CAMPSITE # 93 - ULURU (Ayers Rock)

To put into words what Uluru (Ayers Rock) is actually like in real life is next to impossible. For something neither of us had ever actually seen with our own eyes beforehand – we certainly felt very familiar with its appearance. I would say that would be thanks to how absolutely iconic this rock actually is.

To see it for the first time, is as though you’re staring at a first class, award winning oil painting. Its rich red colour contrasting against the pastel blue sky and electric green shrubs is without a doubt an incredible sight. That very moments when we drove over the crest to see one of Australia’s greatest landmarks, brought an instant smile to our faces and sent shivers down my spine. It was one of those moments where you feel like winding down the window and hanging out the side of the car as far as possible without toppling out and screaming at the top of your lungs. No words in particular, unless you count a muffled woooooo hooooo a word that is. All my life I saw the image – on brochures, postcards and T.V. but never like this.

Upon entering the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park, you’re greeted by a pay station where you pay $25 per person for a three day pass into the park. The pass also included access to the Olgas (Kata Tjuta), a guided walk with a park ranger as an introduction to Uluru and access to the cultural centre.

As it was approaching sunset, we decided to nestle into a carpark with an incredible full frontal view of Ayers Rock. We sat to admire the view and enjoyed dinner while the sunset behind us – illuminating the sky surrounding the rock. By the time the sky was its most colourful, we would have had at least 30 other vehicles around us who had also come along to enjoy the scenery. But you wouldn’t really have known as the entire carpark fell dead silent as we all sat in awe of the beauty that lay ahead of us. All of these cars had travelled from all around Australia or even the world just to capture this breathtaking moment.

Tom had Uluru in his sights...

The next day, we headed to the Cultural Centre to educate ourselves on this land and the stories that it told. There was a strong plea from the Pitjantjatjara aboriginal people who urge visitors not to climb their Uluru. Apparently in the 1960’s, the climb was developed in order to increase tourism in the area. Unfortunately for the Pitjantjatjara people, it worked and Uluru quickly became a sought after tourist destination. As you can imagine, this strongly impacted on the Pitjantjatjara peoples way of life. The high volume of tourists inadvertently scared off the wildlife (particularly the kangaroos of which we saw none the whole time we were there), their litter polluted the watering holes causing the water to be undrinkable for both humans and animals and worse of all for the Pitjantjatjara people, the tourists were ignorantly climbing their sacred rock – something which was completely unthinkable & insensitive in their culture.

We were so torn, we desperately wanted to be respectful of the wishes of the Pitjantjatjara people but on the otherside of the stick, we travelled all of this way and the climb was there screaming our name.

Fortunately for us, Mother Nature stepped in and assisted us in our decision making process. The climb was closed the whole time we were there due to very strong wind warnings at the summit. Interestingly, the National Park has recorded 34 people have died from climbing the rock. Bloody Hell!! 34 people! I’m far too uncoordinated... particularly in high winds so it was definitely a good thing the walk was closed.

We took a stroll over to one of the waterholes along a very well laid out gravel pathway with wire fencing barricading us off from the rock. As we were walking along, Tom and I were startled by some rustling in the long grass... (oh sorry, Tom has just corrected me there, Amy was startled but Tom was cool, calm, masculine and reserved)

It was quite safe to say – I was petrified!!!

I know, they’re just dogs but there were 5 of them and 2 of us. Lindy Chamberlains voice was playing over and over in my head while I huddled up behind Tom for protection. 

After our wild dog encounter, we managed to still find the water hole.

While Uluru may often steal its spotlight, there is something equally as beautiful just 30 minutes drive away at The Olgas (Kata Tjuta).

Unlike Uluru, at Kata Tjuta you can take a ‘respectful’ walk to the centre and stand right in the heart of these 36 joined dome rock formations. Standing at the lookout, I realised how it not only made me look  insignificant  but it made all of mankind look insignificant. These rocks have stood for millions of years as they are... we were merely visitors just passing through.

We timed our walk at The Olgas to purposely allow time for us to reach the sunset viewing point to watch the sunset over The Olgas that afternoon.

We sat there in the calm and peaceful surroundings patiently waiting for the sun to disappear over the horizon. As we nestled in, I looked forward to a peaceful repeat of the night proceeding. It was all looking to work in our favour until we turned our heads as we heard the high pitch beep of a bus as the door opened, and they all started pouring out. Soon, we were heavily outnumbered by an entire coachload of folk who quickly made their way to sit practically right on top of us. They then proceeded to talk at the top of their lungs, while they competed with each other as they listed off all of the many worldly destinations they had visited. I wondered if they blabbered their way through the sunsetting over the Egyptian Pyramids or while standing at the lookout at the Niagara Falls. Instead of actually appreciating their surroundings, they were there too busy figuring out what they were going to ‘see’ next.

It would have been a nice sunset.

It would have been an enjoyable experience.

We both agreed, it certainly was not, to us, “The Only Way to See Australia”. 

The next morning, we set off to be educated by the Park Ranger at 8am. Thanks to me being pathetic in the morning coupled with us not following directions properly – we arrived 15 minutes late. Uh Oh! Luckily, we were advised we could still join the group and we were redirected by another Ranger.

Once we arrived at the beginning point of the walk, we rushed over to the group of about 40 people and were relieved to see that they were only just getting started. We quietly set ourselves up to listen in to Cassidy Uluru – the current aboriginal custodian of the story of Uluru. As only every fourth word he spoke was English – Cassidy had a translator to accompany him. Cassidy was telling us some incredible dreamtime stories based around the rock and some very interesting stories of how his people lived on the land for thousands of years. Apparently, his father and grandfather and ancestors beforehand were all custodians of the rock.

As the interpreter continued, I took a moment to evaluate our surroundings  and the fellow people in our group. Just about everyone of them had these wiz bang SLR cameras hanging around their necks with Canon lanyards tying them down. That then led me to realise all of their SLRs were of the same brand as well – lucky buggers. The penny didn’t finally drop until we made our way along the pathway and were instructed to “stick to the left while we pass this other group”. As we passed the small group of 8, who had some rather blank & bored expressions on their faces, I overheard their leader list off some textbook information. I looked up to give them a friendly greeting and to excuse myself for interrupting, only to realise that I was actually apologising to their leader – the Park Ranger!!!

Holy Crap! We were in the wrong group!

We later found out that these people were winners of a Canon competition who won a trip around Australia. We had gatecrashed their group!

At this point, I suppose we could have (should have) demoted ourselves and joined the ‘uncool group’ but Cassidy was just so interesting and genuine – which probably had something to do with the fact that it was a paid for tour at $87 per person. But they didn’t say anything, so neither did we.

Gatecrashing a guided tour around Uluru was the best way to finish off our two day visit.

As we drove away from the rock, we bid it farewell and asked each other if and when we might ever see it again.

Site : Ayers Rock Camping Ground
Rating : 9 / 20

Facilities : Officially the best shower I’ve had to date during the entire trip – it was incredible, you never would have guessed it was desert country! Had a great camp kitchen with loads of facilities and a swimming pool to. Very Pricey though - $34 for unpowered!

How appropriate, the first wild camels we'd seen in the wild...
right infront of Uluru!!

Wild Bush Plums, apparently they have 6 times more Vitamin C than oranges.