Truly Awesome: Uluru and Kata Tjuta

It was always going to be a big haul from Chambers Pillar into Uluru (about 400km, a lot on gravel) so we pulled up stumps about 100kms from Yulara at a roadside camp – which actually turned out to be quite nice once we popped over the sand hill…

We had got a waft of reception (the first in about a week!) at the Erldunda roadhouse so I had downloaded some much needed tunes for the girls and they spent the evening dancing in the red dust to ‘I’m Still Standing’ by Elton John – of course! It was a free camp too, just the ticket before we were bamboozled by all things Uluru and tourist-mecca that was to come… Perhaps after a few weeks ‘out bush’ we had gotten used to our outback ways, but pulling into Yulara, seeing a blimp airship flying over Uluru and Segway tours around the rock gazumped us a little bit. We arrived ‘in civilisation’ with a thump.

We headed straight out to Kata Tjuta, about 40km from Yulara, to do the Valley of the Winds walk there before checking into a campsite. This was our first ‘real’ walk of the trip, meaning the MacPac backpack for Eleanor was brought out – and the rude shock of this foreign ‘heat’ business. Before long I was a sweaty mess in my pants and boots carrying Harriet to the first look out overlooking ‘The Olga’s’ famous red domes.

Back to Yulara to find our home for the next few days – the Ayers Rock Resort campground, we hadn’t booked a site so found ourselves in a very dusty, very cramped spot (although having booked a site I don’t think would have made a difference…the irony of being seemingly in the middle of a desert not short on space but having no space was not lost on us though?!) We got well and truly hot and bothered setting up Tilly’s awning for the first time (only having set it up once hastily in our backyard at home). So off to the pool we went – which was freeeeeeezing! These desert nights are still breathtakingly cold, and some fellow campers told us that buckets of water had been frozen overnight just the week before.

A little walk to the top of the look-out from the campground overlooking Uluru at sunset – we reminisced and tried to pinpoint where we had camped 15 years ago when we were last here on a school camp, where we had first ‘hooked up’ and both remembered vividly walking on those steel walkways and holding hands for the first time. Now we were chasing our little monkeys along them! Life, huh…

Matt was up early before us all the next morning, off to the base of the rock to be there when the climb opened. Controversial perhaps, but he has had a bee in his bonnet for the past fifteen years (after we didn’t climb it in 2003 on our school trip) to ascend to the summit of Uluru. His theory was to get there first thing every morning by 7am for his best chance. That morning though, no luck. Climb closed for wind. So back to camp he came, collected us and off we went on the morning ‘Mala’ walk at Uluru.

I highly recommend anyone visiting Uluru does this free, ranger guided walk (which goes every morning at 10am). It was fantastic – showing some great insight into different special places on the western side of Uluru – places for women and young men, rock art and different Dreamtime (or ‘Tjukurpa’) stories of how the rocks caves and many shapes and indentations came to be.

What I don’t recommend however is having a full blown tantrum hissy-fit throwing four year old with you. Oooooh boy, Eleanor Joy really outdid herself at the end of the Mala walk. Throwing herself on the ground and kicking and screaming and thrashing and screeching. Yup. Faaaaabulous. Moving on…

That night, after much rushing about after another pool swim, overtired and overstimulated kids, a screaming refusing to be strapped into the carseat Harriet, a teary mummy who was getting a bit shouty with the children about “travelling thousands of kilometres to get a sunset photo of Uluru and now we are missing it!”, we finally got out to the sunset viewing carpark overlooking Uluru…about twenty minutes too late. Deeeeep breaths. This travelling with children business was not for the impatient or spontaneous. We watched the light fade over the rock however, and met a truckie who saw our ‘We love Thorpdale potatoes’ sticker on our car and told us how he’d carted spuds for my dad years ago!

Matt tried again the next morning…no luck again. Too windy. Back to camp he came. Collected us and into Uluru again we went, with the plan to go to the cultural centre and perhaps do another short walk with the girls…driving towards the rock though we could see the little ants of people heading up the chain. The climb had been opened. So we dropped Daddy and waved him off and headed for the cultural centre, some coffee and milkshakes and watching the Aboriginal ladies do their amazing paintings (no photography is allowed in the cultural centre). It only took Matt a few hours to be up and back, I was actually really surprised at how many people were doing the climb, but the rangers had told us there had definitely been an uptick in people coming to climb since it was announced that by next year the climb would be officially closed for good (I have climbed Uluru as a 12 year old when I came here with my family). We watched Daddy come down the steep chain section and met him at the base…

We opted to do the Kuniya walk to the Mutitjulu waterhole instead of the whole base walk (which Matt had done on our 2003 Uluru trip). Again I can highly recommend this short walk – it is into one of the most spectacular areas of Uluru, with caves and stunning outcrops in the walk, ending in the Mutitjulu waterhole. To see Uluru after rain would just be the most truly awesome sight…

We decided that dinner with the girls before or after sunset was not going to work for a harmonious sunset viewing…so ‘Ayers Wok’ to the rescue! Takeaway – how novel! And we made it to the sunset viewing area without tears or tantrums from any family members, also novel…

The next morning we’d decided to get the girls up super early (waking sleeping children, gasp!) to get to see Uluru at sunrise. We packed their breakfast and headed out to the sunset viewing area for the buses, which a ranger had told us at this time of year was actually a good spot to see the sunrise, as opposed to the designated sunrise viewing area swarmed by tour buses and Chinese tourists.

It was freezing! But beautiful. And as soon as that sun popped over the horizon it warmed us all up. What a sight to leave this beautiful place – the girls eating breakfast with their crazy bed hair in the dawn light. We were headed off north-east to Kings Canyon, having spent four days around Uluru and Kata Tjuta – the third time I have been lucky enough to visit, but no matter how many times you’re here the sheer scale and awe of Uluru is hard to describe or depict in photos. Truly awesome, in the very rawest form.