes on forever and is extremely varied.

After chilling out around the resort during the day (and doing some laundry) I reported to the lobby in the early evening for the sunrise tour and BBQ that I had signed up for.  Unfortunately (again) it was raining causing the BBQ to be cancelled but the company still ran the bus out to the site, just in case the weather was better near the rock (which happens).  In this case, it was still pouring down rain at the sunset viewing area and our bus driver instead took us to the rock itself so we could see the waterfalls that spontaneously appear when it rains, to drain the water that collects at the top.  It has to rain a lot for the waterfalls to start so they are not easily seen.  I had seen the dark streaks on the rock the day before when hiking around it and knew that was where waterfalls were located, but it was a different thing altogether to actually see water pouring down in thin, rushing ribbons of white, like icing dripping down the sides of a bundt cake.  Luckily we were able to stop at a parking lot and snap a few photos of one side of the rock with its waterfalls.

An example of waterfalls cascading down one side of Uluru just after a heavy rainfall.

I had turned in my car earlier that day because the next morning I boarded a bus for the five hour drive to Alice Springs, my last stop in central Australia before heading to the west coast.  I intentionally took the bus to see more of the area and was rewarded with views of more of the desert, other large rock formations emerging from the sand, craggy hills, outback ranching stations, an outback roadhouse and evidence of flash floods caused by excessive rain.  And few, few people- it really is desolate in the center!  The bus dropped me off at my hotel and the next morning I walked the two miles to the city center to visit some of the aboriginal art galleries that dot the town.  The town of Alice Springs, population of 34,000 or so, many of which are aboriginals, is the hub of services and commerce in central Australia.  It is not a large town and given it is not the peak of tourist season, did not have a lot going on. Once I toured through the galleries and got a bit to eat, I headed back to the hotel.  Next:  on to the west coast!